Some of Nothing

We Will Never Forget: Brooks Brothers Riot 2000
Monday, January 7, 2008

That "low class" "SOB" (to borrow language from Bill O'Reilly) Glenn Greenwald has unfeelingly brought back some horrible memories of the 2000 election. According to Greenwald's recent post, Jonah Goldbrick is projecting once again by saying that, if Obama loses the election, "certain segments" of the population are going to "become completely unhinged." As Greenwald quite rightly, yet quite unsympathetically, points out, the last time a certain group of the population became unhinged after a presidential election, it wasn't a group that would support Obama (unless Obama became a Republican tomorrow, which isn't entirely out of the question):

The last time I can recall a "certain segment of American political life" becoming "completely unhinged" and causing "social unraveling" in connection with a national election was this episode in Miami, during the 2000 recount:

The "bourgeois riot" celebrated by Wall Street Journal columnist Paul Gigot helped stop the announced manual recount of the 10,750 undervote in Miami-Dade County. Instigated by an order from New York congressman John Sweeney to "shut it down," dozens of screaming GOP demonstrators pounded on doors and a picture window at elections headquarters. The canvassing board, which had already found a net Al Gore gain of 168 votes, reversed a decision it had made a couple of hours earlier to begin a tally of the undervote.

The mob gang-rushed a local Democrat carrying a blank sample ballot. They threatened that a thousand Cubans were on their way to the headquarters to stop the count. Several people were "trampled, punched or kicked," according to The New York Times. The canvassing board chair at first conceded that mob pressures played a role in the shutdown -- which cost Gore the 168 votes as well -- but later reversed his position. . . . .

Instead of condemning the Dade tactics, W. himself called the victory party that night to praise them, and Republicans invoked the specter of Jesse Jackson, who'd merely led peaceful protests outside election offices.

The "certain segment" creating "social unraveling" and blocking vote-counting in 2000 with their thug tactics wasn't quite the same as the "certain segment" which Goldberg and Reynolds are ominously warning will riot in the event of an Obama loss:

Most of those fist-waiving, threatening protesters were actually aides to GOP establishment figures, including Fred Thompson, Tom DeLay, Jim DeMint, and the NRCC, shipped to Miami to create a climate of intimidation and thus prevent pro-Gore votes from being counted.

Needless to say, this grossly pale visual reminder of privilege, deception, and gorilla head(?) isn't exactly the kind of image a person wants to wake up to on a weekend morning (thanks a lot Glenn). Nonetheless, as vomit-inducing as the picture may be, it's essential that we keep it in mind for the next election. Because when the phonies, thugs, and pinheads re-take the stage this election, we need to be prepared.

PS Extra special thanks to Bill OhhhhhReilly for providing much of the irony for this post with his well-hinged(?) behavior towards an Obama staffer in New Hampshire. *Hugs*

Oh yeah. And Amy Goodman helps tie it all together (9/11 and Iraq and the 2000 election):

Personally, I don't think the Senate's overnight sleepover held to discuss the Iraq War is actually the "political theater" we need to be worried about.

UPDATE: Firedog Lake also appreciates the Bill Ohhhhreilly irony. But do they have art?

Nothing New byslag at 9:31 AM