By Frank Laughter, March 9, 2001

The federal government uses the "U.S. Commission on Civil Rights" like a hammer. The Commission is used to deny equal voting rights to non-black Americans. The name of the Commission sounds like motherhood and apple pie… Who can argue with such a noble and decent thing as assuring Americans their civil rights, especially to vote?

Voting Rights: How It Began
In 1789, George Washington became the first president of the new United States. Despite his reluctance to run again, he won a second term in 1792 with the full support of every state. There were no political parties then, but jealousies between North and South made the elections interesting. There were few rules; The procedures were loose and subject to instant change with only white male property owners allowed to vote. Elections were conducted at community meetings held in churches, taverns, or school houses. Votes were cast by voice, by standing, or a raising of hands, and voting results weren't even recorded until the election of 1824.

At election-day meetings partisans promoted the virtues of their candidates. To put voters in the right mood, workers plied their neighbors with free moonshine. Washington disliked the practice of serving free liquor but not out of moral concerns. He believed the jobs, including the presidency, were not worth the cost of making and dispensing free liquor.

Now
In the minds of most Americans, Constitutional Amendments have settled the question of who can vote; local laws eliminated free liquor; population growth and evolving practices have changed precinct procedures; and to some extent voter registration has reduced voter fraud. But still today, voting is managed in local precincts, mostly by volunteers. State officials oversee conformity to state rules and state laws, and that is good.

Election laws in the U.S. are now clear… IF a state holds an election, all citizens over the age of 18 have a right to vote. White, black, male, female — any citizen over 18 who is not a convicted felon may vote. Also, in anywhere in the U.S. or its territories, anyone illegally denying or interfering with anothers right to vote is committing a felony and will be prosecuted.

Yet, departments of our federal government have taken a systematic approach to deny or diminish some of our votes, and most Americans are ignoring the outrageous practice.

The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights was constituted to assure that everyone's civil rights are upheld. But look what the Commission is doing these days. The Commission, backed by the full power of the federal government, files lawsuits against targeted communities, towns, and counties, falsely accusing them of civil rights violations. The Commission, whose legal bills are paid with taxpayer money through the U.S. Department of Justice (Civil Rights Division), knows the accused entity cannot afford extensive litigation and will agree to settlements. The Commission then makes sure that the settlements ALWAYS favor blacks over other voters. The "consent decrees" are then presented to federal judges for final approval. Once approved by a federal judge, a "consent decree" is federal law.

Who picks the targets for these outrageous lawsuits? None other than the Right Rev. Jesse Jackson, the NAACP, and of course, the staff of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights (CCR). Who approves settlements before federal judges see the agreements? Of course, Jesse, NAACP and the legal staff at the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights.

[See Election 2000 Settled - Part I and Election 2000 Settled - Part II for how the cheating is carried out. But essentially its a selective system of DOJ attending certain polling places as "observers" but with the clout to call for recouts, re-recouts, etc. Then, the DOJ representative forms an ad hoc group with Jackson's people, the NAACP, the CCR, et al, to "oversees" the actual "counting" rules. We saw the results on TV from South Florida.] That's only one prong of the cheating process. The other prong is as follows:

Florida election-2000
Anyone who watched the Commission's follow up on the Florida election-2000 debacle will never witness anything more un-American, more egregious, more outrageous, than what happened at the Commission's "hearings" in Florida.

The Commission consists of about a dozen members, mostly minority, mostly Democrats, almost all ultra-liberal, and many of them are operatives of the Democratic National Committee, including "Madam Chair," Mary Frances Berry. They were in Florida ostensibly to learn what had happened during the election and to take corrective action. What the Commission actually did was to provide an official setting for Democrats to set forth all manner of claptrap complaints, ridiculous whining, silly suggestions, insipid remarks, banal commentary, rank accusations, flagrant lies, paltering fabrications, and all other matter of deceitful, mendacious "testimony." [It was aired by C-SPAN and recorded on tape. You can look it up.]

For days, the Commission held the "hearings," often allowing especially good liars to return for another shot at those dastardly Republicans, or Independents, or Ralph Nader, or Pat Buchanan, or anyone else who had the temerity, gall, and audacity, to have run against their man, Al Gore.

The Commission made the 1950's McCarthy Senate hearing's search for Communist seem like reasonable behavior.

The Commission used its federal clout to order Florida Secretary of State, Katherine Harris, to appear, but not for testimony… They never gave her a chance to speak. Right out of the box the members lit into her with accusations of malfeasance, partisanship, bad judgement, poor planning, etc., all supported by rounds of applause from the mostly black audience. On several occasions Harris attempted to explain that she was Secretary of State, with seven important departments to run, including foreign and interstate commerce, oversight of corporations doing business in Florida, and other highly critical agencies. She wanted the Commission to understand that she provided only a ministerial role — certification of election results — as a Florida constitutional (elected) official. She tried to explain that the Florida Supervisor of Elections was head of the Department of Elections, and that he should be allowed to answer questions about what happened before, during, and after the election. But Madam Chair continuously and rudely interrupted her with condescending remarks, insults, and other statements, suggesting that Harris had personally rigged the Florida election to deny blacks the right to vote. Madam Chair laid every error, mistake, complaint, criticism of any sort, right in the lap of Secretary Harris.

Clearly, the Commission's purpose was to put on a good TV show as well as to build a "good" documented record for later use. However, many "witnesses" were not very sophisticated. They admittedly had been rounded up and bussed in and some didn't understand how words might sound to the general public. But the Commission was ready for the situation… ready to interrupt whenever a speaker's words didn't sound just right for the commission's purposes. The commissioners, especially Madam Chair and the commission's attorney, carefully led each "witness" through the desired words to produce the right "testimony."

Each new group of "witnesses" had an articulate spokesperson who would make a formal statement (hearsay) to summarize information gleaned previously from those in the group. The Commissioners then "questioned" (prompted) individuals of the group.

Some examples of "testimony" (responses to Commissioner's prompts) from our notes made during the "hearings:"

PERSON 1:
Q: "Did see you anybody turned away from voting?"

A: "I spent two hours there and saw three people told that they couldn't vote and all of 'em was black. Nobody told any whites they couldn't vote."

Q: "What reason were they given?"

A: "They was told that they wasn't registered but they all said they was."

Q: "What else did you see?"

A: "I saw every white person allowed to vote. They would just come in and vote."

The Commissioners would look at each other, nod knowingly, adjust their faces to a forlorn look over such a tragic story, and go to the next "witness."

PERSON 2:
Q: "Can you tell the Commission what happened when you went to vote?"

A: "Yeah. When I got there the clerk was not very accommodating to voters. It was an experience you wouldn't believe unless you was there and seen it."

Q: "What happened?"

A: "They was just plain rude because we was black. They didn't want us to vote."

Q: "Did you ask for help?"

A: "There wasn't nobody to help. They all acted like they was busy and wouldn't pay no attention. I asked three times but they just said that I wasn't registered and was at the wrong place but I know I wasn't."

And on, and on, and on. It lasted for days. Some "witnesses" said they saw Sheriff's Deputies parked by the road leading to the polling place so they didn't go ahead "because it was plain that they was there to stop us."

[My estimate is that the commission took "testimony" from about 100 "witnesses."]

All of the "testimony" was recorded, to be compiled and summarized much like a court record, then it will be published and presented as FACT to federal judges, before Congress, and elsewhere. One important use of the compiled material will be for classrooms throughout the country. Look in your school library soon and you will find the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights' Report on Election 2000, or some such name. Also, look for it to become a hot item in Political Science curriculums at colleges and universities where Democrat professors out number Republicans by as much as 30-1.

No one on the commission suggested that it might be possible that people who were told they were not registered, may not have been registered. No one suggested that perhaps the Deputy Sheriffs were there to PROTECT voters and maintain order instead of there to commit felonies by interferring with people's right to vote. No one asked why people on their way to vote would allow the site of a Deputy Sheriff's car scare them away! No one asked the "witnesses" if THEY were U.S. citizens and qualified to vote!

The Butterfly Ballot
Naturally, some of the "testimony" included the story of the butterfly ballots in Palm Beach County. No one took the time to place on the record that Palm Beach County is a very affluent Democrat county where politics are run and controlled by Democrats, and that it was a Democrat election official who designed the butterfly ballot. Yet, the Commission blamed the butterfly ballot on Secretary of State Harris. In fact, all of the complainants were from predominately Democrat counties: Miami-Dade, Palm Beach, Broward, and Vulosia, but Secretary Harris was blamed for all of the "failures." — No one asked why the Democrats that control those counties allowed such conduct.

The Commission is clearly just an extension of the Democrat's Party. It is serving no other legitimate purpose and must be abolished or re-constituted.

We are four-square for EVERY citizen in this country to have an EQUAL opportunity to vote and to be heard… But this is utterly ridiculous and must be stopped. The Commission is funded by taxpayers and must be accountable to the public. What the members are doing is using taxpayer money to thwart legitimate and legal activity of constitutional state officials. The commission also sues other federal departments, state governments, and local governments — for the most trivial activity — to implement quotas under the guise of 'equal opportunity.'

The U.S. CCR rarely holds hearings for issues concerning Jews, women, Hispanics, Latinos, whites, Irish, Scots, American Indians, Eskimos, Samoans, Aleuts, Hindus, Japanese Americans, Chinese Americans, Koreans, Vietnamese, Poles, Italians, Russians, Armenian, Slavs, etc. Its a one way street and a single race Commission with a warped sense of right and wrong.

UPDATE: Jan. 10, 2005 — The Sun Also Rises

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Another Story

My brother lives in Tennessee and his state, like the rest of the country, implemented 'motor voter' registration a few years ago. He had voted in Tenn. several times but while renewing his Driver's License he also changed his street address for his voter registration card. When he went to vote in the 2000 election he was told that his county and two adjacent counties had screwed up registrations and he couldn't vote. Those who had registered (or made a change) at the DMV in the three-county area were not registered because the computers had wiped out their voter registration records. He was allowed to cast a provisional ballot but it would not be considered (counted) unless the vote was very close. — BUT there was no screaming, yelling, pouting, whining, crying, or any other obscene behavior. Just as in Florida, the people most upset by the snafu were the officials involved. The public understood that sometimes stuff happens. My brother understood; he'll get to vote next time.

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And, Another Story

The Miami Herald, with a consortium of news organizations dedicated to "recounting" ALL of the Al Gore challenged ballots in Florida, finished their "recount" last week. Using the most liberal standards of "counting" each dimple, pimple, chad, hanging chad, swinging chad, prick mark, pencil mark, etc., the group reviewed the 10,500 ballots in Miami-Dade, plus the "questionable" ballots from Broward and Palm Beach Counties. These are the ballots that Democrats, blacks, and media, have insisted would have proved that Al Gore won the election if Judge Samuel Sauls had reviewed them. FROM THIS FARCE, AL GORE GAINED A TOTAL OF 49 VOTES, well short of the more then 500 he needed. George W. Bush still won. We know this because it was in a back section of The Charlotte Observer, A Knight-Ridder "Newspaper." It was a little side-bar piece about three inches long. To paraphrase Paul Harvey — we now know the rest of the story, but just barely.

And Finally
Later in 2001, another consortium led by the New York Times completed a state-wide review of all ballots. A recount of disputed ballots as well as "over-under" votes found that George W. Bush won again, by about 327 votes.