<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<item xmlns="http://omeka.org/schemas/omeka-xml/v5" itemId="759" public="1" featured="0" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:schemaLocation="http://omeka.org/schemas/omeka-xml/v5 http://omeka.org/schemas/omeka-xml/v5/omeka-xml-5-0.xsd" uri="https://911digitalarchive.org/items/show/759?output=omeka-xml" accessDate="2026-04-04T18:39:53-04:00">
  <collection collectionId="8">
    <elementSetContainer>
      <elementSet elementSetId="1">
        <name>Dublin Core</name>
        <description>The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.</description>
        <elementContainer>
          <element elementId="50">
            <name>Title</name>
            <description>A name given to the resource</description>
            <elementTextContainer>
              <elementText elementTextId="8317">
                <text>TomPaine.com Stories</text>
              </elementText>
            </elementTextContainer>
          </element>
          <element elementId="41">
            <name>Description</name>
            <description>An account of the resource</description>
            <elementTextContainer>
              <elementText elementTextId="8318">
                <text>TomPaine.com -- a liberal advocacy organization -- distributed a public call on August 12, 2002 for 300 word "opinion advertisement" similar to those that the organization had been running regularly in the op-ed page of The New York Times.  TomPaine.com received hundreds of submissions from the public, most of which the September 11 Digital Archive has preserved here.</text>
              </elementText>
            </elementTextContainer>
          </element>
        </elementContainer>
      </elementSet>
    </elementSetContainer>
  </collection>
  <itemType itemTypeId="23">
    <name>TomPaine Story</name>
    <description/>
    <elementContainer>
      <element elementId="81">
        <name>TomPaine Story: Story</name>
        <description/>
        <elementTextContainer>
          <elementText elementTextId="10251">
            <text>DEMOCRACY INTERRUPTED

Suppose your car had been stolen last summer.  Then came 9/11.  Wouldnt you still want your car back?

Suppose you found out the Olympic medal you earned just before 9/11 had been snatched away by a corrupt skating judge.  Wouldnt you still want your gold?

Some want you to think its different for democracy, that even though our Presidential election was corrupted, were not supposed to care because 9/11 changed everything.

Well, no.

Last fall, after 9/11, the media consortium that painstakingly counted every Florida vote finally issued its report.  The result was clear, even if largely ignored, if every vote was counted, Bush lost.

As I wrote then:  lets point out the elephant in the Lincoln
bedroomódoesnt that make Bushs victory illegitimate?

The consortium report grossly underemphasized several other truths:
	*African American and poor votes counted less;
	*Katherine Harris wrongful false felon purge changed the outcome;
	*the Scalia Five acted improperly and unethically;
	*America still needs profound election reform.

These have yet to be seriously addressed.  Our dwindling democracy, so corrupted by big money, was further diminished after 9/11.  The elites decided that these questions were off limits, no use going back and taking away Bushs gold medal, cheating or no cheating.

But you cant fool all the people, all the time.

Bushs re-elect numbers right now are well below 50%, a scary situation for any incumbent.  And every so often, a pollster asks a 3-part question about the 2000 election, the results have remained remarkably similar, both before and after 9/11.

Only half the public believes Bush won fair and square.

One-third thinks he won only on a technicality.

And fully one-sixth of America continues to tell pollsters that Bush stole the election.

Our democracy is wounded.  But its not dead yet.
</text>
          </elementText>
        </elementTextContainer>
      </element>
    </elementContainer>
  </itemType>
  <elementSetContainer>
    <elementSet elementSetId="1">
      <name>Dublin Core</name>
      <description>The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.</description>
      <elementContainer>
        <element elementId="50">
          <name>Title</name>
          <description>A name given to the resource</description>
          <elementTextContainer>
            <elementText elementTextId="10252">
              <text>tp141.xml</text>
            </elementText>
          </elementTextContainer>
        </element>
      </elementContainer>
    </elementSet>
    <elementSet elementSetId="4">
      <name>911DA Item</name>
      <description>Elements describing a September 11 Digital Archive item.</description>
      <elementContainer>
        <element elementId="52">
          <name>Status</name>
          <description>The process status of this item.</description>
          <elementTextContainer>
            <elementText elementTextId="10253">
              <text>approved</text>
            </elementText>
          </elementTextContainer>
        </element>
        <element elementId="53">
          <name>Consent</name>
          <description>Whether September 11 Digital Archive has permission to possess this item.</description>
          <elementTextContainer>
            <elementText elementTextId="10254">
              <text>full</text>
            </elementText>
          </elementTextContainer>
        </element>
        <element elementId="54">
          <name>Posting</name>
          <description>Whether the contributor gave permission to post this item.</description>
          <elementTextContainer>
            <elementText elementTextId="10255">
              <text>yes</text>
            </elementText>
          </elementTextContainer>
        </element>
        <element elementId="55">
          <name>Copyright</name>
          <description>Whether the contributor holds copyright to this item.</description>
          <elementTextContainer>
            <elementText elementTextId="10256">
              <text>yes</text>
            </elementText>
          </elementTextContainer>
        </element>
        <element elementId="56">
          <name>Source</name>
          <description>The source of this item.</description>
          <elementTextContainer>
            <elementText elementTextId="10257">
              <text>born-digital</text>
            </elementText>
          </elementTextContainer>
        </element>
        <element elementId="57">
          <name>Media Type</name>
          <description>The media type of this item.</description>
          <elementTextContainer>
            <elementText elementTextId="10258">
              <text>story</text>
            </elementText>
          </elementTextContainer>
        </element>
        <element elementId="59">
          <name>Created by Author</name>
          <description>Whether the author created this item.</description>
          <elementTextContainer>
            <elementText elementTextId="10259">
              <text>yes</text>
            </elementText>
          </elementTextContainer>
        </element>
        <element elementId="60">
          <name>Described by Author</name>
          <description>Whether the description of this item was submitted by the author.</description>
          <elementTextContainer>
            <elementText elementTextId="10260">
              <text>no</text>
            </elementText>
          </elementTextContainer>
        </element>
        <element elementId="61">
          <name>Date Entered</name>
          <description>The date this item was entered into the archive.</description>
          <elementTextContainer>
            <elementText elementTextId="10261">
              <text>2003-03-03</text>
            </elementText>
          </elementTextContainer>
        </element>
      </elementContainer>
    </elementSet>
  </elementSetContainer>
</item>
