Florida Vote Pandemonium Shadow Show
docweasel.com investigative reporter Stig Bators investigates voter intimidation and bullying my Repugnican thugs in his investigative story on voter intimidation investigations.
Early Voting in Central Florida Proves Democrat Claims of Harassment and Fear
We arrived at the ‘early vote’ polling station in Tampa, Florida early Wednesday morning to find massive efforts by Republican goons to hinder the Kerry vote in Florida. Even in the distance we could detect the hostility in the roiling, muttering crowd waiting to vote.
Authoritarian “No Parking” signs severely restricted this reporters access to the polling station and a walk of several hundred feet, quite a distance for legless or otherwise handicapped voters, accross an arid desert of asphault separating the would be voters from their Constitutional right to choose who would lead these benighted United States in the tumultuous four years to come. Several hundred hardy souls had apparently already braved the asphault gauntlet and stood like so many sentinals awaiting their turn to cast a vote for destiny.
The sidewalk outside the station was packed with voters, some audibly proclaiming opinions and talking on cell phones. The atmosphere was quite oppressive as members of the far-right extremist cabal stared down this reporter and his photographer with gimlet glances and steely stares. Alliteration abounded.
Jostling and bumping was rampant in the lines, and there were outraged cries of “This line takes forever” and “It’s very warm today for late October” as oppressed voters were forced to line up like Bataan Death Marchers in the pitiless Florida sun. Luckily we were on the shady side of the building or deaths from exposure and thirst would have been devastating.
Observing the cars in the parking lot, we noticed many Bush/Cheney bumperstickers, as we had seen dozens of BC04 signs along the roadside on the way to the polling station. Apparently right-wing crypto-fascist brownshirts had removed the Kerry/Edwards signs from the area because none were to be seen.
There was also ample evidence that the terrorized Democrats in the crowd were afraid of being violently accosted if they wore any KE04 pins or displayed them on their cars, because none were in evidence.
Interviewing the crowd it quickly became apparent that Democrat voters were fearful of reprisals by Rethuglican stooges because none of the voters we talked to would even express support for the Kerry ticket. In a painfully obvious attempt to save her children from abuse and taunting, a mother nervously assured us she was “a Bush supporter who believes the President is a strong leader of good moral character, well-grounded by his family and advisors and the best hope for keeping America safe for in the next term.”
Other voters expressed similarly hysterical rantings, proof of the extreme pressure and coercion that pressed in from all sides like a neo-con iron maiden.
Authoritarian “No Parking” signs severely restricted this reporters access to the polling station and a walk of several hundred feet, quite a distance for legless or otherwise handicapped voters, accross an arid desert of asphault separating the would be voters from their Constitutional right to choose who would lead these benighted United States in the tumultuous four years to come.
Several hundred hardy souls had apparently already braved the asphault gauntlet and stood like so many sentinals awaiting their turn to cast a vote for destiny.
The cloudless Florida sky belied the darkness apparent outside the poll station where I witnessed elderly voters, plainly in distress and inconvenienced by the long wait, complain bitterly about the delay, to no avail. Poll workers ignored their silent pleas for help and chatted gayly amongst themselves, quite apathetic to the tableau of human misery right outside their cossested lives in their air-conditioned cocoon.
Jingoistic and war-like patriotic zeal was exhibited freely by poll workers wearing USA flag pins and many wore red white & blue clothing in a blatant display of favoritism for the more violent candidate, Bush, well-known for wrapping Yankee hegemonistic leanings in the American flag.
When questioned about their easily-detected biases, the Republican planted agents claimed they didn’t know what I was talking about, but their shifting eyes and nervous demeanor in the face of my repeated accusations revealed more than their lying tongues could hide. Not even one of them had the guts and common decency to admit to the charade.
With trepidation, my photographer and I approached the seething mass of protesters, confined to a grassy area many feet away from the actual voters. Their anger was palpable as they waved placards with glassy eyed stares and chanted epigrams, marching with the steady tread and inexorable inevitibilty of death itself.
Rabid slogans festooned their hand-painted signs. “NO ON 3!!!!!!!!!” fanatics vied for recognition with zealots waving “Sullivan for Administrator!!” signs dangerously near my genitals (some of them were sitting in lawn chairs).
As we came closer, I preminisced real trouble as a wild-eyed youth with a “YES!! on 3!!” approached a “NO” extremist. They eyed each other warily as YES!! asked NO!! for a light, then he rudely walked away without even a thank you.
Incivility and harsh language like this was common fare in the no-man’s land of the protester’s zone. Strangely, there was zero security presence to protect innocent bystanders from the political hand to hand combat being waged a mere 47 steps from a dangerous intersection. But this was par for the course in this hell-hole of Repukelican corruption and hate.
And there were even more horrifying atrocities to come. Even now I break out in a cold, terrified sweat as I flashback to the invasion of body space I endured in that miasma of mentally screaming and convulsing conservative radicalism near the fat ladies in lawn chairs.
Even now feel their empty-eyed, slack-jawed gaze that followed our team of Investigative Justice Seekers as we investigated for evidence to be delivered to the proper Justice Seeking litigators.
A caste-system of favoritism was soon apparent back at the line, as people in one section of the line seemed to always get to vote ahead of those in another section of the queue. Doing some quick orientating, I deduced the problem: the people in the part of the line being held back from voting were obviously in the North East section of the line. As more voters arrived, they were placed in this “NorthEast” section and only allowed to advance to the voting booths after all those in the “SouthEast” had voted.
Blatant discrimination and oppression were at work all day as this cycle of favoritism continued.
After confronting poll workers about this discrepancy, the Bush Brownshirts (actually in red white and blue) muttered some obfuscations about ‘front’ and ‘back’ of the line. I retorted Rosa Parks had risen up and destroyed that Jim Crow “front of the bus goes first” mentality and the Re-fascist-lican apparatchiks were highly unlikely to succeed in turning the clock back to 1960.
This of course garnered this reporter more scorn from the Rove operatives swarming the area like so many grubs skittering among the rotting vegetation of the political obscenity they call “neo-conservatism”.
I hesitate to level the “Nazi” charge, but jack-booted stormtroopers of Himmler could hardly have displayed more callous disregard for human dignity these high-heeled harpies in Rove’s Satanic Service evinced. Barricades like the one in the photograph restricted Democrat voters from certain areas, symbolic of the concertina wire and guard towers of Auschwitz.
No explanation for these patently discriminitory “exclusion zones” was given, as the authorities on the site refused to be interviewed. While it is their constitutional right not to self-incriminate themselves, their guilt was as evident as Michael Moore’s ass in a speedo at the Oscar-winner’s annual pose-down. That is to say, quite shockingly evident and plain for all to see.
After taking copious notes, interviewing as many victims of voter discrimination as possible, detailing the many instances of voter fraud I personally witnessed, we prepared to leave the scene of infamy.
The total disenfranchisement of minorities was the most blatant I’ve ever witnessed, considering not one black or Hispanic or obviously gay voter was seen the entire 20 minutes we were there! I’m certain this situation was just as egregiously oppressive in the Tampa inner city as it was at this precinct in the suburbs.
These violations and the many instances of nudging, line cutting, murmuring, being asked to quit blocking the sidewalk and accusations of belligerance by poll workers toward investigative reporters will not go unreported. In fact, I’m reporting them now.
We report, you decipher.The photos don’t lie.