Corrine Brown Cesured Calls 2000 elect. "Stolen" -Take Action

[the ether]

Corrine Brown Cesured Calls 2000 elect. "Stolen" -Take Action



Corrine Brown Cesured by Congress for Calling 2000 election "stolen"

Help take action now, or do you want another stolen election? See the bottom to find out what you can do.

Watch a video clip of her House speech -- now stricken from the record:
http://www.firstcoastnews.com/video/play...
(Watch it quickly before it too is scrubbed)

(...Also, as you can see, the House Chamber is practically empty. Another way TV distorts through selective imaging)

Here's how NBC News (TV) Obscured It -- "An Outburst on the Floor"
From Rapid Reponse Network | July 16, 2004 | Liz Herbert/Rob Nesvacil

NBC News first reported tonight about an "outburst" on the floor of the House. Turns out it was Corrine Brown (D- Jacksonville, FL) debating the request made by five Representatives to have the UN monitor U.S. Elections (see article re/their original proposal below). Turns out that House leadership answered their call with legislation forbidding any U.N. money be used to monitor elections in the U.S.

Rep. Brown then said that the House leadership had participated in a "coup d'etat" in 2000 by stealing the election and that we would need monitoring to make sure it didn't happen again. They played a tape of the leadership then shouting Brown down, slamming the gavel and telling her to get off the floor.

The House then voted along party lines - now here is the big news - TO HAVE HER COMMENTS STRICKEN FROM THE RECORD:

The House's presiding officer, Rep. Mac Thornberry, R-Texas, ruled that Brown's words violated a House rule.

"Members should not accuse other members of committing a crime such as, quote, stealing, end quote, an election," Thornberry said.

* See U.S. Constitution Rules further below.

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Rapid Response Network Commentary:

So, to recap, we now live in a country where an elected representative may not speak as she chooses if it violates the sensibilities of the ruling majority. If such free speech does occur, it is then stricken from the record? What happened to our representative democracy?

Write Rep. Brown - she could probably use some support
http://www.house.gov/corrinebrown/

See suggested further actions below.

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Here's how AP reported the same story: (better)

Fla. lawmaker says 2000 election 'stolen'
By ALAN FRAM
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
http://tinyurl.com/4uqpb

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Florida local television reported the story and played the speech:

FL Congresswoman Corrine Brown Censured re 2000 election "coup d'etat" speech http://www.firstcoastnews.com/news/top...

Florida Congresswoman, concerned about the integrity of the 2004 elections, especially in her home state of Florida, speaks from floor of the House re 2000's "coup d'etat" .... We were told to "get over it". We will NOT "Get over it"

House members voted her out of order and had her words stricken from the record

Watch a video clip of her House speech -- now stricken from the record:
http://www.firstcoastnews.com/video/player.aspx?aid=27805&bw=
( Watch it quickly before it too is scrubbed. )

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Context: How the House speech came up:
http://worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=39255

House members send letter to Secretary General Annan
U.N. observers requested for U.S. election
July 2, 2004

excerpts:

Recalling the contentious Florida vote count in 2000, the lawmakers urged the international body to "ensure free and fair elections in America," said a statement by Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson, D-Texas, who spearheaded the effort, Agence France-Presse reported. The letter was signed by nine members of Congress. ...

The Congress members, including four blacks and one Hispanic, pointed to a controversial report by the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights which "found that the electoral process in Florida resulted in the denial of the right to vote for countless persons."

The bipartisan commission, they said, determined "that the 'disenfranchisement of Florida's voters fell most harshly on the shoulders of black voters' and in poor counties." ...

Tom Kilgannon, president of Freedom Alliance, a group dedicated to protecting American sovereignty, admonished Johnson and her colleagues.

"Your appeal to the secretary general is alarming and embarrassing," he said. "As a Member of Congress sworn to uphold the Constitution and represent the people of the United States, it is disturbing, to say the least, that you would entrust the most sacred act of American democracy - our presidential election - to an international institution, which is unaccountable to the American people and mired by scandal and corruption." Kilgannon said the request "undermines U.S. sovereignty, demoralizes American servicemen who are fighting to build democratic governments abroad and sends the message worldwide that the United States is nothing more than a Third World nation unable to police itself."

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RAPID RESPONSE ACTION ITEMS:
Corrine Brown represents 600,000 people when she speaks

ACTIONS:

1. Write NBC news and suggest that this story wasn't about an "outburst" - the story should have been about the fact that an elected Rep's comments were stricken. [e-mail]

2. Write a letter to your favorite political TV show or political writer and ask them to cover this part of the story

3. Write to your elected Representatives and express your feelings about Representative Brown's comments being stricken. http://www.house.gov/writerep

You might want to add to your note that you support the original request for some kind of monitoring to occur (Earlier this week we covered this petition urging Carter Center oversight and observation of 2004 Presidential Election: http://www.petitiononline.com/cce2004/petition.html - perhaps a more feasible option )

4. Write Rep. Brown - she could probably use some support -
http://www.house.gov/corrinebrown/

5. The piece is running widely - write your local paper running it - (scan this google search - http://tinyurl.com/6xc95 - and you might want to refresh the search - publications are being added every few seconds) - express your concern that her words would be stricken.

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See U.S. Constitution for these opposing arguments:

On Free Speech:
http://www.house.gov/Constitution/Amend.html

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; **or abridging the freedom of speech,** or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances. " (emphasis added)

re Rules For Censure:
http://www.house.gov/Constitution/Constitution.html

Article I, Section 5, Clauses 2 and 3 of the Constitution

Clause 2: Each House may determine the Rules of its Proceedings, punish its Members for disorderly Behaviour, and, with the Concurrence of two thirds, expel a Member.

Each House shall keep a Journal of its Proceedings, and from time to time publish the same, excepting such Parts as may in their Judgment require Secrecy; and the Yeas and Nays of the Members of either House on any question shall, at the Desire of one fifth of those Present, be entered on the Journal.

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Slightly related note:

Ted Rall on "The O'Connor Factor" -- perhaps some remorse from Sandra Day O'Connor for intervening in the 2000 elections? http://tinyurl.com/4eu2e

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Commentary: George Orwell

"If the party could thrust its hand into the past and say this or that event never happened - that, surely, was more terrifying than mere torture or death."

"And if all others accepted the lie which the Party imposed-if all records told the same tale-then the lie passed into history and became truth. 'Who controls the past' ran the Party slogan, 'controls the future: who controls the present controls the past.'" " Day by day and almost minute by minute the past was brought up to date. In this way every prediction made by the Party could be shown by documentary evidence to have been correct; nor was any item of news, or any expression of opinion, which conflicted with the needs of the moment, ever allowed to remain on record. All history was a palimpsest, scraped clean and reinscribed exactly as often as was necessary."

George Orwell, 1984

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A BUZZFLASH NEWS ALERT

Note: This email message has been sent by Richard Hoefer, of Media SummitNet '04, GTV, and the NationalGrassrootsNetwork. It was a one-time mailing to a number of you who were BCC'd. You have NOT been added to a distribution list. This seemed like an impt matter that might slip under the radar. It needs to be addressed.



http://www.buzzflash.com/alerts/04/07/ale04016.html

[teach1st]

1. The link to the video is bad

On edit: It should be

http://www.firstcoastnews.com/video/player.aspx?aid=27805&bw=

[fearnobush]

2. Try this one.

<http://www.firstcoastnews.com/news/topstories/news-article.aspx?storyid=21492>

[Wolftone378]

3. Civics Class Anyone?

I wrote letters, emails and called Representative Brown's office. It is imperative that we let our respective members of the House of Representatives hear from us on this issue and see that they get copies of anything sent to the press and Congresswoman Brown. Urge members of Congress to support Corrine Brown. Dubya's men and women in Congress and the wimps won't do anything but some people will take note of the fact that what Corrine Brown said was not an "outburst" but an expression that represented the feelings of many Americans across the country. What happened to representative democracy? Dubya has to go - by any means necessary! :wtf:

[CBHagman]

4. Amen to that, and...

...make sure you send messages to the speaker of the House (Dennis Hastert, R-IL) and majority leader (Tom DeLay, R-TX). They won't change their behavior, but they need to know how it's being received in the rest of the country.