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Green Party Black Caucus: Bush Administration Talk of Election Delay Shows Risk of Another Manipulated Election. |
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Thursday, July 15, 2004 Contacts: Black Caucus Contacts: WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The Green Party's Black Caucus responded sharply to reports that the Bush Administration has discussed postponing the November election in the event of a terrorist attack. "The recent news that Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge is mulling such a delay should alarm all those who were outraged at the manipulation of the 2000 national election," said Diane White, corresponding secretary of the Black Caucus and former mayoral candidate in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, where she received 17.5% of the vote. "African Americans are especially concerned that Bush might come up with ways to engineer the 2004 election, since 65,000 of our votes were obstructed or invalidated by Republican officials in Florida and possibly other states in 2000. The use of electronic voting machines will make the 2004 election even more vulnerable to tampering." Black Caucus members warned that the Bush Administration is exploiting legitimate fears about terrorism, and noted that elections were not delayed by national emergencies in the past, including the Civil War and both World Wars. "It's another transparent attempt to bamboozle and frighten the American people into allowing Bush to continue to drive this country off a cliff," said Michele Tingling-Clemmons, co-chair of the Black Caucus and a candidate for City Council (Ward 7) in Washington, D.C. "The President must not believe his own misquote -- 'you can't fool me twice.'" Black Caucus members have been intensely critical of Bush policies, including the invasion and occupation of Iraq. "Administration policies are closing veterans' hospitals, delaying treatment for severe injuries suffered in the invasion, distorting the numbers of war wounded and dead, even proposing to curtail death benefits for military families," said Sundiata Tellem, a Dallas, Texas Green and co-chair of the Black Caucus. "Meanwhile, Halliburton is reaping obscene profits from sole source military contracts. Bush talks out of both sides of his mouth -- crippling our valiant fighting men and women by pocketing the resources we vote to support them at the front, while at home, our communities are being ravaged and attacked on all fronts, in education, health care, housing, employment, and social services." "Bush policies have proven to be the greatest threat to domestic security that we currently face," said Rick Tingling-Clemmons, Black Caucus representative to the Green Party and a Vietnam veteran. "Bush has done more to terrorize U.S. citizens than any other group. Meanwhile, our community is disproportionately dying at the front, as we have in every U.S. war, facing the same poverty draft I did in the 1960s." The Black Caucus achieved accreditation with the Green Party of the United States just before the party's 2004 national convention in June at which David Cobb and Pat LaMarche were nominated as Green candidates for the White House. "We're working to expose the lies and the machinations of this administration and to make sure that the people know not to be tricked again into giving up the election," said Michele Tingling-Clemmons. "We also can't ignore the refusal of Democratic Senators to stand up in support of the Black Congressional Caucus's challenge to Bush's fraudulent victory in early 2001. A manipulated election is both a civil rights crisis and a breakdown of democracy." MORE INFORMATION The Green Party of the United States search: rgt, elct, elws |