If you’re like me, sometimes your mind wanders to the year 2000 and what might have been if only the votes had been counted.

It is at those times that it becomes hard to untangle the rush of emotions as I think about the legacy of George Bush, his appointment by the Supreme Court and what might have been if we had Al Gore in the White House.

At these moments, I think about Florida and I get mad.

Now, anger has fueled me over the last decade as I’ve researched and exposed the culture of corruption. Truth be told, it still does.

It was Jack Abramoff’s role in the Florida recount that had my hair on fire back in late 2000 and 2001. He sent his team. He raised money, lots of money—on and off the books. He funded the infrastructure of the coup d’état we suffer under to this day.

Without Abramoff and his fellow lobbyist—the shadow army of the GOP—George W. Bush would be a village resident of diminished mental capacity somewhere in Texas.

Instead, every day, he gets to insult and diminish the Nation I love.

It is time for payback.

And a great revenge will be to defeat John Mica.

To the Jump...

Now that Clinton has formally ended her bid for the presidential nomination, hopefully Democrats will start focusing more aggressively on the larger picture.

Back in early November, I suggested:

It is time for Democrats, instead of simply uttering conclusions, to use examples and the power of suggestion to make the case against their Republican counterparts.

[I posted this originally on MyDD. I know there have already been multiple diaries about this here as well. My comments are mostly directed at those few die-hard Hillary supporters left who won't come to terms with the reality here, and I doubt there are many left here. But I thought I'd post it anyway to share my thoughts.]

Watching “Recount” on HBO brought back all the terrible memories of the 2000 fiasco and so much more. I was only 12 when it happened, and I’ll admit I was thoroughly confused by what went on. All I knew was that the election was very close and the U.S. Supreme court decided democracy just took too much damn time.

HBO did a fantastic job of clarifying that awful mess. It certainly wasn’t a feel good movie—in fact, it was more of a “feel like complete shit” movie. It made me pissed off again. How the hell did this happen? Voters disenfranchised by the thousands, non-partisan decisions in the hands of the most partisan of people, butterfly ballots, hanging chad, planted protestors disrupting vote count and assaulting a lawyer, election officials being tricked left and right by the disruption created by the Republicans.

Yeah, I must admit, I watched the HBO flick entitled "Recount", and it just reignited all of the reasons I was so ticked off in 2000.  The reason I continually referred to Bush #43 as the pResident.

The movie was fairly accurate, except that it skipped the fact that the dispute hit the US Supreme Court twice, and not once, but that fact perhaps will be buried, after all, it resulted in Bush becoming selected no matter what.

Some of the reasons that flick reignited me being pissed off...

I just finished watching the premiere of "Recount" -- and I just need to get out some thoughts, and hope to hear from others too.

While I felt the movie was even-handed, I'm sure that there may have been some pro-Gore biases in there, which I didn't notice since I am (obviously) pro-Gore.

Of course, seven years later, history, reality, facts and common sense are also pro Gore too...

FOR ANYONE WHO HASN'T SEEN THE MOVIE YET, CLOSE THIS DIARY NOW!

I'll leave this as an open thread for anyone who got to see it tonight. I live in Vegas, but I have an east coast HBO feed, so I got to see the premiere tonight, and it was exciting and tense as hell, and I learned a great deal about what happened, and I finally learned what the stupid under and overvote chads meant. If this wasn't 2008 and I wasn't so confident about Obama's chances, it'd be much harder to watch for me, and I couldn't help but think about all that's happened since 2000, especially 9/11 and the War.

The one thing that really burnt me hard was...

WHY THE HELL DID JOE LIEBERMAN STAB US IN THE BACK EVEN BACK THEN???

The number of US soldiers currently deployed in Iraq is roughly equal to double the attendance at Barack Obama's rally in Portland, OR on May 20, 2008.

I've heard other parents say that talking to their kids about procreation is the hardest conversation they have. That conversation was a breeze. Tonight, I had the most serious conversation I've yet had with my 7 year old son.

More serious than the conversation about why his dad and I divorced (mostly because that happened when he was 4). More serious than the conversation about not talking to strangers (mostly because that happened when he was 3). More serious than the conversation about how important it is to tell the truth so that people are inclined to believe you rather than doubt you.

He asked me why George Bush was president, and he is too smart to take "because more people voted for him," for an answer. His immediate follow-up question was, "Why did so many people vote for him when he's such a bad president?"

My son was less than a year old on September 11, 2001.

If you have HBO, you are REQUIRED to watch 'Recount' tonight (or any of the many times it will be repeated). If you don't have HBO, find a friend that does and watch it there. If it appears on line, watch it there. If someone has to Tivo it for you - have them do it and watch it there. If you have to wait until it comes out on DVD - then wait and watch it there.

Contact all of your friends and tell them that they are REQUIRED to watch 'Recount' as well.

Do all you can to make sure that everyone possible can see this film.

In the weeks and months to come, this film is going to be required viewing for ALL Democrats leading into November.

If the title wasn't already taken, I would suggest an alternative title - "Why We Fight"

First and foremost, continued thoughts of strength and compassion to Senator Kennedy - Kwan Seum Bosal. Senator Kennedy, you are strong, and you can beat this; keep fighting!

Now, can any of you fine brilliant people connect me to someone or some place that sells straight jackets in bulk or wholesale? I don't recall seeing them at Costco. Thanks in advance for your help! On with the Countdown!

My 10 year-old niece got me a calendar for Christmas.  Kid's smart, and knows me well.  She got me the 2008 George W. Bush Out of Office Countdown Calendar.  It's filled with date-specific quotes from our dipshit-in-chief, as well as photos showing him mugging for the camera at inappropriate times and just being bewildered by situations completely beyond his understanding.  It also has each day marked with how many days are left in office for this bozo.

The soon-to-be relased "Recount" is the latest example of the flaws of the docudrama genre. Its wilfull intermixing of fact and fiction poses a threat to both reputations and to history.  

Maybe this has been diaried before and I just missed it, but 2008 isn't the first time Michigan jumped the gun in a presidential primary season.  There was a post a few days ago about the blatant hypocrisy of Terry McAuliffe, who as DNC Chair stared down Michigan's threat to move up their primary in 2004, but as a Clinton surrogate believes that all Michigan delegates should be seated in 2008.

But I didn't know until this morning, when a commenter mentioned it in passing at TPM Election Central, that all the major candidates removed their names from the Michigan ballot in 2000... because Michigan broke the rules that year too.

First of all, this is my first diary (although I'm a long-time reader and let an old ID lapse) and secondly, I'm NOT in any way affiliated with HBO or anyone associated with the film. Also, I apologize if this for some reason isn't an appropriate diary, but here goes.

I recently saw the upcoming HBO feature "Recount" about the 2000 Florida recount, starring Kevin Spacey as Ron Klain, Denis Leary as Michael Whouley, Laura Dern as Katherine Harris (worth the price of a month of HBO right there) and other great actors. The reason I saw it is that I wrote up an interview with Spacey for a television magazine, which is something I do periodically for kicks.

was the day

If there's one thing the 2 party system has taught us, it's that the 2 party system doesn't work!

time after time after time, both major parties pass over great candidates and nominate fools. the best presidential prospects never make it to the November ballot. which is why we've had elections like Bush v Gore instead of McCain v Bradley.
and the Democratic primary voters' failure to Do the Right Thing is why instead of Howard Dean crushing the leper Bush, we had John Kerry meekly losing to the most unpopular sitting president ever to win relection. we could be (but hopefully aren't) on the verge of another monumental error, if we pick an unpopular establishment Dem over an agent of change.

so the question: would this be a mistake of historic proportions? and/or what is the biggest primary mistake Democrats have made in recent history?

I will limit the choices in the poll to the 1980 election through the 2008 election. in addition to the poll, please (if you feel like it) rate the nominations and tell us why or why not they were big mistakes. and feel free to go back further than 1980 if you want.

It seems rather odd to me that Hillary's campaign is invoking the name of Ken Starr.

Wasn't he the guy who found out that Bill Clinton was having sex (but apparently not sexual relations) with a 21 year old White House intern?

Which led to his lying to all of us about "that woman"?

Which led to his reflections about what the meaning of the word "is" is?

Which led to his impeachment?

Which may well have led to Al Gore's defeat in 2000?

Is this really what Howard Wolfson and the other geniuses running Hillary's campaign want us thinking about?

After eight years of disastrous Bush-Republican policies, America is reeling. Still at war, moving into a deep recession, saddled with crushing debt, Americans face the most important election for president in generations.

In this environment, the most important thing Democrats and progressives can do is to unite in support of our common goal: Reversing the damage done by George Bush and the Republicans. In this environment, the worst thing we can do is to fight each other. But that is exactly the threat presented by the recently announced candidacy of Ralph Nader.

Nader’s candidacy has a special meaning to me – because his new running mate, former San Francisco Board of Supervisors’ President, Matt Gonzalez, was my opponent in 2003 when I first ran for mayor.

PASS IT ON:  Sorry for the short diary

Short and Sweet:

Even George W. Bush had his questions about John McCain

The DNC put together this video comparing allegation of close ties to lobbyists made in a recent New York Times article to similar remarks then Gov. George W. Bush made during the 2000 Republican primary.

DNC Uses 2000 Bush to Slam McCain

DNCvideo