The U.S. Supreme Court stopped the counting of the ballots this weekend and violated the law in doing so. They are allowed to grant a stay only if "irrevocable, irreparable harm" would happen if the votes were counted. Since when does the counting of our citizens' votes cause "irreparable harm"? Justice Antonin Scalia said (I'll paraphrase here), well, we believe Bush won and if we allow those votes from Florida to be counted and Gore ends up ahead, well, that would cause irreparable harm to a Bush administration.

Yes, that is what he said!

Look, let's be honest about something. Part of the reason we are in the mess we are in today is because AL GORE voted YES to put Justice Scalia on the Supreme Court.

Hmmm... earlier you professed to be shocked that the Supreme Court was crooked, and yet Al Gore was supposed to know ahead of time that a "yes" for Scalia would lead to a fascist coup.

Well, it's nice to know that Al Gore has to live with the consequences of his actions, while you do not. I think I'll cut Al a very small amount of slack for this screw up he made FOURTEEN YEARS AGO, unless you can find me a quote by Scalia made any time before he became a Supreme Court Justice that goes something like this:

"God I hate the Democrats worse than I hate anything on this or any other earth. If I ever had the chance to violate every ethical principle of my profession and do a 180 degree flip flop on every ruling I have ever made on the bench just to screw them out of the Executive Office, I'd do it in a heartbeat, especially if it ruined my career and made me look worse than Benedict Arnold for the rest of human history. I hate them that much. And the one I hate 8,000 times more than any of the rest of them is that tree-hugging, pansy-assed fruit, Al Gore. I could die happy if I knew I had degraded the Highest Court in America just to cheat the Ozone Man out of the Oval Office."

But let's get back to your letter.

Let me say this one more time so it sinks in to every Gore-loving head out there:

AL GORE VOTED TO PUT SCALIA ON THE SUPREME COURT!

Umm... yeah, I got you the first time. This may come as a shock to your system, but Democrats are grown-ups. We do not expect our chosen candidate to be a flawless white knight who votes a rigid agenda 100% of the time. We expect to disagree with a certain amount of (in this case) his voting record. We also look at his entire record in public service and judge him on his entire track record, not one isolated, inflammatory incident which is presented to us without context.

One benefit of this system is the ability to notice that - - for example - - Al Gore has become more willing to stand up for his principles over the years (for example, counseling Clinton to stick to his guns and demand equal rights for gays in the military, rather than agree to the compromise "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy), while Ralph W. NaderBush has become more hypocritical, selling his soul for a few lousy TV ads in Wisconsin that got him absolutely jack shit nothing except the undying hatred of half the American population.

(F.Y.I., we do not like to be called "Gore-loving heads". We are called "las Goristas" or "the Gories". Then there are the "Liebermaniacs". If you are going to insult our intelligence and our politics, at least get our cute nicknames right.)

The chickens sure have come home to roost for that blunder (and for the 11 Democrats who voted YES to give Clarence Thomas his narrow victory).

What?? Wait, hold it!! You mean that Al Gore didn't vote to put Clarence Thomas onto the Supreme Court??? My God, then who in the Gore camp did??? Because if it wasn't somebody closely tied to Al Gore, those damn chickens would have stayed where they were in the first place, wouldn't they??! Was it Joe Lieberman??!! Was it Tipper???!!! How about Daisy, the Gores' arthritic dog????!!!! Mikey, don't rest until you discover who's karma is responsible for this fiasco!!!! The Nation is counting on you!!!!!

Don't write me and tell me about the kind of Court we "might" get under Bush thanks to Nader. We already have it, thanks to Al and his Democrats. It's a tough pill to swallow.

Maybe it's too subtle for you, but only two of the current court were appointed by a Democratic President - - Clinton! The real reactionary dinosaurs on the bench were presents from the GOP. And the Republicans weren't exactly on vacation when Scalia and Thomas were voted in. (Can't you leave off smearing Democrats for five lousy minutes in your calls to unity among the Left?)

Plus, you're screaming that Bush is instituting a fascist coup with the aid of the Supreme Court, yet somehow you doubt his Supreme Court appointees would also be Nazi loons? Is there a short circuit somewhere deep inside your brain?

And please, for all our sakes, realize that "denial" ain't just a river in Egypt. Ralph W. NaderBush tried his damnedest to defeat Al Gore, because, like you, he has some kind of weird, personal problem about the Vice President. If Ralphy Boy had just stayed in therapy instead of getting his egotistical butt on the New Hampshire ballot, Al would have won another 4 electoral votes and none of us except Laurence Tribe would have ever heard of the Safe Harbor Rule. Check it out:

New Hampshire:

BUSH	273,026
GORE	265,807
NADER	22,151
DIFFERENCE BETWEEN BUSH/GORE	7,219

Should I just mention that down in Florida (you remember Florida, surely?), when Gore was "maneuvered" into conceding by John Ellis and Fox on election night (you remember election night, don't you?), Smirk boy supposedly had a 50,000 vote lead. Later, when all the counties had been heard from, Smirk boy's lead was only 1,725 votes. After the mandatory recount, which included the ACTUAL vote totals of the ACTUAL ballots that Recount Dracula Harris ACTUALLY allowed to be counted (many in the Republican areas counted lovingly by hand), Smirk boy was down to a 930 vote lead. After Gore's protest, Smirk boy was certified with a 537 vote lead. Then, according to unofficial and unsubstantiated rumors floated by the Gore legal team,Smirk boy was down to a piddling 96 vote lead when the Supreme Court pulled the plug on Gore's contest.

And Ralph W. NaderBush got HOW MANY votes in Florida? Hmmm... could it be... oh, I don't know... 97,421?? And - - please clarify this for me, Mikey - - at what point in the Florida election was the difference between Gore and Bush MORE than 97,421 votes? I mean, during election day itself, after Jebbie's little night riders had driven most of the African Americans away from the polls?

Take your time. I'm not going anywhere.

Listen, this fight today, Monday, December 11, 2000, is not about Al Gore.

Let me buy you a clue, Mikey. For me, this fight IS about Al Gore. I picked him as my candidate because he is the next Kennedy, the next Roosevelt, the next Jefferson. It is not surprising that small minds like yours don't get that. I was here from the beginning of this nonsense, not just singing Al's praises, but shouting in the wilderness that "Smirk is a danger to Democracy - - he must be stopped"! But you poo-pooed me and the rest of las Goristas, saying "Don't pull that alarmist crap about Bush being the next Nixon or worse! I've been around the block too many times to buy that song and dance again!".

But now that the chickens have come home to roost, you are convinced Smirk is the next Nixon. Or worse.

From your perspective, I guess this fight today is about sucking up to the entire Democratic Party, who used to be your meal ticket but then, like an idiot, you pissed their support away by backing the biggest hypocrite the American left ever produced, Ralph W. NaderBush. From your perspective, I guess this fight today is about regaining credibility in the eyes of the moderates, liberals and progressives who hate you for the role you and Ralph W. NaderBush played in chloroforming Democracy today, December 11th, 2000.

I guess it takes all kinds, huh?

It is about the only thing that ultimately matters in a democracy -- the right to vote. The right to have a say in who will represent us.

Gee, where on earth could I have I heard that before? Could it have been... here? Or maybe... here? How about... here? Then again, maybe I heard it over here? No, wait! I think I heard it over here, too! Wow, it's way over here as well! Whoa! It's right here - - in a classier, more historically resonant form! And again over here, in a simpler, "everyday" fashion. Ooops, here it is again! And even here, in the face of a brutal assault!

Gosh Mikey, during the campaign it only took Camp Smirk three days to recycle one of Al's ideas! It takes you over a month! You need to get a more efficient writing staff, dude. Maybe you should consider hiring union writers.

Gore got 300,000 more votes than Bush. Gore won. Gore will have more votes in Florida if those ballots are allowed to be counted. Gore won.

I have no personal interest in seeing Al Gore in the White House. I did not vote for him.

Of course not. That would have required you to vote against your own economic interests. But you're too completely co-opted by your Corporate Masters to see beyond your own stock portfolio, aren't you?

But I don't like liars, I don't like thieves, and I really hate cowards.

But you voted for Ralph W. NaderBush? Ralphy, who promised the people who signed the petitions that got him on the ballot that he would NEVER do anything to hurt Gore or help Smirk? We all know what Ralphy did then, don't we? Come on Mikey, you know the words, sing along with me: "Ralphy campaigned up and down the swing states, trashing Gore and trying to swipe votes from him, so that Bush could win the election". And once he stabbed his former eco-buddies in the back, once the left needed a champion outside the system to rail against the Florida voter fraud, Ralphy boy disappeared.

Hmmm... that involves LYING, STEALING and COWARDICE, doesn't it? So what is it EXACTLY about Ralphy boy that's so attractive to you?

Mr. Bush (that's what the majority of Americans will always call you, because we will not participate in your lie by ever calling you "Mr. President") -- we know what you are so afraid of. You are a coward for not wanting those ballots counted because you know the outcome. You know you've lost. You know the people have spoken. Be a man, for crying out loud! Go back to your ranch and let us get on with bugging the shit outta Al Gore for the next four years!

Ha, ha, ha! Yeah, let's harass the crap out of Gore as he works himself sick trying to get a deeply divided Congress to institute campaign finance reform and halt global warming and end racial profiling and the rest of that Corporate lackey agenda he was spouting all through the campaign! Mikey, do you have ONE positive solution for ANY problem?

Take your time. I'm not going anywhere.

Anyway, there's a lot of stuff next about how to send telegrams to to the Supreme Court to protest the fascist coup... I suspect they'll rule soon or I'd print it... plus I have a lingering suspicion that Mikey just wants people to send telegrams so that he can shoot the mess in the USSC as they try to deal with thousands of dead tree skins clogging up the hallways -- another episode of "The Awful Truth" in the can -- another episode where Mikey's Corporate Masters don't have to pay any damn union writers or actors! Let's hope the USSC recycles, huh?

Anyway, this long, boring part ends with:

There will be plenty of time later to discuss the other issues pertinent to this election -- why 100 million citizens again did not vote, the way the rich bought and paid for both candidates, why I am personally responsible for this whole mess, etc.

Let's see, why DID 100 million citizens again not vote? Could it be... oh, I don't know, years of Right Wing and Left Wing propaganda telling them that the entire electoral process is Suit #1 vs. Suit #2, so why bother? How about this crap about "the rich" bought and paid for both candidates? Do you really see no QUALITATIVE difference between Gore's campaign accepting spending limits and refusing PAC money and Smirk's grabbing any cash it could get from anywhere, ending with his campaign spending a record $151 million (so far) - - or the fact that energy companies gave Smirk 17 times more money than they gave the Democrats?

To get back to my point about positive solutions to problems: People who know me personally know I am a great big, boring pain about how we need campaign finance reform more than anything else in this country. I think that once that is in place, the voice of the people can be heard and we can get some real, progressive change. Every time I read one of your letters, I see this same charge of the damn corporate bastards buy off our politicians. Well, how the Hell do you expect any candidate to get elected to office when the only source of funding we provide is private funding? Wasn't that the whole point of Ralph W. NaderBush's campaign, to GET MORE MONEY for the Greens so they could play with the big boys? Why is it EVIL for Al Gore to raise money for his campaign but SAINTLY for Ralphy boy? Mikey, if you would just ONCE exhort your hellish minions to get off their asses and demand public funding for campaigns, I could take you seriously. But you don't want to solve what you feel is the underlying problem in society. You just want to whine and sneer about it, like a teenager who KNOWS everything except the fact that he knows nothing.

But right now -- TODAY -- we have to act like we have never acted before. Trust me, if they can get away with this, they can get away with ANYTHING. Maybe many of you are already convinced that they can. I am still clinging to some sort of strange hope that right and justice will prevail, that a few million of us can shock this corrupt court into coming to its senses, if not its own sense of self-preservation.

There you go again. "We" have to act like "we" have never acted before. And if this call to action also blows up in your face, if some anarchist idiot who reads this throws a brick at some NRA Rent-A-Nazis and they start firing back and that leads to... oh, I don't know... civil war or something... will you refuse to admit that "you" had a hand in getting "all of us" to act a certain way?

(Also, if you maintain some small hope that the USSC could do the right thing, doesn't that mean that the USSC might not be totally co-opted by Right Wing lunatics? And if it might not be totally co-opted by Right Wing lunatics, doesn't that leave room for the next set of Justices to make it better - - or worse? Again, which of our two suits do you think is more likely to appoint Nazi loons from Texas, where the definition of justice is being allowed to exchange the withering crossfire of retribution with your Sunday School teacher?)

The clock is ticking.

Yours,

Again, you are so not mine.

Michael Moore
mmflint@aol.com
www.michaelmoore.com
P.S. Send this letter to anyone you wish, asap.

So completely and totally not yours - - rather mine and mine alone,
The Possum County Editorial Board

P.S. Mikey - - next time you send out your Green dregs of spam, put a ACTIVE email address on the bottom, so I can discuss this kind of stuff with you in private.

Smirk says: "This is my bestest friend ever, Jimmy. Jimmy showed me how to play Donkey Kong. Jimmy showed me how to watch Pokemon cartoons on the computer! Jimmy showed me how to make a secure online contribution to the Gore-Lieberman Recount Committee. Jimmy said if that dumb Gore guy and that dumb Lieberman guy get enough money, I will never have to do any of the really hard President stuff, like uniting the country and restoring faith in honest elections. I told Jimmy to give two million dollars. That sounds like a lot, but it was Jebbie's Visa card."

Can't get to Florida to march with Jesse? Send a lawyer instead!
Contributions are being accepted for the legal battles against the Bush Brothers' Banana Hall Putsch!
Make your personal check payable to "THE GORE/LIEBERMAN RECOUNT COMMITTEE". There is NO LIMIT to how much you can contribute. However, your donation will be reported to the Federal Elections Commission, so be sure to include your occupation and employer (if applicable) on the "note" area of your check.

Send your check to:

ATTN: Recount Committee
c/o the Democratic National Committee
430 S. Capital St. S.E.
Washington, DC
20003