Is this the behavior of innocent people?

[smartvoter]

Ohio GOP election officials ducking subpoenas as Kerry enters stolen vote fray
by Bob Fitrakis, Steve Rosenfeld and Harvey Wasserman
December 28, 2004

COLUMBUS -- Ohio Republican election officials thumbed their noses at a subpoena Monday, December 27, as Republican Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell refused to appear at a deposition in an election challenge lawsuit filed at the Ohio Supreme Court. Meanwhile John Kerry is reported to have filed a federal legal action aimed at preserving crucial recount evidence, which has been under GOP assault throughout the state.


http://www.freepress.org/departments/display/19/2004/1046

And, are they above the law? I suppose we'll find out.

[tavalon]

1. No

Did you think they were? (I know you don't)

[smartvoter]

3. What are they hiding? nt

[MsConduct]

2. You know they're not innocent, but obviously they are above the law. n/t

[tavalon]

4. For now

Can you say Watergate? I knew you could.

[MsConduct]

6. LOL good point! I'm just worried that the 'mighty' will fall when

it's too late to fix things.

[tavalon]

9. I'm too much of an optimist for that

Of course, I say that on the good days. Not so much on the bad days. Today was a good day for our side.

[MsConduct]

19. LOL I'm an optimist most of the time. It's just that this last supposed

election has thrown me off kilter. I'm planning on the New Year bringing lots of tidings of comfort and joy.

[thanatonautos]

5. They're hoping the case is dismissed before depositions, but ...

the information about the precincts with 98% turnout
looks very hard to ignore, since it's accompanied by
sworn statements from sufficiently many voters saying
they actually didn't vote to make the official certified
tallies impossible.

[flordehinojos]

7. is blackwell being coached by jeb bush in his evasion of answering

questions? jeb bush has already been through several vote stealings. he knows how to hide evidence, distort the facts, refuse to answer questions. is it at all possible that blackwell is in any way being coached by jeb bush?

[pretzel4gore]

12. you mean john ellis (bush)

'Jeb' is an honoured southern name...bush is a neonazi pig from god-knows-where (and who cares, btw) certainly not from the south...he's also the truly nasty bush according to those who know the klan, and that says alot when you compare him to goofy brother geeb (aka george jr) or ....hahaha...'marvin' who was in charge of the WTC on sept 11/01!
as far as what the criminals are up to, lucifer-alone-knows! too bad we don't have a free press :(

[Mistwell]

8. This whole meme leaves a bad taste in my mouth

You know, I want them to appear at the depo, and I want the facts to come out, and I want fraud exposed. But this whole tactic of claiming that people who do not submit to questioning must be guilty is leaving a bad taste in my mouth.

When I go to a store and they demand to search my bags before I leave, I say fuck no. That does not imply guilt - it implies I don't have to submit to a search of my possessions without due process.

If a cop stops me on the street and demands I answer his questions on a whim - I say fuck no. That does not imply guilt - it imples I do not have to submit to government questioning without due process.

When Senator John Kerry refused to go on the Bill O'Reilly show because he knew he would be hijacked by a guy bent on showing him in the worst possible light, it was not an implication that Sen. Kerry was trying to hide something. It was merely Sen. Kerry being smart and not placing himself in a situation that was likely to cast him in a bad light, if he didn't have to.

And when my President, Bill Clinton, was attacked by a group with truly evil motives with demands to depose him, he (at least initially) said Fuck No - because it was none of their damned business, and they had not provided sufficient grounds to meet the criteria of due process.

So, while I do think Blackwell is hiding something, I am sick and tired of hearing the claim that merely refusing to submit to demands for a deposition is, in and of itself, proof that Blackwell is hiding something. The mere fact that someone, ANYONE, has refused to submit to a depo should not be taken alone as proof that a person is hiding something.

There are PLENTY of reasons to believe Blackwell is hiding something without the need to resort to the mob mentallity that refusal to answer questions is proof of guilt itself. It simply isn't, and it sets a bad precedent that will come back to bite us in the ass if we popularize the meme that refusal to answer = guilt. We're better than that.

[RageKage]

10. There is a big difference in this case:

These are public officials in charge of administering a democratic election. There are refusing to cooperate with a process to guarentee the integrety of the vote. There JOB as PUBLIC SERVANTS is to run a fair and transparent election that produces results the public accepts as valid.

This is one of those cases where simply the appearence of impropriety is not acceptable.

Give me a break, and don't tell me you do not see how this is different than a cop stoping you on the street.

[smartvoter]

14. This is ENTIRELY different....

You're comparing apples to oranges.

These inquiries are directly related to their duties as public servants. Further, this is one aspect of many. The entire pattern in Ohio is one of obstruction. 66 of 68 counties reportedly broke state law during the recount.

There's a big difference between "How many people have you had sex with?" and "What was the reasoning behind your instructions to disregard Ohio law and established recount processes?"

If privacy logic applied to scenarios like this, there would be absolutely no accountability for anyone's actions. Why should this be any different than it would be in any private job setting?

[genieroze]

17. Clinton tried to hide an affair and lookie what happened to him

I mean a BJ is Soooo much worse than stealing an election and disenfranchising voters.

[No Mandate Here.]

11. You can be sure that * reads KKKarl's daily briefs

...and so, evidently, does Blackwell. This whole affair has Rove's slimy fingerprints all over it. It may be the one that dethrones him. I sure hope so.

[davidgmills]

13. This is very Normal Without a Court Order Expediting Discovery

Usually depositions are "noticed" many days in advance and most scheduling is done by agreement of the lawyers after having consulted their clients.

Depositions in this case could take months to obtain UNLESS THE COURT ENTERS AN ORDER EXPEDITING DISCOVERY AND SETS A SCHEDULING ORDER WITH DATES AND TIMES FOR DEPOSTIONS OF THE DEPONENTS.

[JayDeety]

15. whyt aboove the law?

oooohhh, I'm frothing at the mouth mad..

why on earth are conservatives o ubove the law? why not a mane who many htink innocent? like scott petersun! errr...

one an unrealterd note why cant i post in the firum or if i can who do i do it???!!?!?!?!?

[smartvoter]

16. Have to post a few times to start your own thread. nt

[genieroze]

18. It would help if you used a spell checker, no flame intended

but if you look at the bottom of the page when you post you will see a check spelling, preview, and a post message button. I don't know how many times in a rush to post a message that I forgot to spell check only to have to go back and edit the darn thing. You need to have much more than one post to start a thread.

[newyawker99]

20. Hi JayDeety!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast: