OHIO SCANDAL - Democrats say GOP's concealed to assist Bush!!!!

[pbartch]

WHY ISN'T THIS BEING REPORTED IN MAIN STREAM NEWS?? THIS SHOULD BE ON THE FRONT PAGE OF EVERY PAPER!!
==================================================================
OHIO SCANDAL
Allegations arose before '04 election
Democrats say Noe case concealed to assist Bush

COLUMBUS - In the final weeks of the 2004 presidential race, the nation focused on Ohio as both campaigns carefully choreographed every move by their candidates, knowing one misstep could throw the keys to the White House into the hands of the opponent.

<snip>

At the same time - beneath the surface and out of public view - allegations were swirling that Tom Noe had laundered contributions into President Bush's campaign, and facts were emerging that the Ohio Bureau of Workers' Compensation had lost $215 million meant for injured workers in a Bermuda hedge-fund.

Now, more than six months later, those bombshells have created the biggest state government scandal in decades in Ohio. Democrats are charging that Republican leaders suppressed the potentially explosive information until all the votes were counted to save the President's re-election campaign.

The Blade has learned that the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Ohio knew of the campaign-finance allegations against Mr. Noe about three weeks before the November, 2004, election, giving it little time to do a thorough investigation.

<snip>

Democratic allegations of a GOP cover-up in the loss of $215 million managed by a Pittsburgh firm have surged in the last few days. Records released last week show that high-ranking aides to Gov. Bob Taft worked to suppress revelations about the hedge fund loss in the final days before the presidential election.

http://toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050619/NEWS24/50619020

[HughBeaumont]

1. WHY ISN'T THIS BEING REPORTED IN MAIN STREAM NEWS?

"THIS SHOULD BE ON THE FRONT PAGE OF EVERY PAPER!!"

"Now, more than six months later, those bombshells have created the biggest state government scandal in decades in Ohio. Democrats are charging that Republican leaders suppressed the potentially explosive information until all the votes were counted to save the President's re-election campaign."

There's your answer. True, the press is baby-stepping it's way to getting a testicle or two, but let's face it: Big Media is still in league with their Repuke middlemen.

[Coexist]

3. Holy shit - AMAZING QUOTES HERE

<snip>
Last week, state Sen. Teresa Fedor (D., Toledo) said in every election people "monitor information," and she questioned how federal authorities managed the information they had about Mr. Noe last October.

"To assume that information probably wasn't controlled is to assume the American people don't have minds of their own. Connect the dots," Senator Fedor said. "Bernadette Noe was the head of the board of elections. There is no mistake that Lucas County had the highest of provisional ballots rejected in Ohio.

"Tom Noe was chairman of the Bush-Cheney campaign in northwest Ohio, a Pioneer, a member of the Board of Regents who threatened the president of the University of Toledo because George Soros was going to speak there," said Ms. Fedor. Mr. Soros, a billionaire, traveled around the country last fall to criticize Mr. Bush.

[Supersedeas]

8. And where is the U.S. Corporate Media...where are the journalists

[dissent1977]

40. The journalists certainly aren't in the corporate media that's for sure

[intheflow]

9. OK, I haven't been following Coingate very closely, but

Bernadette Noe was the head of the board of elections?!? :wtf:

Blackwell was the Secretary of State and "chairman of the republican campaign and the person in charge of the vote count"?

Obviously, I'm not seeing the big picture, because I see no indication of state-wide political fraud. :sarcasm:

[mod mom]

10. Look at these early results from Lucas County( and Check out Hamilton too)

[Coexist]

15. NO one voted for Kerry??? WTF

that is absurd. Was this the final tally?

[mod mom]

20. The Final tally for Lucas County Presidential Election 04

Badnarik 295
Bush 87,160
Cobb 15
Kerry 132,715
Petrouka 243
Schriner 2

it 's amazing how the figures were "CORRECTED"

[mod mom]

21. Corrected with outstanding voter turnout #s in Toledo suburbs while city

turnout numbers were exceptionally low. hmmmh....

RIGGING THE VOTE IN LUCAS COUNTY
Richard Hayes Phillips, Ph.D.
Revised December 24, 2004
-snip-
The very first thing we all noticed when examining the precinct
canvass records for Lucas County was the distribution of turnout.
The range is striking, and turnout is distinctly higher in the
Bush precincts than in the Kerry precincts. In some precincts
the reported turnout is too high to be credible.

-snip-

Turnout above 90% is almost unheard of. I have examined the
canvass records in eight other Ohio counties and have seen
reported turnout above 90% only in two precincts in Miami County
where, in my professional opinion, the election was hacked.
Miami and Lucas counties are also the only two counties whose
records I have examined that used optical scanning machines, as
confirmed by the map posted at
verifiedvoting.org/verifier/map.php?&topic_string=5std&state=Ohio

Altogether there were 63 precincts in Toledo with less than 60%
reported turnout. All of them were won overwhelmingly by John
Kerry. The vote in the aggregate was 19,353 to 4,247, more than
4.5 to 1. But look at the distribution, or more precisely, the
concentration. Of the 8 precincts with less than 50% reported
turnout, 4 are located in 2 wards. Of the 29 precincts with less
than 55% reported turnout, 20 are located in 4 wards, and 24 are
located in 6 wards. Of the 63 precincts with less than 60%
reported turnout, 34 are located in 4 wards, 39 are located in
5 wards, and 43 are located in 6 wards.

/web.northnet.org/minstrel/toledo.htm

[redacted]

34. Bob Fitrakis: "Correcting" the votes was easy (Laura Flanders interview)

For those of you who miissed the last 2 minutes of his interview on Saturday's program. See the URL below for the DU thread that references the MP3 file of the broadcast.

FITRAKIS: On Feb 27, 2004 he--Blackwell--sent out a press release on saying that, for the first time, there would be real-time access between the Secretary of State’s Office and all 88 counties.

Since the book came out. . .we’ve verified with one of the installers of the system, and we had a long conversation. We can’t reveal his name because he has signed numerous confidentiality agreements. But this is what he’s said, and we’ve been able to verify where he works and which well-known company he acted as a subcontractor for, I won’t mention that name either, but everyone knows it. . .

But in that case, he says that the system had both override and overwrite capacity, meaning that Blackwell, from his office in Columbus, could override the county board of elections, and overwrite and “correct” (whatever that means) their data.

Also, the three other things he mentioned were that there were actual agencies, three of them to be specific, two Federal and one state, who also had access to that system on election night, specifically:

The Selective Service Administration, out of Washington,

The Internal Revenue Service, and

The Ohio State Troopers.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=104&topic_id=3893193&mesg_id=3897407

[mod mom]

36. Richard Hayes Phillips worked closely with Freepress in getting fraud

exposed. Here is one of his reports on machine problems in Youngstown (another dem rich area):

Mahoning County was by far the largest county in Ohio
where touch screen voting machines were utilized.
According to a report by the Youngstown Vindicator at

http://www.vindy.com/basic/news/281829446390855.php

Mark Munroe, Chairman of the Mahoning County Board of
Elections, said there were 20 to 30 machines that needed
to be recalibrated during the voting process because
some votes for a candidate were being counted for that
candidate’s opponent. In addition, about a dozen
machines needed to be reset because they “essentially
froze.” Later on election night, problems arose in 16
precincts (11 in Youngstown, 2 in Boardman, and one each
in Jackson Township, Craig Beach, and Washingtonville),
causing election results to be delayed for three hours
as Board of Elections employees checked the vote tallies
of the touch screen machines.

Mahoning County utilized ES&S Ivotronic touch screen
machines. The administrative password for these
machines was reported on the ES&S website itself.
By default, the password is 1111. According to

http://savethevote.com/issues/glitches.htm

this password cannot be modified easily, which would
mean that anyone who knows the password could change
other default settings on the machines.

Lists of Election Day incident reports are posted at

https://voteprotect.org/epc/index.php?display
/web.northnet.org/minstrel/youngstown.htm

[intheflow]

23. That's just nuts.

But of course, we're the ones wearing tin foil. :tinfoilhat:

:eyes:

[FreedomAngel82]

24. Something I noticed

in the second section David Cobb got more then George W. Bush. Who has heard of Mr. Cobb? I never have until he jumped on the election fraud and has been doing that with Mr. Arnebeck.

[blm]

18. They are criminals and scammers and were in charge of Ohio's VOTES

and the feds HAD TO KNOW exactly who they were dealing with here, especially by October.

[pbartch]

11. Has a crime been committed about the coverup??

from the article ---- has there been a crime because the GOP state leaders KNEW about this and didn't start ANY investigation until after the election??

===================================================================

The Blade has learned that the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Ohio knew of the campaign-finance allegations against Mr. Noe about three weeks before the November, 2004, election, giving it little time to do a thorough investigation.

Mr. Noe, a Toledo-area coin dealer, was chairman of the Bush-Cheney campaign in northwest Ohio.

Democratic allegations of a GOP cover-up in the loss of $215 million managed by a Pittsburgh firm have surged in the last few days. Records released last week show that high-ranking aides to Gov. Bob Taft worked to suppress revelations about the hedge fund loss in the final days before the presidential election.

"Would it have been enough?" asked Jim Ruvolo, a Toledo consultant who was chairman of Mr. Kerry's presidential campaign in Ohio last year. "With only 118,000 votes, it doesn't take much."
Republicans scoff at the talk.

"The President won on the merits of his candidacy,'' said Aaron McLear, a spokesman for the Republican National Committee.

David Mark, editor of Campaigns & Elections, a Washington-based nonpartisan political magazine, said if the scandal at the Bureau of Workers' Compensation had leaked before last year's election, the national media would have jumped on the story.

"It could potentially have had a tremendous impact on the Republican machine, which won Ohio for Bush and ultimately won him the election," Mr. Mark said.

"If there was all of this negative publicity surrounding Noe as Bush was trying to carry Ohio, there would have been a firestorm of negative publicity," he added.

[mod mom]

17. Officials in the Ohio Rethug machine are complicit. Not only did they

know what was going on, but check out this on our Ohio Attorney General Jim Petro (who by the way is running for governor against Blackwell and Montgomery):

Mr. Petro has also acknowledged that Tom Noe's wife, Bernadette, may have contacted his office and successfully directed special counsel work to the law firm where she worked. He also considered the Noes to be friends.

//www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050605/NEWS24/506050367

This is the same Bernadette Noe who was Chairperson of the Lucas County BOE!

[sickinohio]

37. And how about that breakin at the Lucas County

Democratic Headquarters a couple weeks before the election?? Computers stolen. No one is investigating that. I STILL think the rePukes in Toledo had something to do with that!!!

[Broken Acorn]

2. Well, maybe the MSM already knew about it and this is old news

Just like the DSM.

[jojo54]

4. I don't suppose Ohioans are happy about this.....

but, just like the missing funds right before the election....it'll get covered up.

Sorry to say that this administration has too much power. It's time to nuke it. :nuke:

[EFerrari]

5. I want a subscription to the Toledo Blade!

Are they an indy paper? Good for them for staying on this.

:bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce:

[roseBudd]

22. Toledo Blade is Knight Ridder owned, KR papers were motre critical...

than other papers preIraq invasion.

[KaliTracy]

29. Ohio paper -- in a very *blue* area of Ohio (what with all of the

suppresion, highest percentage of provisional ballots refused, inproper ballot handling -- Kerry still won there quite handedly. (it's my home town -- now I live in a very red subburb about 30 minutes from Cincinnati...)

[mod mom]

31. Columbus is very blue, but the Dispatch (locally known as Disgrace)

is own by the Wolf family and they parrot their rethug beliefs. I applaud the freedom Knight -Ridder is allowing Blade reporters in searching for the truth!

[Zan_of_Texas]

42. Yes. Cheers for the Toledo Blade!

Last time I talked with them, they had assigned FIVE reporters to work on the story, some full-time, some a good portion of their time. That is a huge commitment of resources for a paper their size, and they deserve kudos for breaking this story and taking it where it goes.

[KaliTracy]

6. one of my favorite quotes...

“To assume that information probably wasn’t controlled is to assume the American people don’t have minds of their own. Connect the dots...” -- state Sen. Teresa Fedor (D., Toledo)

[second edition]

7. I've been following this! My fingers are crossed.

I hope the missing coin trail leads all the way to Blackwell and branches out to Rove!

[KaliTracy]

14. I'm hoping this is something (though it may not be) -- Blackwell had Noe

and one other "citizen" as an Intervenor in Two Lawsuits against The Democratic party.

One just PRIOR to the the election -- about the use of Provisional Ballots.
http://moritzlaw.osu.edu/electionlaw/docs/sandusky/doc5.pdf


The other AFTER the election -- about/against the Recount Efforts.
http://moritzlaw.osu.edu/electionlaw/docs/ohio/Rios/intervene.pdf

And.... for what it's worth, if there IS anything to the fact that this occurred, I sent it to Steve E. from the Blade -- perhaps they can determine if there are damning connections.

[FreedomAngel82]

26. I think it will

Call it a "gut" feeling but it's pretty strong. Follow the coin scandal and you can find out all this other information out to help them. On the majority report last week earlier in the week Sam talked about this and he said they had also some very weird real estate buyings going on. I didn't finish listening to the program but it was on either Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday. I can't remember which day but I think it was on Tuesday. AAR place has archives up and you can download Ipodder to recieve them as well. Apparently Sam has been following this case since the beginning. Someone should drop this to them.

[Broken Acorn]

12. Nothing to see here, move along people...

All the electronic voting machine hard drives have been destroyed or reformatted, so they proof is long gone that Ohio was 'fixed'.

[KaliTracy]

30. AH... but if it is a Money trail... that can't be "poofed" away so readily

now, can it? Oh, they can try.... but I think the phrase is....

follow the money....


is it not?

[mod mom]

32. As the Wayne Madsen article said look into the Ohio Turnpike Commission,

and guess who is installed there? If you guessed Tom Noe, bing bing bing you are correct!

[mod mom]

33. Here is an interesting DU link suggesting the Turnpike as a $ laundering

site:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=203&topic_id=377130&mesg_id=377130

[KaliTracy]

38. and Chairman nonetheless.... here are a couple

of tidbits 2003

http://biz.yahoo.com/ic/124/124151.html

here is their end of the year 2004 report... which breaks things down quite a bit

http://www.ohioturnpike.org/2004_report_short.pdf

[GreenPartyVoter]

13. Do some call-in talk shows, send out LTTE's in other states

If it won't gain exposure from the top-down then go at it with a grassroots vengeance.

[TheFarseer]

16. Illegal - no

Dishonest and disgusting - yes

A damn good reason for everyone to vote democrat next time - Damn, I hope so!

on edit - hold on, is that a crime? I'm really not sure if delaying reporting on that is illegal or not.

[ClarkUSA]

19. Send this Keith Olbermann

[e-mail]

[pbartch]

27. I already sent it to him. Sent it to Huffington's Blog too

and to Randi at Air America

[FreedomAngel82]

25. Someone

should send this to Dean if he already doesn't know. When is he going to make that election announcement?

[KaliTracy]

28. he's gonna be on John Stewart this week -- maybe we should send it

to both of them!

[Adelante]

39. Dean said the Democrats will be releasing a report

in two weeks and indicated voting fraud in Ohio. The results of a study conducted since February.

[Scout1071]

35. Holy Toledo!

It's time to take back this country. How do you lose $215 mil in "a few months" and have nobody notice?

[Kolesar]

41. Noe stole public BWC money and gave $20000 to Beast/Cheney '04

He became a "Pioneer" by handing $2000 to each of his friends and having them give it to the B/C campaign. What could be simpler than that?