The scene where not one Senator backed the Black Caucus - how'd you feel?

[ChavezSpeakstheTruth]

IT PISSED ME OFF!!!

edit: spelling

[Sparkly]

1. I remember that day

Watched it all on TV. Afterwards, I emailed the Congressional Black Caucus thanking them for speaking for me when it seemed nobody else would. How infuriating.

[Mizmoon]

2. Angry to see blacks getting shafted yet again

Very angry.

[RoBear]

3. Me too.

I kept thinking, "Where the hell is Ted Kennedy?" Too bad Barney Frank isn't (wasn't) a Senator instead of a Rep. He'd have given them a signature in a heartbeat, I think.

[RummyTheDummy]

65. Where was Wellstone

That's what I was thinking. Anyone have any scoop on why he didn't sign?

[Punkingal]

4. Fucking Furious!

I didn't know about that...and I'm still furious. What a bunch of pansy-asses the Democrats are. It is disgusting!

[Soup Bean]

5. SICKENED.

I'm trying to console myself by saying that "no one knew Bush would be so bad". But then, I remember we're supposed to respect the people and the rule of law. So, I'm still sick.

Gore was a man about it. He didn't get "snippy". He thought he was taking one for the team.....but the team should have stood up for him and kept him in at quarterback.

[Liberal Gramma]

6. I don't remember this

but I was astounded in the film that not ONE senator would stand up for what was right. Does anyone know why they all refused to sign??

[Skittles]

19. for the same reason they didn't fight the voting fraud

spineless assholes

[Eloriel]

46. Actually, now that you ask

(memory hazy) -- but IIRC Daschle had made some sort of deal with the Repugs that no one would protest the electors.

[Nevernose]

7. Mad as hell -- almost makes want to vote Green

Almost (in the immortal words of Bugs Bunny: I may be crazy, but I'm not stupid).

I kept asking myself, Not one? Why haven't I ever seen this before?

[mountainvue]

8. Shocked.

Saddened. I have a group of online friends that I talk about politics/ current events with. I posted about how black voters were purged from the rolls in Florida and how it contributed to Gore's "loss." I got one snarky reply from a Nader backer saying that he guessed we couln't use the Nader excuse anymore.
When I watched that scene in the theater tonight, it pissed me off all over again.

[Cheswick2.0]

73. yea, like there can only be one cause for the election debacle

Nader was part of the problem. The fact that he and his followers can't admit that only makes me more postive they have nothing honest to offer to the process.

[Senior citizen]

80. Sorry, Cheswick

Nader and the Greens are part of the solution. The problem is that the Democrats didn't care that there wasn't a single Black senator, and decided to go along to get along with the Florida fraud.

The honest solution to the problem is an end to illegal voter disenfranchisement, and end to the electoral college, publicly funded campaigns, the restoration of the Fairness Doctrine, instant run-off voting, and end to BBV and a return to paper ballots, and a system of government that does not have taxation without representation. Unless you want to say that no Blacks pay taxes and that therefore they don't need a single Black in the Senate to represent them?

The simplemindedness of blaming Nader for everything just ignores the real problems in this country, like the biased media.

Would you care to state specifically what part of the problem Nader was? Did he disenfrancise black voters in Florida? Did he have his cousin at Fox News call the election for Bush when Bush hadn't won? Did he send Republican senators to stop the recount? Did he appoint a partisan Supreme Court? Did he try to deny a single citizen of the United States of America representation in Congress? Did he rig the voting machines to subtract 16,000 votes from the Gore tally? Did he get rid of the Fairness Doctrine? Did he establish the electoral college? Did he buy up the media for the right wing and banish all left wing talk shows? These are just a few parts of the problem that Nader wasn't responsible for. Name something you think he did wrong.

I know there are still those who think he took votes away from Gore. The fact is that Gore got the majority of votes and if not for illegal disenfranchisement of Black voters, the butterfly ballots that caused a large Jews for Buchanan vote, and Republican intervention to prevent a fair recount, Gore would have won Florida also. Nader, Cobb and the Greens are part of the solution, not part of the problem. Unless you can refute the arguments in "Indispensable Enemies," by Walter Karp, which explains why the two major parties can never bring about a more participatory and representative democracy, you are just blaming one of the victims of big-money politics, and by doing so you become part of the problem yourself.

[qanda]

9. Sick to my stomach

One of the saddest scenes in the movie. Makes the Democratic senators look very bad. They should be ashamed of themselves.

[Lisa0825]

10. That all happened the week my mom died, so I was kind of out of it...

It was the first time I saw any of that footage, and I barely remember hearing about it. It was really, really sad. Pitiful. Disgusting. No one had the backbone it took to make a stand.

[senseandsensibility]

11. I felt like*

And I do remember it. I was horribly confused by the whole situation, which I was watching live on C-span. I COULD NOT understand why people were not rioting in the streets about this. I felt isolated and angry, since I had not discovered DU, and NO ONE was talking about it. I literally felt like I was going crazy. Deep down, I have always trusted African Americans for their toughness and deep sense of fairness. This experience reinforced that feeling. I remember yelling at the TV when no senator would sign. Wellstone wouldn't sign, DUers. Think about that.

[Senior citizen]

79. I got a fundraising letter for Wellstone and I wrote

back and asked where he was when a Senator was needed by the CBC.

[senseandsensibility]

93. Good for you

but I'll bet you didn't get a reply. Don't get me wrong. I loved Wellstone, and even though I'm not from Minnesota, I contributed to him right up to the end. Rest in peace, Paul. But the fact that even he appears to have been brainwashed is really amazing. If he were only alive now, we could hear his version of events.

[venus]

12. Right. Where was the outrage. I remember some of the

Senators saying they were not asked (Kerry included) or that Gore did not want it, or some such nonsense. Gore sent the message in many ways that he was ready to accept the outcome and "move on" so to speak. How short are our memories here?

[Mizmoon]

23. This was bigger than Gore

and he alone should not have been able to decide it.

[Pachamama]

13. ASHAMED....Shame on every single one of them...may they always be..

...reminded of that....

If anyone wonders whether our upcoming election is "at risk" and with the e-voting issue looming as well, they should go back to this topic and the disenfranchisement of so many minority voters in Florida.

I just checked into this thread....is this topic being discussed because its in the Michael Moore movie? Hadn't heard this topic brought up in a long time...It still pisses me off...

PS: If any of you never saw this clip, its a great summary of the selection of 2000 and what happened in Florida...its a couple of minutes long and if you have DSL not take too long to load, but definitely worth seeing and passing along...

http://www.ericblumrich.com/gta.html

[cally]

14. Completely appalled

and that white folks for all their rhetoric still don't make a stand for civil rights. I literally get sick to my stomack knowing that a man or woman walked up to vote and was told they couldn't because essentially they are black. I'm appalled I didn't do something.

[HuskerDem]

56. You still have time to do something

Work your ass off....... get creative, Call one of the disenfranchised precincts or the Black Congressional Congress and ask them how you can help by phone banking, or whatever else they suggest that you are able to help with.

It's like that one elder-lady said in the movie "we don't find out about it until it's too late". You couldn't know that the election was going to be won by Gore then taken away from Gore by W's (second?) cousin who worked for FOX and then massaged/assisted/legitimized by W's campaign chair (who happened to be the election commissioner) and his BROTHER (who happened to be the GOVERNOR) of the state that his second? cousin with FOX news called in his favor causing a big uproar which was quickly settled by the SUPREMES.......... most of which were appointed by either W's daddy, or his daddy's boss.

[Still_Loves_John]

15. It was a very moving scene

but at that point a signature would not do anything to get Bush out of office, and would only strain relations. The supreme court had already ruled, and if a Democrat did anything like that it would have kept the country divided, and that's not what the Democrats wanted. It makes it all the more sickening that George Bush totally ignored any sign the Democrats gave of wanting to work together and pursued such a partisan agenda.

[Senior citizen]

63. It would have kept the country divided?

Like we are today, you mean?

[Skittles]

16. The Black Caucus tried to save us

I hope their courage will be dutifully acknowledged by history.

[senseandsensibility]

21. You're right

They are heroes. Just as in Fahrenheit 9-11, when Moore says that the people who are so mistreated by our society are the ones who are willing to risk their lives in wars, the Black Caucus was standing up for this country after it had been screwed in Florida. But the Democrats were too busy playing "Dubya is my President too." It is only when I think of this that I can understand what drives Nader voters.

[ChavezSpeakstheTruth]

26. You are 100% right. It was like the Dem senate handed over the keys

while the CBC railed and screamed

pitiful!

[ChavezSpeakstheTruth]

17. Even Wellstone & Levin!

For shame!

(May Paul rest in peace)

[annagull]

43. I want to know what went down that even Wellstone didn't

support them, Jeez Feingold even voted against the Patriot act yet even our most liberal Senators would not sign. Something went down, my guess is Daschle convinced everyone not to sign, yet another reason I want Daschle out of the leader position.

[ChavezSpeakstheTruth]

44. AMEN TO THAT. Daschle is a guttlest corporate beholden jellyfish

I want him gone.

He's still better than that POS Lieberman, tho.

Anyway - it does seem so wierd to me!

[HuskerDem]

57. The only problem with booting Daschle is that all politics are local

It's a half a dozen of this, six of the other.

If we didn't need every senate seat we can get our hands on I would be right there with you BUT............

South Dakota is very Reppublican and very rural. If we knock TD out there will be resmuglicans in that seat for 2 to 4 terms.

It would be best to let him continue to pass the torch and keep the seat ............... IMO.

[serryjw]

98. 1.7 million black votes where NOT counted.....

I really can't imagine WHY Paul didn't do something. The BEGINNING of the end.

[SW FL Dem]

18. I watched it live and it pissed me off then n/t

[NightTrain]

20. I think you know how I felt.

FUCKING PUSSY DEMOCRATS! GROW A SPINE, YOU DOUCHE BAGS!!! :mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad:

[WLKjr]

22. I watched that the very day it happend

I skipped school just to see it. I cried for my country then, and I got goosebumps and got teary eyed again after seeing it once more. To me, it almost seems like the day Democracy in the country died.

I got teary for a second or two, then I got pissed.

[smirkymonkey]

24. Absolutely disgusted!

I could not believe my eyes and ears...and now we are coming to know the frustration they felt when it was clear that nobody was going to step up to the plate for them. Not one senator.

It really made me almost physically ill to witness such spinelessness. I would expect it from Repubs, but the silence of the Dems was inexcusable.

[Laughing Mirror]

25. Was like an hallucination, Gore presiding over his own death sentence

As he called, one by one, on each Gentleman/Gentlelady member of the caucus in the benches, and each one rose and said the same thing. No, they couldn't find one single Senator to sponsor them, for HIM, for his sake. That electrifying moment when a visibly outraged Maxine Waters, she was so beside herself with anger at the Senate for, in essence, supporting the coup d'etat, that she could no longer contain herself. "I DON'T CARE!" she roared, when Gore told her she needed to have a Senator's signature. Unforgettable.

[KittyWampus]

27. We Can't Change The Past, So I Rooted For Maxine

when she came on the screen I let a "Yeah, Maxine" out loud... without intending to!

[Senior citizen]

81. I did too

I remembered the scene well and was waiting for Moore to show her famous words. Maxine's the best!

[grasswire]

28. the day democracy died

It was the day I was most ashamed to be an American.

Al Gore took the bait. He decided to be "statesmanlike" in order to preserve his future candidacy. If he had made a fuss, he would have been dead politically, he was told. So he sold us out to protect his future electability.

He should have forced them to follow the provisions of the Constitution and take it to the floor of the House. He should have forced them to follow the Constitution to its bitter end.

I'll never forget, and I'll never forgive Al Gore.

[Cheswick2.0]

74. blame Gore

bullshit.

[Senior citizen]

82. Ah, another erudite Cheswich post,

full of reason and sanity. NOT!

[Lydia Leftcoast]

29. At our post-movie discussion

we Twin Cities DUers wondered if the Dem Senators had been either blackmailed or threatened into compliance.

It was a shameful day, nonetheless.

[ChavezSpeakstheTruth]

31. It does seem real fishy doesn't it? n/t

[FloridaPat]

30. Shocked! I thought I had watched everything about that election

being stuck in Iowa for the winter with limited cable. Never even heard of it. Couldn't believe no one in the senate had the guts to fight for a fair election.

[Pachamama]

32. Excellent Clip about the stolen elections w/ music by Grand Theft Auto

If you haven't seen this, check it out....

http://www.ericblumrich.com/gta.html

[burrowowl]

33. As angry and sad as

the day I watched it.

Did our Nation die that day, we will see on 11/2/04 and in the follwing months.

[REVOLT823]

34. Unbelievable

I don't know how these guys can look at themselves in the mirror in the morning. No integrity, no honor, no decency.

[candy331]

38. Thoroughly angry and pissed and loved when Maxine Waters

said "I don't care if no senator signed it." Have to say Gore was at his worst, like a wounded animal resigned to his fate of certain death, he just seemed lost and in limbo.

[blueblitzkrieg]

69. I loved that too.

When she said that people in the audience burst into applause.

[Sperk]

35. I watched the whole thing when it was on C-Span and I was just

sick to my stomach. I kept thinking how awful it was that Congress let it look like it was a black issue because they were the only ones who had the courage to speak out. To tell you the truth I was embarassed and ashamed to be a white American on that day.

[keithyboy]

37. Me too. It appears we don't care if blacks are disenfranchised.

We only care about spreading democracy to Muslim countries or other countries where democracy does not match their cultures. We will fight for democracy, freedom, justice for anyone except those to whom we have done so much wrong.

[ChavezSpeakstheTruth]

39. We don't really care about Muslims and democracy - most of em ain't

white anyway.

Say it with me, with feeling: ITS ABOUT $$$$$$$$$$$$$$!!!!!!!!!!!!

[angee_is_mad]

41. That's what I've been saying

since I have been a member here. Democrats need to wake up, because black voters are sick and tired of being taken for granted!
We saw it with during the Primaries when the black votes where marginalized, because some candidates were so busy trying to attract the white southern male vote. Like that would ever happen!
As I have said before, there will come a time when large blocs of black voters will decide to just stay home. I am not talking about unregistered voters, but voters who have consistently voted democrat. I hate to say it, but I feel that day is just around the corner.
Hell, if you family will not respect you why bother going to the family reunion?

[Jim Warren]

36. Kinda like

seeing a story about someone getting roughed up and mugged and passersby doing nothing about it.

[ShaneGR]

40. Two points

#1: The CBC recently "met" with Nader and read him the riot act for running again. Meaning they are strongly with the Dems.

#2: They did not know what they were doing. Do you think that if they had that to do again, many of those men on our side of the aisle wouldn't have gladly put an end to that? I could name at least 10 names. Keep in mind, also, that the Supreme Court had ruled on the matter and a grievance wasn't going to go anywhere. Unfortunately.

[ChavezSpeakstheTruth]

42. Yeah - you are absolutely right but, as a piece of cinema it was hard to

watch and not feel upset - IMHO

[sonias]

45. Angry and sickened and sad all at once

I think senseandsensibility (post 21 above) hit it right on the money for me. Once again the most mistreated and disenfranchised in our country have to take it upon themselves to fight for our country. We should be ashamed of our Democratic Senators once again, the way we were on that day, when they would not fight for us.

I will forever remember the courage and strength of the Black Caucus because they spoke for all of us. And not a single Democratic Senator would stand with them and us against the tyranny.

Sonia

senseandsensibility wrote:
"They are heroes. Just as in Fahrenheit 9-11, when Moore says that the people who are so mistreated by our society are the ones who are willing to risk their lives in wars, the Black Caucus was standing up for this country after it had been screwed in Florida. But the Democrats were too busy playing "Dubya is my President too." It is only when I think of this that I can understand what drives Nader voters."

[senseandsensibility]

94. Thanks Sonias

It's good to hear someone felt the same. This thread is like therapy for me. The cowardice of our party has haunted me since 2001.

[Tosca]

47. Sick.

I felt sick.

[RBHam]

48. A little anthrax

Goes a long, long way

[HuskerDem]

49. I was so depressed during that time, I didn't see but a mention of

what happened to the Black Caucus............ Couldn't at least Ted Kennedy have stepped up to the plate?

They should be ASHAMED of themselves, each and all. Perhaps they thought we would never know.

[AP]

50. Game was over at that point. If Gore wasn't going to fight for himself,

why should any senator stick out his neck for him?

[TexasBushwhacker]

61. But damn it, it's not just about Gore

The people in those counties had a right for their votes to be counted. If Gore was tired of fighting, TOO FUCKING BAD. I cannot believe that not a single Democratic senator would sign that complaint. I mean HELLO, people mention Kennedy and Wellstone, WHAT ABOUT LIEBERMAN??? He was still a senator. He still IS a senator. He could have signed the damn thing.

I don't give a shit about the Supremes. By not backing up the disenfranchised voters of Florida, Gore and the Senate were effectively saying, "Well, your votes can't save us anyway, so THEY DON'T MATTER." That is just WRONG. They do matter. Every vote cast should matter. If you let it happen once, it will happen again. It already IS happening again with the purging of the "suspected felons".

And for the record, I'm white.

[Cheswick2.0]

76. One of APs political heros is Tony Blair

take it for what it is worth.

[AP]

90. What's that supposed to mean?

[AP]

89. Lieberman didn't want to win either.

I'm serious. Every decision Gore made about the recount was a bad one. Lieberman too.

Read Too Close to Call. I think if you read that book, you won't feel like that CBC resolution was much more than a symbolic gesture and that the game had been over for a while and that it wasn't worth it for any senator to be known as the Don Quixote who tried to do for Al Gore something he didn't care to do for himself.

I might feel a different way after I see F911.

[Cheswick2.0]

75. bull

Stop blaming Gore. There was nothing he could do without the help of the party and all of your party heros were limp dicks off making deals with the republicans. Fuck Kerry and Edwards and the rest of them.
We may get rid of bush this year, but we will get rid of some DLC tools after that.

[Senior citizen]

83. Are you saying Gore wasn't a DLC tool?

Or just posting with nothing to say?

[AP]

91. Gore's BEST speech ever was his concession speech.

He talked like a normal person. He had great tone and intonation. He connected ideas together to make a big idea. If he had done that during the campaign, he would have won by a mile rather than inches.

Read Too Close to Call. Every choice he made during the recount was stupid.

His campaign was awful.

In retrospect, I can't believe he picked Lieberman as his VP, and it's not because of demographics. It's because I can't believe what a whore Lieberman was to big business. Lieberman was one of the most vociferous opponents to fixing the accounting regulations and to any reform of the SEC that would give the public a clearer picture of corporate finances. Gore was a HUGE fan of telecoms deregulation. His VP panel which advised the President argued for for every deregulatory position industry wanted (and now Gore's in the telecoms business!!!).

I can't believe you're criticicising Edwards for being DLC (DLC actually doesn't even like him) and defending Gore.

The people Gore tried to give the most money to during the Clinton years (and the people whose wealth Lieberman protected the most) are the people who benefitted the most in the 2000 election.

No matter how much you whore to big business, bib business knows that Republicans will whore more for you.

Gore and Lieberman picked industries to coddle (telecoms, accounting, finance) who would always be happier with Republicans.

Bad strategy.

[DemBones DemBones]

51. I haven't seen F911 but saw this LIVE at the time.

I'm surprised so many posters say they didn't see it in 2000. That suggests a huge number of Americans missed the story.

I was ashamed to be a white person that day, with only the black congressmen and congresswomen protesting the Selection fraud.

[Senior citizen]

64. Rep. Bob Filner (D)CA stood with the CBC

He was the only white Congresscritter to do so. I am proud to say that he is from San Diego. I've met him, and Filner rocks!

So I wasn't ashamed to be white that day, but I was sure proud that I'd voted Green.

[Cheswick2.0]

77. I think Wexler from Florida and another florida congressman did too

[Senior citizen]

84. You are incorrect. Please check your facts before posting.

On edit: typo, had put "fact" instead of "facts" in subject line.

Bob Filner walked down the aisle and stood with the CBC. When asked why, he said he was standing in support of his Black brothers and sisters. No other white Congressperson stood with the CBC. Filner told me, at a local Democratic Club meeting a few weeks later, that he was surprised that nobody else followed him down the aisle, as he had expected other liberal Democrats to stand up also. They did not. Not one.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

87. The late lamented Patsy Mink (Asian-American) of Hawaii

was also shown pleading the CBC's case.

[senseandsensibility]

95. It was Bob Filner?

I asked that question a couple of weeks ago on DU and didn't get an answer. I've always wondered who that was. He's from San Diego? (I'm from the Bay Area, and I'm surprised that San Diego has such a progressive rep) Well, good for him, goddamit.

[misanthrope]

52. Like it was just another day...

...in Amerikkka.

And before anyone notches their "high horse" saddle up a rung or two, please remember that those congressional members of color are included in that toll of decision-makers who have used their positions to insulate them and theirs from the cruelest aspects of citizenry. How many of them have offspring in the line of fire?

No deification, please. Remember, these ARE politicians we're talking about.

[in_cog_ni_to]

53. Pissed as hell!

I did not know that had happened in THAT way! The Senators should still be hanging their heads in shame!

[Seabiscuit]

54. Utterly disgusted

No wonder the Black Caucus supported Howard Dean. He was the only Democrat with backbone in early 2003 and was calling out the "spineless" Beltway Democrats for the pushovers they've been for all these hideous years.

Daschle, etc. MUST be challenged when their terms come up by new blood in the Democratic Party - by people willing to be vocal and take on these damnable crypto-fascist Repugs on every level in Congress and throughout the rest of the country.

[cmf]

55. Sick to my stomach n/t

[shraby]

58. I had no idea that went down. But I

did wonder why there wasn't a great hue and cry about the Supreme Court decision. I expected people to take to the streets, newspapers to yell at the tops of their front pages but nothing happened..not a word. What did they hold over the senators to keep them from doing anything?

edited for yukky typing.

[Hekate]

59. Nauseated. Sick with disbelief and shame for our Congress.

I didn't know that not one single solitary US Senator stepped up to support the Black Caucus, or that that is all it would have taken.

I felt nauseated. If I knew about it before I must have suppressed it because it is just so shameful. Watching Al Gore -- he must have felt like he was presiding over his own hanging. I don't blame the man. He was holding together as best he could while his erstwhile Senate colleagues stood by and watched the hangman knotting his noose. What could he have done?

The packed audience applauded Maxine Waters (this is California). I recognized Patsy Mink of Hawaii who I used to vote for (Japanese American; she's since passed away).Anyhow, there's a sense that we know these people even if we're not in their district because so many of them spend their public lives working for the betterment of all of us -- even as they focus on their own constituency, it ends up benefitting everyone. And here they were trying to get the Senate to do the right thing by the people of the United States, and just being shut out.

It was probably in some small article in the newspaper, but I never saw the footage before tonight.

The great numbers of protesters in Washington DC for the Inauguration -- I didn't know that either. I felt so all alone with my shock and feelings of abandonment by the institutions of government that are supposed to represent me.

Hekate
Damn. Damn. Damn.

[cheezus]

60. No kidding. No Feingold, no Wellstone...

what the fuck?

[ContinentalOp]

62. That part of the film affected me the most.

Just got back from watching F911 and it may sound strange considering all of the powerful scenes but that opening sequence bothered me the most. Most of the film was stuff I already knew but I never saw the Black Caucus speak, never knew that no Senators would support them, never knew that people threw eggs at Bush's limo, never knew that Fox was the first network to call FLA for Bush or that it was his cousin who made the call. Since 2000 I've known that it was a coup, understood intellectually what happened, but never felt it viscerally. That opening scene of the film made me feel as though I were watching the coup in action and the anger that made me feel was indescribable.

[DaveSZ]

66. CBC

I would trust the integrity of the CBC members over any of the White senators any day, and I'm not a Black man either.

:)

At least Gore found his voice now though.

[murielm99]

70. I agree.

They were pleading for our country that day, and the all-white Senate ignored them.

I am not black, either. I am ashamed of the all-white Senate.

It seems like African Americans are willing to join the military in large numbers, to put their lives on the line for all of us. The military is upward mobility for so many African Americans.

Did you catch that line near the end of the movie, asking if the people who joing the military, most of them poorer people, will ever trust us again? It made me flash back to that scene where the CBC members were were trying to make things right.

This goes beyone politics as usual. I don't care what their reasons were. One senator could have stood up, even if it cost him his career. One senator could have helped them save our country.

It literally made me sick to my stomach. I couldn't eat popcorn after that. I am not sure why I bought the damn popcorn in the first place.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

88. And perhaps one Senator standing up

would have given courage to the rest. Or perhaps not. But that one Senator would have been a hero forever.

[Cheswick2.0]

78. John Ellis calling it for Bush was what caused the whole problem

once that was done, they were able to portray Gore as trying to steel the election and he had to battle every point (single handedly I might add).

I think there were more than several senators who were pleased Gore lost because they wanted to run this year.

[Senior citizen]

85. There was more to it than Ellis.

The pukes tried to portray Gore as attempting to steal the election, but they and Bush had already stolen it.

Which Senators are you referring to? (As if I didn't know.)

[Senior citizen]

67. I felt sick when I watched it live, and proud seeing again in F9/11

I hadn't realized until then that there was not one single Black senator at the time. How could the DNC and the DLC have tolerated a situation like that?

I am voting for SENATOR John Kerry for President in 2004, and I switched my voter registration from Green to Democratic. But this is the last time I ever vote for a Democrat again unless we get some real and substantive change in how this country is run.

No more business as usual. As soon as the inaugural is over and Kerry is settled into the White House, I would like to join a crowd of at least two million like-minded citizens in Washington D.C. to demand a real democracy in this country. The only reasons I'm voting for Kerry are because I want Bush out and believe Kerry can win, and because I believe that Kerry might listen to us instead of nuking us. But I'm sick to death of the 2-party, winner-take-all, big donations, electoral college, BBV and voting fraud, "election" system, and even if I am one for now and for the coming election, after the shameful scene with the CBC, Democrat is still a dirty word as far as I'm concerned, and Kerry will have 4 years in which to try to change that.

[DaveSZ]

68. That's why we need Obama:

http://www.obamaforillinois.com/


He'll give the voiceless a voice, and the downtrodden a reason to hope again.

We do need more diversity in the Senate.

[anarchy1999]

71. One word. HEARTBROKEN.

n/t
also DECEIVED AND BETRAYED.

[Cheswick2.0]

72. It made me mad all over again

I remember vowing then I would not vote for a senator for president in 2004 and that if Gore were not the candidate I would write him in. I may still do that.
It certainly does not make me want to vote Green or for Nader.

The senate was busy making deals. Gore was noble as was the CBC. Some democrats owe me and the rest of the country an apology.

[Senior citizen]

86. Wouldn't voting for someone who isn't running

take a vote away from John Kerry and help Bush? How can you blame Nader for being part of the problem for taking votes from the Democratic candidate, when you would not vote for a Democratic candidate yourself? You are at least as much part of the problem as you claim Nader is, and nobody owes you an apology. If anything you owe us an apology for blaming Nader for doing exactly what you intend to do--help Bush by not voting for the Democratic candidate.

[JanMichael]

92. It was a tragic scene. Not one Senator backed them and Gore...

...passively excusing them one by one. It gave me chills.

Perhaps one of the most telling signs of Racism in this country too. Why was it only the Black Caucus members doing this? Was it because they already feel disenfranchised and figured that there was nothing to lose?

Why not (If there was, and Moore didn't use them then I apologise) ONE GODDAMNED WHITE DEM REP WITH THEM?

Yeah the Senators were pathetic but not one White Rep?

[TexasBushwhacker]

96. Well, kudos to Moore for including this disgrace

I know it was probably all over anyway. It's obvious that Bush was willing to steal the election by any means necessary and you can't win playing cards with someone who cheats. All you can do is cut your losses. I would have had more respect for them if they'd gone down fighting though.

[Senior citizen]

99. As I mentioned earlier in this thread,

Representative Bob Filner (D)CA of San Diego, a white man, stood with the Congressional Black Caucus and was the ONLY white person to do so. I've met the man and voted for him, and I still think of him as one of the bravest men in America.

Moore chose to film the individual CBC members, and did not include the group shot with Filner. But those of us who watched it on C-Span as it happened will never forget that lone white face walking up and standing with his "Black brothers and sisters."

The real problem was that there was not a single Black SENATOR in Congress at the time, and not one white senator of either party was willing to stand up for the CBC as they stood up for democracy.

[Hamlette]

97. cheapest shot in the movie

INHO

I remember when it happened and I remember that Gore asked that no Senator support it. It was Gore's decision and the Senators did it out of respect for him.

Maybe it was just conjecture but it's damn good conjecture if that's what it is. If Gore had wanted a Senator to object he could have gotten one. He had to have been the one to stop them.