St. Petersberg, Florida. November 11, 2000--The president of the Florida Holocaust Museum said Saturday that George W. Bush's grandfather derived a portion of his personal fortune through his affiliation with a Nazi-controlled bank. John Loftus, a former prosecutor in the Justice Department's Nazi War Crimes Unit, said his research found that Bush's grandfather, Prescott Bush, was a principal in the Union Banking Corp. in Manhattan in the late 1930s and the 1940s. Leading Nazi industrialists secretly owned the bank at that time, Loftus said, and were moving money into it through a second bank in Holland even after the United States declared war on Germany. The bank was liquidated in 1951, Loftus said, and Bush's grandfather and great-grandfather received $1.5 million from the bank as part of that dissolution. "That's where the Bush family fortune came from: It came from the Third Reich," Loftus said....Money flows into American politics today, he said, from "a series of multinational corporations behaving like pirates. They don't care about ideology; they care about money." Loftus' speech left many in tears. "I am absolutely shocked," said Nancy Krauss of Punta Gorda. "I wish this would have come out before the election. My husband voted for Bush. I don't think he would have voted for him if he would have known." --Herald-Tribune, 11/11/00

Here's what we wrote at noon on Tuesday, ten hours before the U.S. Supreme Court elected Bush president by a vote of 5-4: "Scalia has put the U.S. Supreme Court between a rock and a hard place. The court would never have taken on this second Bush appeal if not for the fact that Scalia needs Bush to become president so he can become Chief Justice. And now that Scalia has taken them to this place, they find that nothing they can do will work. To get a solid vote that would be acceptable to the nation, they would like to set standards for manual counting and send the case back to Florida in hopes that the count will come out in Bush's favor, making him legitimate in the eyes of many. (Not us.) The problem there is that 33 states used the same standard of no one standard in these very same presidential elections. Based upon the court's decision, either Bush or Gore could then demand recounts in any of those states that had a close vote. Now, THAT would create real chaos. The other alternative, however, is simply to give the election to Bush in a clearly political split decision by making some legal incantations over the political pot and accepting that the court's credibility would be pretty much destroyed for a generation or two."

At the time, we didn't know how right we were. As you know, what happened was that the U.S. Supremes sent the case back to the Florida Supremes, 7-2, saying that the counting standards must be specific in order to be uniform. The Scalia 5-4 majority, however, said there was no time to do so, making the 7-2 vote to remand moot. In other words, the 7-2 vote along party lines was just shoddy window dressing. The 7 justices were trying to keep their credibility as a court by coming up with a verdict that 5 out of 7 held was unworkable. But wait, there's more, and this is the real outrage. We didn't think the court could reject the Florida manual counting standards because it would call the same non-specific standards in 33 other states into question, throwing the entire election into chaos. The way the Scalia majority got out of that one is amazingly deceitful. What they wrote was that their decision to declare the election over and Bush the winner is based on their view that Florida standards for manual counting are too vague, but their decision may not ever be used to challenge the equally vague manual counting standards in any other state. Why? Because they said so, that's why. Here are their exact words, given without further clarification by them: "Our consideration is limited to the present circumstances, or the problem of equal protection in election processes generally presents many complexities." One observer translated this into English: "States have no rights to have their own state elections when it can result in Gore being elected President. This decision is limited to only this situation." Now that's outrageous. --Politex, 12/14/00

In a move that will destroy the credibility of the U.S. Supreme Court for generations to come, not to mention the legitimacy of the Bush administration, the politicized conservative majority of Scalia, Thomas, Rehnquist, Kennedy, and O'Connor called the Florida Supreme Court's remedy of a manual hand count of the Florida undervotes "not appropriate" have reversed the findings of the Florida courtk, and have ruled that vote counts may not continue. On the other hand, now Justice Scalia will not resign from the court as he threatened to do if Gore were elected and his ultimate goal of being appointed by Bush as Chief Justice remains on track. The minority opinion of Breyer, Ginsburg, Souter, and Stevens wrote that the court had no reason to take the case in the first place. As Justice Stevens said, "We might never know the identity of of the winner of this election. The identity of the looser is perfectly clear. It is the nation's confidence as the 'Judge' as the impartial guardian of the rule of law." --Politex, 10:30, 12/12/00

Politex, the Supreme Court's decision...is bizarre. While you're reading, I recommend that you ask yourself two things: (1) why the decision doesn't throw out dozens of other elections, and (2) why in finding an equal protection problem with the Florida vote-counting standard it doesn't find a much worse equal protection problem in the inaccurate voting systems used in the poorer counties -- not just in Florida but in many states. Then study Rehnquist's arguments for overruling the Florida Supreme Court despite his passionate commitment to federalism. Ginsburg's dissent will help you with this. Think about Rehnquist's background, and ask yourself whether this decision is the culmination of his career. Finally...now that the Supreme Court itself has sabotaged the counting of votes in the presidential election, what is needed to reestablish the legitimacy of our government? --Phil Agre, 12/12/00

CNN and others are leading with the fact that the Scalia court has remanded the case back to the Florida Supreme Court by a vote of 7-2, implying that the court is only divided between Republicans and Democrats and is not shattered between Scalia conservatives and Stevens moderates, thus creating the myth of a unified decision for Bush. This is the cover story that the mainstream media has sucked up and is running with. In a banana republic we would see this for what it is, propagandistic pap. In the majority opinion the Florida Supreme Court is given no option to work with. It's a Catch-22 and the Scalia court knows it, because the Florida court has to follow the law created by the Florida legislature and the Florida legialature, being just as politicized in Bush's favor as the U.S. Supreme Court, will not change its law for the benefit of a Gore victory, even if it had the time to do so. That's really what the Scalia faction meant when they said there was no time between now and December 18th to have a vote count. The fix was in on Saturday with the Scalia injunction against continuing the hand count. Now the cover-up begins with pundits like Chris Matthews, media like CNN and Fox, and the usual cast of Bush defenders pointing to the meaningless 7-2 decision and ignoring the actual 5-4 shattered decision that points to the true destruction of the U.S. Supreme Court's credibility by the Scalia majority. Remember, the Bush establishment, including the pundits and the media, have a vested interest in pushing the 7-2 scenario. How can you tell the Bush establishment? Simple. Remember who pushes the 7-2 myth of Supreme Court unanimity. So far this evening, it's been CNN and Orvetti, and we haven't even started looking. --Politex, 11:30, 12/12/00

I am one of the minority in the military who wasn't suckered by this...draft dodgin' drunken frat boy who ain't never done a damn thing except get himself elected governor and engineer his presidential power grab. He is not qualified to be President and I will never regard his election as legitimate (I jokingly call him Herr Bush or King George these days). I will always respect the office, but I doubt I will ever be able to respect the man after watching he and his band of ruffians distort the law and the truth these past 5 weeks, all in the name of gaining power. I am a Southern conservative who believes in the rule of law and hearing the will of the people and then abiding by it. It is obvious that Bush et al are not concerned with such minor technicalities as counting votes and have trampled on nearly every constitutional and conservative princple that stood between them and power over these past 5 weeks. If this is what conservatism has become, you can call me a liberal. I have spent 19 years in the military defending people's right to vote and speak, even the rights of those I don't agree with. The callous way with which Bush and his cabal have run roughshod over our rights has made a mockery of democracy in this country and is something I cannot and will not tolerate. It is appalling that more people don't see what is being done by Bush et al in the name of democracy. Wealthy corporations and their lawyers and the Supreme Court have elected this man to be the smiling face on what will amount to the looting of the treasury by means of tax breaks for the wealthy and corporations and the destruction of public education in this country.

As a Democrat who has supported Republicans from time to time, I have quickly reached the conclusion that the Republicans as a group are a bunch of hypocrites who preach one thing and then go out and do another. States' rights? That died a violent death in the Supreme Court. "I trust the people"....yeah, only if they agree with him. I have tried to give this clown the benefit of a doubt on more than one occassion, and everytime he simply ends up proving my earlier suspicions about him. He is a lightweight who is far from ready for the presidency and unless I'm wrong, America will come to regret the day he took power. He is nothing more than a "Southern fried" version of his daddy, and some of us, thank God, still remember what a disaster he was. Unfortunately, it wasn't enough to keep King George out of power on election day (or whatever this thing was). Little Dubya will make daddy look like Winston Churchill. Being from North Carolina, one of my heroes is Senator Sam Ervin, who was probably one of the great constitutional scholars of the 20th century. All I can say is that Mr. Sam has got to be rolling over in his grave right now at what Bush and the U. S. Supreme Court have done to his beloved constitution. --a Bush Watcher, 12/11/00

My fellow 'mericans. Today is a great day and the greatness of my day is found in my greatest quotes to show what great days are coming for me. "Think about that. Two hundred and eighty-five new or expanded programs, $2 trillion more in new spending, and not one new bureaucrat to file out the forms or answer the phones?" Think about that. "My opponents, they want the federal government controlling Social Security like it's some kind of federal program" But I want the states to do it. "They said, 'You know, this issue doesn't seem to resignate with the people.' And I said, you know something? Whether it resignates or not doesn't matter to me, because I stand for doing what's the right thing, and what the right thing is hearing the voices of people who work" and know how to vote.

Anyway, "after we went out and worked our hearts out, after you went out and helped us turn out the vote, after we've convinced the good Americans to vote, and while they're at it, pulled that old George W. lever, I'm the one, when I put my hand on the Bible, when I put my hand on the Bible, that day when they swear us in, when I put my hand on the Bible, I will swear to not—to uphold the laws of the land." "My election marks a chapter, the last chapter of the 20th, 20th, the 21st century that most of us would rather forget. The last chapter of the 20th century. This is the first chapter of the 21st century. So we must spread the word. It's important for us to explain to our nation that life is important. It's not only life of babies, but it's life of children living in, you know, the dark dungeons of the Internet."

And Mr. Vice President, Dick, "in all due respect, it is—I'm not sure 80 percent of the people get the death tax. I know this: 100 percent will get it if I'm the president. And I'm gonna give it to 'em." I'll give it to 'em real good, so help me. And "about my finances, my finances, I will have my secretary of treasury be in touch with the financial centers, not only here but at home. Also, a tax cut will be really one of the anecdotes to coming out of an economic illness." And so on. Listen, "Al Gore was a very tough opponent. He is the incumbent. He represents the incumbency. And a challenger is somebody who generally comes from the pack and wins, if you're going to win. And that's where I'm coming from." And that's why I won.

"The fundamental question is, 'Will I be a successful president when it comes to foreign policy?' I will be, but until I'm the president, it's going to be hard for me to verify that I think I'll be more effective." But you'll see. "The only things that I can tell you is that every case in Texas I have reviewed I have been comfortable with the innocence or guilt of the person that I've looked at. I do not believe we've put a guilty ... I mean innocent person to death in the state of Texas." But "I promise you that I'm gonna talk about the ideal world. I've read—I understand reality. If you're asking me as the president, would I understand reality, I do." So that you and...and good night, my fellow 'mericans, and pray, pray real hard. [All quotations are taken from the speeches of George W. Bush, the Presidented-elect of Florida.]

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YESTERDAY'S BUSH WATCH

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BUSH WATCH: THE NOVEL

by Jerry Politex

I drove my silver Audi down Mesa Drive, the spine of Cat Mountain, hung a left at the cat's tail, drove quickly up the hilly, winding 2222 in low gear, took a right onto Balcones Drive, and came to a stop in the rear parking lot of Che Zee.

Another sunny, warm early spring day in Northwest Austin, Texas. The lunch crowd was pretty much thinned out by now, so I had choices of parking spaces. I got out of the car, the turbines winding down, and stood by the rear entrance to the restaurant, a pretty-good place for not very expensive Southwestern food. I didn't have long to wait.

He came into the parking lot in an old, rattletrap Nissan pickup. Paint worn off in places, rusty, dusty, squeaky. I recognized him from the description the moment he got out. Looked to be in his fifties. Grizzled. Kind of rusty, dusty, and squeaky. A stringbean of a guy with pale white skin, reddish hair, which was short but unkempt. He was wearing a black polo shirt with the tail out. Denim shorts that had shrunk to a tight fit over his bony hips, short enough for the front pockets to stick out of the frayed cuffs. A pair of old, once-white but now gray, paint-spattered tennis sneakers. Austin casual for a yuppie restaurant, ten minutes from the glass buildings of the city's burgeoning silicon gulch , a world of high tech hopes in buildings springing up like overnight mushrooms.

"Name's Wayne," he said with a crooked, good-natured smile, coming across the parking lot with his arm outstreatched like a spear, eager to shake my hand. "Recognized you right away, Politex. Good description."

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