PLEASE CONSIDER MY EXPERIENCE WHEN VOTING IN 2004
EXPERIENCE AND EDUCATION
- Law Enforcement: I was arrested in Kennebunkport, Maine, in 1976 for driving under the influence of alcohol. I pleaded guilty, paid a fine, and had my driver's license suspended for 30 days. My Texas driving record has been "lost" and is not available.
- Military: I joined the Texas Air National Guard and went AWOL. I refused to take a drug test or answer any questions about my drug use. By joining the Texas Air National Guard, I was able to avoid combat duty in Vietnam.
- College: I graduated from Yale University with a low C average. I was a cheerleader.
PAST WORK EXPERIENCE
- I ran for U.S. Congress and lost.
- I began my career in the oil business in Midland, Texas in 1975. I bought an oil company, but couldn't find any oil in Texas. The company went bankrupt shortly after I sold all my stock.
- I bought the Texas Rangers baseball team in a sweetheart deal that took land using taxpayer money.
- With the help of my father and our friends in the oil industry (including Enron CEO Ken Lay), I was elected governor of Texas.
ACCOMPLISHMENTS AS GOVERNOR OF TEXAS
- I changed Texas pollution laws to favor power and oil companies, making Texas the most polluted state in the Union. During my tenure, Houston replaced Los Angeles as the most smog-ridden city in America.
- I cut taxes and bankrupted the Texas treasury to the tune of billions in borrowed money.
- I set the record for the most executions by any governor in American history.
- With the help of my brother, the governor of Florida, and my father's appointments to the Supreme Court, I became President after losing by over 500,000 votes.
ACCOMPLISHMENTS AS PRESIDENT
- I am the first President in U.S. History to enter office with a criminal record.
- I invaded and occupied two countries at a continuing cost of *over one billion dollars per week*. I spent the U.S. Surplus and effectively bankrupted the U.S. Treasury. I shattered the record for the largest annual deficit in U.S. History. I set an economic record for most private bankruptcies filed in any 12-month period. I set the all-time record for most foreclosures in a 12-month period. I set the all-time record for the biggest drop in the history of the U.S. Stock market. In my first year in office, over 2 million Americans lost their jobs and that trend continues every month.
- I'm proud that the members of my cabinet are the richest of any administration in U.S. History. My "poorest millionaire," Condoleeza Rice, has a Chevron oil tanker named after her.
- I set the record for most campaign fundraising trips by a U.S. President. I am the all-time U.S. And world record-holder for receiving the most corporate campaign donations. One of my best friends, Kenneth Lay, presided over the largest corporate bankruptcy fraud in U.S. History, Enron. My political party used Enron private jets and corporate attorneys to assure my success with the U.S. Supreme Court during my election decision. I have protected my friends at Enron and Halliburton against investigation or prosecution. More time and money was spent investigating the Monica Lewinsky affair than has been spent investigating one of the biggest corporate rip-offs in history. I presided over the biggest energy crisis in U.S. History and refused to intervene when corruption involving the oil industry was revealed. I presided over the highest gasoline prices in U.S. History.
- I changed the U.S. Policy to allow convicted criminals to be awarded government contracts. I appointed more convicted criminals to administration than any President in U.S. History.
- I created the Ministry of Homeland Security, the largest bureaucracy in the history of the United States government.
- I've broken more international treaties than any President in U.S. History. I am the first President in U.S. History to have the United Nations remove the U.S. From the Human Rights Commission. I withdrew the U.S. From the World Court of Law. I refused to allow inspector's access to U.S. "prisoners of war" detainees and thereby have refused to abide by the Geneva Convention. I am the first President in history to refuse United Nations election inspectors (during the 2002 U.S. Election).
- I set the record for fewest numbers of press conferences of any President since the advent of television. I set the all-time record for most days on vacation in any one-year period. After taking off the entire month of August, I presided over the worst security failure in U.S. History. I garnered the most sympathy for the U.S. After the World Trade Center attacks and less than a year later made the U.S. The most hated country in the world, the largest failure of diplomacy in world history. I have set the all-time record for most people worldwide to simultaneously protest me in public venues (15 million people), shattering the record for protests against any person in the history of mankind.
- I am the first President in U.S. History to order an unprovoked, preemptive attack and the military occupation of a sovereign nation. I did so against the will of the United Nations, the majority of U.S. Citizens, and the world community. I have cut health care benefits for war veterans and support a cut in duty benefits for active duty troops and their families -- in wartime. In my State of the Union Address, I lied about our reasons for attacking Iraq and then blamed the lies on our British friends. I am the first President in history to have a majority of Europeans (71%) view my presidency as the biggest threat to world peace and security. I am supporting development of a nuclear "Tactical Bunker Buster," a WMD. I have so far failed to fulfill my pledge to bring Osama Bin Laden to justice. During the Iraq War and Occupation thousands of American troops were injured and killed. I did not have the time to attend any of the funerals for our fallen soldiers but I did have the time to attend more than 43 fundraising events of the Republican party.
RECORDS AND REFERENCES
- All records of my tenure as governor of Texas are now in my father's library, sealed and unavailable for public view.
- All records of SEC investigations into my insider trading and my bankrupt companies are sealed in secrecy and unavailable for public view.
- All records or minutes from meetings that I, or my Vice-President, attended regarding public energy policy are sealed in secrecy and unavailable for public review.

Like Mrs. Marshall, many African-Americans are speaking about the fundamental act of voting this year with rekindled fervor, throwing a high-wattage backlight behind the issues and personalities of the campaign. The disqualified ballots, excluded voters and contentious ending of the 2000 election - when black precincts in Florida had votes rejected at three times the rate of white precincts - have formed a galvanizing memory. "We feel betrayed," said Rod Owens, 22, a student at Florida A&M University in Tallahassee. "We're looking for revenge."

Mr. Owens, active in a young Democrats group on his campus, put the matter more bluntly than most, but the determination to vote and make it count appears to cross boundaries of age, class and geography. African-Americans, for four decades the most reliable reservoir of Democratic support in presidential elections, now are also part of a torrent of new voter registrations in swing states like Florida, Pennsylvania and Ohio, and elsewhere

Here in Jacksonville, as the Oct. 4 registration deadline approached, new voters in black neighborhoods were signing up at a pace two-thirds faster than in 2000. In Philadelphia, election officials report the greatest surge of registrations in 21 years, resulting in more than 70,000 new voters added to the rolls since April, with growth heaviest in African-American sections. In Ohio, new registrations in Democratic strongholds, many of them African-American areas, have increased 250 percent over 2000.

Florence man arrested, charged with voter fraud
By TRACI BRIDGES
Morning News
Thursday, October 7, 2004

A Florence man was arrested Wednesday amid allegations he used peoples names and personal information, including that of the mayor of Florence, on more than 1,000 voter registration forms and turned them in to the Florence County Voter Registration Office.

Terence Hines, 44, of 603 National Cemetery Road was taken into custody about 5 p.m. On charges of forgery and multiple counts of fraudulent registration or voting, 12th Circuit Solicitor Ed Clements III said.

Hines arrest was the culmination of a State Law Enforcement Division investigation that began soon after Hines turned in two large boxes containing more than 1,500 completed voter registration forms to the Florence County Voter Registration Office last Thursday.

There were a lot of forms there and from the beginning, something just didnt seem right about them, Clements said. Florence County election officials began checking some of the names and quickly found out that a lot of the people were already registered and the information on the forms didnt match what was on the records, and several other people whose names were on these forms were deceased. None of the information added up.

The name and address on one of the forms happened to belong to Florence Mayor Frank Willis, which gave officials even more cause for suspicion.

Yeah, a registration form for Frank Willis immediately sent up a red flag, Florence County Voter Registration and Elections Director Russell Barrett said, chuckling. We were pretty sure that the mayor was already a registered voter and had been for some time.

A check of voter registration records confirmed officials suspicions and revealed that although Willis name and address matched records, nothing else on the recently submitted form was correct.

Just to make sure there was no mistake, officials contacted Willis.

I was just dumfounded when the lady from voter registration called, especially when she told me that what really alerted them to the whole thing was the fact this guy used my name, Willis said.

She started reading the information on the form to me, and the name and address were right, but that was it, Willis said. Everything else - the Social Security number, the phone number, the birth date - all of it was complete fiction. The guy had me born in 1982 - knocked 30 years off my age for me. The more I thought about it, the more I just couldnt believe anyone would be stupid enough to use my name of all names on a fictitious voter registration form.

After talking with Willis and confirming that information on almost all of the forms in the two boxes was either fake or wrong, election officials contacted SLED, which in turn contacted Clements.

According to the arrest affidavit provided by SLED, Hines was employed by the South Carolina Progressive Network, an affiliate partner organization for Americas Families United, based in Washington, D.C.

The S.C. Progressive Networks Web site describes the organization as a broad-based coalition of advocacy groups and individual activists from across the state who have joined forces to promote social and economic change in South Carolina. Created in 1995 as a tool to engage ordinary citizens in their communities and in their government, the network at its core has been about connecting people to each other and to resources designed to leverage the work of grassroots activists and organizations, according to the site.

The Web site also promotes the Networks Missing Voter Project, proclaiming, The Networks Missing Voter Project has been funded to do nonpartisan voter registration across the state. We can pay your organization $3 for every registration gathered at a residence, or $2 for nonresidential cards.

A message left by the Morning News at the S.C. Progressive Network headquarters in Columbia was not returned Wednesday.

However, Angela Manso, deputy director and chief of staff of Americas Families United, said regardless of what authorities were led to believe, her organization is in no way affiliated with Hines or the S.C. Progressive Network.

Thats not right at all, Manso said when told of her organizations reported affiliation with the S.C. Progressive Network. We do not have any employees in the state of South Carolina, and no one here has even heard of the South Carolina Progressive Network.

Clements said authorities are still sorting through Hines alleged connections to organizations but emphasized that any attempt to defraud the voting process is a threat to the entire democratic process.

If its what it looks like at this point, he was being paid to turn in registered voters. We dont know if this was a partisan group or what kind of group was paying him, he said. But I do have great concern about this type of arrangement and what kind of measures are in place as far as accountability goes. Regardless, there are a lot of questions to be answered, because if this is what it seems to be, its a horrible breach of public trust.

Election officials are doing everything they can to make sure that any of the forms that were legitimately filled out by potential voters wishing to register are processed as so. But Clements said the chance that one of those forms might slip through the cracks is another issue of grave concern.

Some of these forms could have actually been filled out by people who now think theyre registered and might end up going to the polls only to find out they arent, Clements said. Its a horrible, horrible situation that could end up disenfranchising voters.

According to the S.C. Code of Laws, it is unlawful for a person to fraudulently procure the registration of a name on the books of voter registration; offer or attempt to vote that name; offer or attempt to vote under any false pretense as to circumstances affecting his qualifications to vote; or aid, counsel or abet another in fraudulent registration or fraudulent offer or attempt to vote.

A person convicted of fraudulent registration or voting faces a possible sentence of up to one year in jail and a monetary fine per count. A person convicted of forgery faces a maximum of three years in prison per count.

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Out of town for the rest of the week - y'all don't hurt yourselves.

Last edited: Monday, October 11, 2004 at 11:05:27 PM