Monday 2/14 Election Fraud, Reform, & Updates Thread

[MelissaB]

In order to organize and document I thought it would be a good idea to have a daily thread to place items related to reform, fraud, protests, and other items. This also make it easier to "catch up" when we are away from the computer for a while.

Please help us. If you see something that isn't here post it with a link to the thread and a thanks to the author. Thanks to everyone who is helping with this project.


Link to the thread from yesterday: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x325724#326208


Happy Valentine's Day! :loveya: :loveya: :loveya: :loveya: :loveya:

[skids]

1. NY Times Editorial Opposing Partisan Election Officials

Direct link

http://www.nytimes.com/pages/opinion/index.html?hp

DU thread

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x326120

[skids]

2. USA Today: States fall behind on voting-system improvements

Direct link to article:

http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2005-02-14-voting_x.htm

DU thread:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x326234

[skids]

3. Security firm that does e-voting consulting computers robbed.

Somehow this tie-in with a recent news story got overlooked. It's quite.... intriguing.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x325368

[dzika]

4. RUMOR - More Gannon/Guckert Dirt Expected from AmericaBlog Today

From reading America Blog, it looks like some more "Gannon" shit is about to hit the fan. I'm not cool enough to get the hints but maybe you can figure it out.

---

BIG Gannon story coming tomorrow

by John in DC - 2/13/2005 07:26:00 PM

I'm wrapping it up now. It's big. Very big. I've just contacted him for comment. If he now decides to go public to pre-empt my story, well, you heard it here first. Stay tuned.

PS Just so the bad guys out there know, several of my friends already have copies of my files. I'm just saying...

---

First hint

by John in DC - 2/13/2005 10:53:00 PM

The watch was a very important clue. Kudos to whomever of you noticed it first a few days ago.

Here's another new photo of it you haven't seen before:

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Hint 2

by John in DC - 2/14/2005 01:17:00 AM

I'm heading to bed, still have more to write tomorrow before I can publish this. This is the second hint. And an open thread.

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Open thread

by John in DC - 2/14/2005 10:27:00 AM

Almost done

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He's toast

by John in DC - 2/14/2005 10:48:00 AM

I just got invoices :-)

PS Not playing games with you. Well, ok, a little bit. But I'm still writing. Almost done. I figured I'd slip a little info first.

---

I expect John to publish the story very soon.

Link to AmericaBlog: http://www.americablog.org/

[dzika]

5. Video - CNN's Reliable Sources reports on Gannon/Guckert

Video - CNN's Reliable Sources reports on Gannon/Guckert



Video in Real Media Format (256k stream / 3 minutes):
http://www.edwardsdavid.com/BushVideos/cnn_relaible_sources_gannon_050213-01.rm

[dzika]

6. Video - CNN's Reliable Sources reports on resignation of CNN's Jordan

Video - CNN's Reliable Sources reports on resignation of CNN's Jordan Eason

The back story is that 23 year CNN Executive, Eason Jordan, was forced to resign after telling the truth about 63 journalists being killed in Iraq.



Video in Real Media format (256k stream / 4 minutes):
http://www.edwardsdavid.com/BushVideos/cnn_relaible_sources_eason_jordan_050213-01.rm

[dzika]

7. Long-Range Planning - Enron and the Recall of the California Governor

From King of Zembla blog
Sunday, February 13, 2005

Long-Range Planning - Enron and the Recall of the California Governor

Aficionados of the heist movie (Asphalt Jungle, Rififi, The Killing, Topkapi, The Italian Job, Big Deal on Madonna Street, etc.) know that there is nothing quite so engrossing as watching a carefully-engineered ripoff come together step by step. With that in mind, won't you return with us now to the thrilling days of the naked Republican power grab known as the California Recall Election? From Jason Leopold, Utne Reader, Aug. 2003:

More important, however, Schwarzenegger still won't respond to questions about why he was at the Peninsula Hotel in Beverly Hills two years ago where he, former Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan and junk-bond king Michael Milken met secretly with former Enron chairman Kenneth Lay, who was touting a plan for solving the state's energy crisis . . . .

While Schwarzenegger, Riordan, and Milken listened to Lay's pitch, Gov. Davis pleaded with President George Bush to enact much-needed price controls on electricity sold in the state, which skyrocketed to more than $200 per megawatt-hour. Davis said that Texas-based energy companies were manipulating California's power market, charging obscene prices for power and holding consumers hostage. Bush agreed to meet with Davis at the Century Plaza Hotel in West Los Angeles on May 29, 2001, five days after Lay met with Schwarzenegger, to discuss the California power crisis.

At the meeting, Davis asked Bush for federal assistance, such as imposing federally mandated price caps, to rein in soaring energy prices. But Bush refused, saying California legislators designed an electricity market that left too many regulatory restrictions in place and that's what caused electricity prices in the state to skyrocket. It was up to the governor to fix the problem, Bush said. However, Bush's response appears to be part of a coordinated effort launched by Lay to have Davis shoulder the blame for the crisis. It worked. According to recent polls, a majority of voters grew increasingly frustrated with the way Davis handled the power crisis. Schwarzenegger has used the energy crisis and missteps by Davis to bolster his standing with potential voters. While Davis took a beating in the press (some energy companies ran attack ads against the governor), Lay used his political clout to gather support for deregulation.

Greg Palast, Oct. 5, 2003:

Now, 34 pages of internal Enron memoranda have just come through this reporter's fax machine that tell all about the tryst between Maria's husband and the corporate con men. It turns out that Schwarzenegger knowingly joined the hush-hush encounter as part of a campaign to sabotage a Davis-Bustamante plan to make Enron and other power pirates then ravaging California pay back the $9 billion in illicit profits they carried off . . . .

Here's the story Arnold doesn't want you to hear. The biggest single threat to Ken Lay and the electricity lords is a private lawsuit filed last year under California's unique Civil Code provision 17200, the "Unfair Business Practices Act." This litigation, heading to trial now in Los Angeles, would make the power companies return the $9 billion they filched from California electricity and gas customers . . . .

So the Bush commissioners cook up a terrific scheme: charge the companies with conspiracy but offer them, behind closed doors, deals in which they have to pay only 2 cents on each dollar they filched.

Problem: the slap-on-the-wrist refunds won't sail if the governor of California won't play along. Solution: Recall the Governor.

S.F. Chronicle, Oct. 11, 2003:

Gov.-elect Arnold Schwarzenegger is preparing a push to deregulate the state's electricity markets -- a move embraced by business leaders and some energy analysts but criticized by many Democrats and consumer advocates as a return to the failed policies that sparked California's energy crisis . . . .

Schwarzenegger's energy strategy is being driven by some of the same members of former Gov. Pete Wilson's team who led the push for energy deregulation in the mid-1990s. The governor-elect, for example, picked for his transition team Jessie Knight, a former Wilson appointee to the Public Utilities Commission and a leading proponent of deregulation.

Consumer groups already are warning that the proposals made by Schwarzenegger during the campaign would expose electricity users to greater fluctuations in prices while limiting state oversight of power trading -- a combination that could allow the type of market manipulation that plagued California during the state's energy crisis in 2000-01.

And last but not least, from the S.F. Chronicle, Feb. 12, 2005:

A power-industry veteran whose former firm oversees a subsidiary accused of gouging California during the energy crisis was hired Friday to run the state's electricity grid.

Yakout Mansour will serve as president and chief executive officer of the California Independent System Operator, a nongovernment entity that manages the state's web of long-distance transmission lines. He starts the job in March with a $395,000 salary.

During the electricity crisis of 2000-2001, Mansour was an executive at BC Hydro, a Canadian utility whose trading subsidiary, Powerex, sold electricity to California.

The state has filed two lawsuits against Powerex, accusing the Vancouver firm of manipulating the state's energy markets to reap $850 million in excess profit. The second suit was filed Thursday.

Mansour, however, worked for BC Hydro itself, not Powerex, and served as the parent company's vice president of grid operations and inter-utility affairs. Members of the ISO's governing board said Friday they hired Mansour only after determining that he had nothing to do with Powerex or its sales to California.

source: http://simbaud.blogspot.com/2005/02/long-range-planning.html

[dzika]

8. Gallup Approval Ratings Return to Planet Earth (did they really go up?)

February 13, 2005

Gallup Approval Ratings Return to Planet Earth

In my February 10 post, I noted that Gallup's 57 percent approval rating for Bush in their February 4-6 poll was way out-of-line with other recent polls and was likely driven by the lopsided Republican party ID advantage (+9) in their sample, rather than any real world shift in public sentiment.

Now Gallup has a new poll, conducted February 7-10, and lo and behold, Bush's 57 percent approval rating has nosedived to 49 percent, in the same neighborhood as other recent polls. It's just a wild guess, but I shouldn't be surprised if this lower rating for Bush was also accompanied by the disappearance of that big Republican party ID advantage (paging Steve Soto!).

You'd think that their first poll's heavily Republican sample and outlier status relative to other polls would make the Gallup folks cautious in interpreting Bush's approval rating drop in their second poll as representing a real political trend. Think again! Gallup, in fact, contructs a whole political story to fit their data, starting with their title "From Public's Perspective, Past Week Not Good One for Bush: Approval ratings drop" and continuing thusly:

The new poll, conducted Feb. 7-10, shows his approval rating is back down to 49% as the news focus has shifted to his proposed federal budget and his plans for changing the Social Security system.

Could be. But an alternative, more parsimonious hypothesis is this: Bush never had a popularity spike to begin with; little changed over the period covered by Gallup's two polls and Gallup's swing against Bush in their latest poll is an artifact of their changing sample composition, not the product of a real shift in public opinion.

But that wouldn't fit with the Gallup philosophy: reality's job is to explain Gallup's data, not the other way around.


source: http://www.emergingdemocraticmajorityweblog.com/donkeyrising/archives/001050.php

[dzika]

9. Town council recount is on - Agua Dulce results expected late Sunday

Sunday, February 13, 2005

Town council recount is on
Agua Dulce results expected late Sunday

By Eugene Tong, Staff Writer


AGUA DULCE -- A full recount of the all ballots cast in last year's disputed Agua Dulce Town Council election began Sunday, leading to the finale of a contentious race that divided this rural town between the Santa Clarita and Antelope valleys.
Council election committee Chairman Jeff Gersh and two other organizers began tallying the 600 ballots -- including some 206 unopened absentee ballots -- just before 3 p.m., council member Andy Fried said. Results were not expected until late Sunday.

County Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich -- whose 5th District includes Agua Dulce -- called for a voting inquiry after some 206 absentee ballots became suspect on election night. The count was halted, leaving the race for three seats on the five-member council unresolved.
...
Despite suspicions of fraud, many residents who voted absentee demanded their ballots be counted. Voter Jim Duzick and candidate Harnett even retained an attorney and threatened to sue Gersh.
...
Besides calling for the public recount, the committee also recommended the Town Council amend its bylaws to prevent future disputes, including eliminating absentee voting.


source: http://www.dailynews.com/Stories/0,1413,200~20949~2709889,00.html

[dzika]

10. Board charges Wisconsin Republican DePere man with voter fraud

Monday, February 14, 2005

Board charges Wisconsin Republican DePere man with voter fraud

by Kira Sparks

A former College Republican from DePere, Wis., has been charged with election fraud and faces a jail sentence of up to three-and-a-half years.

Marc P. Lacher, a St. Norbert’s alumnus, was charged Jan. 14 with voting illegally in the state of Wisconsin. Lacher used an old address to vote in Green Bay, although he currently resides in Illinois. Lacher said he believed he could vote using the previous address he resided at when attending college, according to the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel.

The State Elections Board’s policy requires proof that an individual intended to commit the crime before sentencing someone for fraud. The evidence of the case is currently being reviewed before sentencing. Lacher’s next court date is set for March 29.
...
However, Josh Morby, spokesperson for the Democratic Party, said Democrats do see the incident as typical of the GOP.

“Throughout the last election, Republicans were the ones who were out there talking about voter fraud,” Morby said. “The only documented case of actual fraud came from this person, who was a former member of College Republicans.”


more: http://badgerherald.com/news/2005/02/14/board_charges_depere.php

[dzika]

11. America Blog releases new Gannon story suggesting male prostitution

Here is the story but I won't post the pictures as they are very sexual

by John in DC - 2/14/2005 01:26:00 PM

A man called Jeff

WARNING: A number of the links in this story are to x-rated photographs, and some of those might prove shocking to some people. Please exercise your own discretion when clicking. (And, as you read, please forgive the necessary typos - I'm going for rock-solid facts, rather than spelling.)

WOLF BLITZER: Because one of the things, as you know, that were said is that you had some sexually explicit Web sites that you were working on. I don't understand what that is, but maybe you could explain that.

JEFF GANNON: Well, several years ago, before I came to Washington, I had registered various domain names for a private client. I was doing Web site development. Those sites were never hosted. There's -- nothing ever went up on them. And the client went on to do something else. - CNN, 2/10/05

Site 1

The Web sites reflects the era in which it was built. A simple black background, white text, lots of kitschy images and bad puns. The theme is decidedly military. The logo at the top is borrowed from the US Marine Corps, an eagle standing atop an anchor. The letters USMCPT run across the logo, written in the colors of the flag. Below the strange acronym are four words: “Personal Trainer, Bodyguard, Escort.” Above it stands a muscular and headless man in black military boots, white socks, buck naked.

(image here)

In 1999, Paul Leddy, a Web designer and photographer, says he received an email from a man named Jeff from Wilmington, Delaware. Jeff wanted Paul to build him a new Web site for his business. Paul accepted the job, provided Jeff mailed him a check with half the money up front (Jeff had not provided a last name, and Paul wanted to make sure he was for real). Jeff sent the check, it cleared, and Paul built the site and launched it online for Jeff.

Paul didn’t think about Jeff much until last week when he heard about a breaking scandal involving a man named Jeff who owned several military escort service Web addresses. “I saw the name Jeff Gannon, knew our Jeff, saw the militarystud.com Web address, and thought ‘hmmm, everything was military, that sounds like Jeff who we did the site for.’”

Paul searched the Internet WhoIs director for militarystud.com and saw that the owner was Bedrock Corp of Wilmington, Delaware. “That’s definitely him,” Paul said. (Paul and a second source both recall Jeff paying with a check in the name of Bedrock Corp. The name stuck in their heads at the time because they asked Jeff why “Bedrock”? He replied something about the Flintstones, they recall.)

Paul then went and checked his files. He found five invoices to Jeff from August 31, 1999 to March 30, 2000. (The file properties say they were created on those dates by Paul Leddy.)

(image here)

The invoices are from BELDesigns for “Website Design”and “hosting.” The billing address?

Bedrock Corp
5721 Kennett Pike
Centreville, DE 19807

(Paul Leddy’s address, phone number and email were removed from this invoice by me before publishing, at Paul’s request. I am happy to show the full invoice to journalists.)

According to the date the html files were created for the USMCPT Web site – files Paul still has - Paul built the site for Jeff in September 1999. Paul says he launched it within a matter of weeks. The site was eventually migrated to its own URL, USMCPT.com. While the site is no longer live on the Internet, archived copies of it show that it was live at the USMCPT.com address at least from October 31, 2001 until May 8, 2003. When asked what USMCPT meant, Paul said he asked Jeff that very question. The answer: United States Marine Corps, Part Time. Paul recalls Jeff telling him he was still in the Marines, but only part time. Paul also recalls Jeff being around 40 years old, even though the Web site said he was 32.

The military theme continues at USMCPT.com. The “Ammunition” section contains the description of the escort. It reads: White, 200 pounds, hair “high and tight,” chest “46’ Usually Shaved or Clipped,” and under “Weapon” it says "8 inches cut." The escort mentions that he takes clients in the Washington, DC, Virginia and Maryland area, and that he prefers to “travel to your location or travel with you.”

The USMCPT home page never specifically mentions sex, though it’s clear this is not your run-of-the-mill personal trainer or bodyguard. Under a section entitled “Mission,” it says:

Ex-USMC Jock: Available for hourly, overnight, weekend or longer travel - OUT ONLY!

Personal Trainer: Safe-Sane-Strenuous-Satisfying workouts, Sports training, and competition, especially wrestling....

Big SPORTS Fan: Will go to the game with you, then take you home and....

"AGGRESIVE, VERBAL, DOMINANT TOP"
I DON'T LEAVE MARKS....ONLY IMPRESSIONS

(image here)

Further on down the page, on at least the early versions of the Web site (several versions over the span of a year and a half are cached online), you can see the logo for BELDesigns, Paul's Web design business. There's also a button that says “SEE MORE OF ME.” This brings you to a page comprising 43 or so thumbnail-sized pictures of Jeff, in various states of undress. In one photo he’s lounging spread eagle on some pillows, fully erect. In another he’s bent over, naked, apparently checking something on his nightstand (while revealing a great set of lats), and in a third set of photos he is urinating. If you click on the thumbnail photos, you can see larger-sized versions (though not for all the photos, the archive is incomplete). If you look at the html source on this page, you will see that numerous of the photos are named “Jeff.” In several of the photos you will see Jeff wearing a distinctive silver watch with a solid black band. He likes to wear it on his left hand, slightly above the wrist joint.

The site also contains a third page, called “Bulldog.htm.” (The bulldog is recurring theme on the site.) On this page we learn that Jeff is available as a travel companion, a workout partner/trainer, an event companion (“Want to see the Orioles, Caps, Wizards, or ‘Skins?”), tour guide, and bodyguard. Jeff then provides his email address, [e-mail]

The USMCPT site has a link on its home page that, depending on which version in time of the home page you’re examining, says either “See more of me and my buddies at: Male Corps” or “Featured on Studfiles.”

(image here)

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The story goes on to offer a total of 7 related sites with images and then concludes with the following:

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Why does this matter?

So in the end, why does this matter? Why does it matter that Jeff Gannon may have been a gay hooker named James Guckert with a $20,000 defaulted court judgment against him? So he somehow got a job lobbing softball questions to the White House. Big deal. If he was already a prostitute, why not be one in the White House briefing room as well?

This is the Conservative Republican Bush White House we're talking about. It's looking increasingly like they made a decision to allow a hooker to ask the President of the United States questions. They made a decision to give a man with an alias and no journalistic experience access to the West Wing of the White House on a "daily basis." They reportedly made a decision to give him - one of only six - access to documents, or information in those documents, that exposed a clandestine CIA operative. Say what you will about Monika Lewinsky - a tasteless episode, "inappropriate," whatever. Monika wasn't a gay prostitute running around the West Wing. What kind of leadership would let prostitutes roam the halls of the West Wing? What kind of war-time leadership can't find the same information that took bloggers only days to find?

None of this is by accident.

Someone had to make a decision to let all this happen. Who? Someone committed a crime in exposing Valerie Plame and now it appears a gay hooker may be right in the middle of all of it? Who?

Ultimately, it is the hypocrisy that is such a challenge to grasp in this story. This is the same White House that ran for office on a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage. While they are surrounded by gay hookers? While they use a gay hooker to write articles for their gay hating political base? While they use a gay hooker to destroy a political enemy?

Who in the White House is at the center of all of this? Who allowed this to go on in the People's House? Who committed the crime of exposing Valerie Plame? Jeff Gannon has the answers to these questions, and boy we know he loves to talk.

Let him talk to Patrick Fitzgerald.


link to AmericaBlog: http://www.americablog.org/

[dzika]

12. CONYERS AND OTHERS TO FILE AMICUS BRIEF IN OHIO SUPREME COURT

(thanks to WilliamPitt)

CONYERS AND OTHERS TO FILE AMICUS BRIEF IN OHIO SUPREME COURT

Received via email:

Today, Congressman John Conyers, Jr., Ranking Member of the House Judiciary Committee, will be filing an amicus brief in the Ohio
Supreme Court with the support of Senator Russ Feingold and 17 other members of the House of Representatives recommending that the Court not sanction the attorneys who brought Ohio election contest in Moss v. Bush (no.04-2088).

Mr. Conyers offered the following statement:

"The attorneys in this case had reason to believe that the election results did not reflect the will of the electorate. In good faith, they brought a case based not only on statistical probability but the depositions and affidavits of computer experts, statisticians, and election volunteers. In only a couple months, these attorneys have amassed over 900 pages of evidence.

"While we take no opinion on the underlying case, we firmly support the right of citizens to challenge elections results in court when they have a good faith basis to do so. Truly, Secretary Blackwell's attempt to sanction these attorneys is meant to send a message to anyone who dare challenge his questionable election administration. For our democracy to work properly, we can't allow this sort of intimidation by state officials."

DU Thread: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x326363

[dzika]

13. Critics cite voting machine errors for election woes in NC

(thanks to Kelvin Mace)

Monday 14 February, 2005

Critics cite voting machine errors for election woes in NC

Electronic voting machine reform activists David Allen and Joyce McCloy can look back on an embarrassing election season in North Carolina and utter a familiar phrase: "I told you so."

by Paul B. Johnson


Some election officials leading up to the Nov. 2 general election dismissed the critics as alarmist or misguided, saying that electronic voting machine technology would ensure a verified vote.

Instead, North Carolina became the national poster child this election season for a voting machine fiasco.

The meltdown in Carteret County, where votes were lost without any hope of retrieving the ballots, "is the kind of problem we worried about with electronic touch-screen voting. If the memory and software fails, there's no record," said Allen, a publisher and author from High Point who's a member of the Joint Select Committee on Electronic Voting Systems.

The recommendations include that every vote cast in North Carolina should generate a paper ballot as a backup starting next year. The committee also recommends allowing state officials to inspect the computer code of electronic machines for potential pitfalls, regardless of proprietary business concerns.



source: http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=13950600&BRD=...

Registration required, sorry. Try bugmenot.com

David Allen
www.blackboxvoting.com
www.thoughtcrimes.org


Du Thread: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x326341

[dzika]

14. Wisconsin town asks voters for ID starting Tuesday

Monday, Feb. 14, 2005

Wisconsin town asks voters for ID starting Tuesday

by News-Chronicle


Voters in Wrightstown are being asked to bring a driver's license or state identification card to the polls for Tuesday's election.

It's a voluntary start on a planned statewide voter registration system that will go into effect in 2006.

Village Clerk Jean A. Brandt issued the request this week in an attempt to get an early start on the 2006 rules and avoid lines next year. Other municipalities held similar registrations last fall.

A new law will start the statewide registration base in an attempt to avoid vote fraud. It's part of the Help America Vote Act, passed after the election problems of 2000.

In Wisconsin, municipalities under 5,000 population did not have to have voter registration. Residents of cities such as Green Bay do have to register to vote and those registrations will still be valid.


source: http://www.greenbaynewschron.com/page.html?article=130008

[dzika]

15. WaPo - Iraq Winners Allied With Iran Are the Opposite of U.S. Vision

Did the Bush Administration not have the infrastructure in place to "rig" the Iraq election? Was the percentage of Shiite voters to large to make election rigging possible? Or could it be that the Bush Administration just doesn't care who wins in Iraq?

Is there a relationship between the outcome of this election and the increasing reports of special-ops and military drone/UAV operations in Iran?

As usual, there are more questions than answers.

---

Monday, February 14, 2005; Page A08

Iraq Winners Allied With Iran Are the Opposite of U.S. Vision

By Robin Wright


When the Bush administration decided to invade Iraq two years ago, it envisioned a quick handover to handpicked allies in a secular government that would be the antithesis of Iran's theocracy -- potentially even a foil to Tehran's regional ambitions.

But, in one of the greatest ironies of the U.S. intervention, Iraqis instead went to the polls and elected a government with a strong religious base -- and very close ties to the Islamic republic next door. It is the last thing the administration expected from its costly Iraq policy -- $300 billion and counting, U.S. and regional analysts say.
...
For now, the United States appears prepared to accept the results -- in large part because it has no choice.

But the results were announced at a time when the United States faces mounting tensions with Iran over its alleged nuclear weapons ambitions, support for extremism and human rights violations. On her first trip abroad this month, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Iran's behavior was "something to be loathed" and charged that the "unelected mullahs" are not good for Iran or the region.

One of the biggest questions, analysts say, is whether Iraq's democratic election will make it easier -- or harder -- to pressure Iran.



more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A21679-2005Feb13.html

Video report from MSNBC here: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/mmedia/msnbc/ms021405-4v.htm

[dzika]

16. Cry for fair elections heard in Alabama

From The Demopolis Times in Alabama:
Monday February 14, 2005

Cry for fair elections heard in Alabama

By Jerry Hinnen

Before the leaders of Hale County's Democracy Defense League had even formed the organization, one of the first goals they set in their fight against voter fraud was to get an audience with Alabama Attorney General Troy King. Friday afternoon in Tuscaloosa, that goal became a reality.
...
"The Democracy Defense League was positively encouraged by Mr. King's stated commitment to pursue voter fraud prosecution," the statement read in part. "Mr. King stated that he was a 'willing partner' in the eradication of voter fraud--and that he was a man of his word...The Democracy Defense League has accomplished its first goal by bringing its concerns for fair elections to the highest law enforcement officer in Alabama."

During the meeting, League members emphasized "the importance of necessary legislative measures to enhance the penalties" for committing voter fraud, according to the press release. This would be in conjunction with the League's official mission statement, which calls for voter fraud to become a class "A" rather than class "C" felony.
...
The long-held suspicion of voter fraud in Hale County intensified in recent months with the controversial election of J.B. Washington to the Greensboro's mayor's seat and the closely contested run-off for State Senate won by Bobby Singleton. Eyebrows were raised after both elections, both over the large number of absentee ballots cast and the decisive edge enjoyed by both victors--Singleton took 1033 votes to his opponent's 21--in the Hale absentee box.


more: http://www.demopolistimes.com/articles/2005/02/14/news/news01.txt

[dzika]

17. Saturday (2/13) Letter from the Cobb Voting Rights Group...

Saturday (2/13) Letter from the Cobb Voting Rights Group

Dear Friends,

Thank you for your support. The response to our call for contributions and volunteers to make the Ohio Recount a reality was amazing. We have been humbled by this outpouring of support and feel privileged to have stood up on behalf of the people of this country and the democratic process we cherish.

On January 7, the day after Congress debated the historic challenge to Ohio's tainted Electoral College votes, the New York Times wrote: "In many ways, the debate came about because of the relentless efforts of a small group of third-party activists, liberal lawyers, Internet muckrakers, and civil rights groups..."

A week after the election, after thousands of reports of irregularities, intimidation and stories of voters standing four-six-eight hours in the rain, we decided to demand a recount of the Ohio vote and asked Michael Badnarik of the Libertarian Party to join us. Within ten days of making our announcement, we received over 6,000 individual donations from voters around the country who feel, as we do, that the integrity of our democracy is at stake. By the time the recount began, over 3,400 volunteers had offered to help witness the recount.

Genuine democracy takes the hard work of ordinary citizens doing extraordinary things.

We sent our recount request and filing fee to all of Ohio's 88 counties on November 18th. We then filed in federal court asking that the process be expedited because it was clear that Ohio's Republican Secretary of State, J. Kenneth Blackwell, planned to delay certifying the statewide vote totals until the last possible moment - December 6th - the day before the Ohio Electors were certified. We went to court again on December 3rd, this time defending ourselves from a suit filed against us by Delaware County, who didn't want to do the recount. On December 10th, we went back to federal court asking for judicial intervention because we were alarmed at the widely varying standards being proposed for the recount by the County Boards of Elections.

In each case, the court made it clear that while we had a right to a recount, the court would not grant emergency relief since our campaign would not suffer "irreparable harm" as we were unlikely to gain any electors.

The Ohio Recount began on December 13 at 7am. Almost all the County Boards of Elections did not follow Ohio law and did not randomly select the precincts to be hand counted. Other problems included a lack of security for the ballots and voting machines and the refusal of some counties to do a full hand recount when required by law to do so.

In some places, witnesses were threatened with expulsion if they asked questions and were told to stand up to twenty feet away from where the recount was taking place. In far too few places, our volunteers were treated with the respect they deserved. On December 30th, we filed an amended complaint in federal court, demanding that the recount of Ohio's presidential vote be done again, this time in conformance with state and federal law.

The recount was frustrating, exhausting - and inspiring. At every step, the established power structure was against us. But We The People, all of us who worked together to make the recount and the challenge to Ohio's electors, were there to stand up for our right to vote and for the right for those votes to be counted. We trained two thousand volunteers to serve as legal witnesses for the recount. You can read preliminary reports from these witnesses and our County Coordinators at http://www.votecobb.org/recount/ohio%20reports/ .

Although we still have many more reports to sift through and post to our site, we already know that the recount re-enfranchised thousands of voters. In Coshocton County alone, one thousand and eighty new votes were counted because of our recount demand.

Together, we are building a loud and joyous movement for democracy.

The Green Party is committed to genuine grassroots democracy. Remember that the founders of this country denied many people—including women and people of color—the right to vote. Our democracy is constantly evolving. In order to create an accountable and transparent democratic process worthy of our country and people, we need many electoral reforms. We need an end to partisan administration of elections. We need voter verifiable paper trails and meaningful recounts. We need Election Day Registration (EDR), already in use in six states, so that every eligible citizen who shows up on Election Day can register and vote.

Our current, undemocratic voting system often forces people to vote for a candidate they don't really support in order to keep an even worse candidate out of office. Instant Runoff Voting (IRV) is a simple solution that allows people to vote their conscience and rank candidates in their order of preference. IRV guarantees that the winner has the support of a majority of voters. IRV also eliminates the "spoiler" dynamic in elections.

We urgently need publicly funded elections to eliminate the influence of private money in our democracy and allow ordinary citizens to run for - and win - public office. We need to change restrictive ballot access laws which deny voters choice. We need to abolish the anachronistic Electoral College. We need a constitutional right to vote, something provided for in the interim constitutions of Iraq and Afghanistan but not in the U.S. Constitution. Over four million Americans are not allowed to vote because of felony disenfranchisement laws that strip voting rights from citizens with criminal records, many of whom have fully completed their sentences.

It is not enough to ensure that every vote is counted; we want every vote to count towards the result. We need a multi-party democracy with proportional representation, where candidates and parties are elected in proportion to the level of support received at the polls. An entire Voters Bill of Rights needs to be enacted ( http://www.codepinkalert.org/National%20Actions%20Voter%20Bill%20of%20Rights.shtml ).

The second generation of the voting rights movement, committed to these critical electoral reforms, is a growing, vibrant force.

The Green Party will continue the important work of building genuine democracy. We are poised and ready to work in cooperation and collaboration with individuals and parties across the political spectrum. If you have not already done so, please take a moment to visit www.gp.org to learn more about the Green Party. If you're in Ohio, you can find the Ohio Green Party at www.ohiogreens.org. And please continue to visit our web site, www.votecobb.org. which is a valuable resource for information on electoral reform and the New Voting Rights Movement.

Together, we are making progress towards a more just, peaceful, sustainable and democratic world. In solidarity,


David Cobb
2004 Green Party presidential candidate

Lynne Serpe
Ohio Recount Manager


PS. Your input is essential for continuing to create genuine democracy. Please contribute your time and talents and donate to your state Green Party, the national Green Party or to your favorite voting rights organization. A list of voting rights organizations can be found at http://www.votecobb.org/resources/sites/ . Thank you!

source: http://www.livejournal.com/users/crimnos/78070.html

[dzika]

18. Video - CNN IP News: Dean, Schwarzenegger, Alan Keys Daughter - 2/14, 3:45

Video - CNN IP News: Dean, Schwarzenegger, Alan Keys Daughter - 2/14 @ 3:45 ET


"political Bytes" from Inside Politics

• Dean's brother, Jim Dean, to head Democracy for America
  
• 98% Google.com employees donations go to Democrats in last election
  
• GOP endorses Schwarzenegger for CA Gov. but he has not announced plans to run
  
• Daughter of Alan Keys to take part in Gay Rights rally. Alan Keys has "kicked her out of the house and refuse to speak to her."

Video in Real Media format (256k stream / 2 minutes):
http://www.edwardsdavid.com/BushVideos/cnn_ip_political_bytes_050214-01.rm

[dzika]

19. Video - CNN reports on "The Power of Blogs" Part 1 - 2/14 @ 4:00 PM

Video - CNN reports on "The Power of Blogs" Part 1 - 2/14 @ 4:00 PM



Video in Real Media format (256k stream / 4 minutes):
http://www.edwardsdavid.com/BushVideos/cnn_ip_power_of_blogs_050214-01.rm

[dzika]

20. Fox News and GOP Courting the African-American Viewer (and Voter)

February 07, 2005

Fox News and GOP Courting the African-American Viewer (and Voter)

Over the last two weeks I've noticed an increase in the number of African-Americans (four since January 26) appearing as guests on Your World w/Neil Cavuto. (An African-American is an occasional participant in the regular roundtable discussion. He is not included in the four guests I mention above.) In the many months I've monitored Your World, I would estimate that an African-American was a guest, on average, once every two to three weeks, if that often.

Last week I came across this article in the Los Angeles Times: Recasting Republicans as the Party of Civil Rights, dated January 29.

As part of their effort to recast themselves as the party of civil rights, the Republicans have even come out with a "2005 Republican Freedom Calendar" listing past Republican civil rights accomplishments. (Notice that most of the events documented in the calendar happened a long, long time ago.) (Note that the calendar is advertised on a US government, House of Representatives website. Is it legal (or ethical) to promote one party on a website representing members of both parties and funded by our tax dollars?)

Today on Fox, I saw a short advertisement which went like this:

"The contributions of African-Americans have helped to shape and define our nation and the world. For more on Black History Month and to view our special features, all this month log on to www.FoxFan.com ."

As the audio aired, Fox showed pictures of the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., Jessie Owens, Barack Obama, Colin Powell, Oprah Winfrey, Michael Jordan, Condi Rice, and one person I didn't recognize.

COMMENT: Given the increase in African-American guests and the special Black History Month web presentation, it looks to me as if Fox News is doing its best to help the Republican party in its effort to lure African-American voters. If Fox can present itself as friendly to African-Americans and thus attract viewers, they can sink the propaganda hook and help bring them into the Republican fold, which I'm sure is precisely the plan.


source: http://www.newshounds.us/2005/02/07/courting_the_africanamerican_viewer_and_voter.php#more

[dzika]

21. Fox News' Brit Hume covers (up?) "Jeff Gannon" scandal

February 11, 2005

Fox News' Brit Hume covers (up?) "Jeff Gannon" scandal

The verrrry interesting scandal surrounding "Jeff Gannon"/James Guckert was featured on Brit Hume's "flagship news show" Special Report last night, 2/10. However, it was relegated to the "all-star" panel discussion in the final ten minutes of the hour, with pundits Jeff Birnbaum, Bill Sammon, and Charles Krauthammer fielding rehearsed questions from Brit.

Brit at first characterizes the scandal surrounding the phony journalist operating under an alias in the White House briefing room, fielding softball and/or leading (and we can assume rehearsed) questions at Scott McClellan, as a "controversey" and a "dust up". He says with mock indignation that Senator Louise Slaughter of NY has called for a criminal investigation.

Comment: I despise these faux "interviews" with panelists where the anchor asks questions as though he has never heard of the details. It's disengenous and obvious it's staged.

Following are some spin tactics used in the segment:

BH: who is Jeff Gannon, what is Talon News Service, and what is this all about?
BS: His real name is James Guckert, but he changed his name to have sort of a nom de plume, I guess
BH: An honorable tradition, what about Mark Twain?
BS: There you go.

(See, everybody does it, even American icons. But I have never heard of a practicing journalist using an alias.)
...

BS: And they found two things on him that forced him to resign. First, that he wasn't using his real name, and second, that he had registered names of websites that appeared to be sexually explicit.
BH: Did the websites actually exist?
BS: He worked for a software company before DC, and had registered them for a client... The websites were never launched, there was no content put on them...
BH: So he wasn't a pornographer?

(Brit dispels this angle for Fox viewers who are likely to be more outraged about any link to sex than they are about the real issues, propaganda and deception.)

BS: Apparently not, but the ferocity of the attacks on him, from Democrats.com,

...
What is scrupulously NOT mentioned is how in post-9/11 ANYone can get past the Secret Service without screening. (They can't.) Even if “Jeff Gannon” was a 'nom de plume' he would not have valid identification with that name on it. Obviously the White House knew he was operating under a phony name and condoned and was complicit in it.

CK: As for the on-line stuff, this “Jeff Gannon” has been attacked by people who only write on-line themselves, which is itself ironic. If the WH briefing room fills up with bloggers who write for ten readers, then it's a triage issue. Otherwise, allow the guy.

BH: OK, that's it for the panel. We'll have more on this, perhaps.

Comment: or perhaps not, right Brit? A la Fox, the issue has been given air time, distorted, diminished, and dismissed.

There is plenty of evidence of serious propagandizing by this administration, and Fox is up to their necks in it. The issues raised by this faker are not about on-line vs. paper, or a conservative questioner “to balance out' the liberals Fox sees everywhere. The Secret Service and the president's communications team had to be involved in this, and apparently Fox is leaving it up to the liberal media and bloggers to further expose the details.

Contact NY Congresswoman Louise Slaughter to support her demand for an investigation.


source: http://www.newshounds.us/2005/02/11/brit_hume_covers_up_jeff_gannon_scandal.php#more

[dzika]

22. Dean's victory marks historic shift in party

Sat, Feb. 12, 2005

Dean's victory marks historic shift in party

BY DICK POLMAN
Philadelphia Inquirer


Howard Dean's ascension to the Democratic chairmanship - an event virtually unimaginable last year, when he was racking up 17 losses in 18 presidential primaries - signifies a historic power shift within the party, from the Washington establishment to the foot soldiers who are fed up with defeat.
...
Over the last 150 years, by tradition, the Democratic chairman had been an insider with powerful pals - a crony of the president, or protege of a key senator, or a front man for fat-cat donors. And the choice of that leader, by the voting members of the Democratic National Committee, had generally been "a rigged deal," as party strategist James Carville puts it.

Dean breaks the mold. Never before has the leader of a grassroots citizen army captured this job. The same guy who once inveighed against "the Washington politics-as-usual club," and who once referred to members of Congress as "cockroaches," has been given a mandate to shake things up - courtesy of the party's 447 voting members, who hail from all 50 states and who no longer intend to follow the old guard.

"This is a revolutionary redefinition of the party chairmanship," said Brian Lunde, a former national party official who, during the 1980s, helped several Democrats win the chairmanship. "We are moving into totally uncharted waters."


more: http://www.tallahassee.com/mld/tallahassee/10886246.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp

[dzika]

23. From Drudge: FEC May Tighten Restrictions On Internet Political Activity

From The Drudge Report:
Mon Feb 14 2005 10:38:41 ET

FEC May Tighten Restrictions On Internet Political Activity

The Federal Election Commission next month will begin looking at tightening restrictions on political activities on the Internet, ROLL CALL reports Monday.

The FEC is planning to examine the question of how Internet activities, when coordinated with candidates' campaigns, fit into the definition of 'public communications.

Specifically, the FEC is planning to examine the question of how Internet activities, when coordinated with candidates' campaigns, fit into the definition of "public communications." While coordinated communications are considered campaign contributions and therefore subject to strict contribution limits, current FEC regulations adopted in 2002 carve out an exemption for coordinated political communications that are transmitted over the Internet.

Developing...


source: http://www.drudgereport.com/flash3fec.htm

[dzika]

24. Tubbs Jones Outraged at Blackwell's Failure to Appear

February 12, 2005

Congresswoman Tubbs Jones Outraged at Blackwell's Failure to Appear During House Administration Hearing

by Office of Rep. Tubbs Jones

Washington, D.C. – Today, Congresswoman Stephanie Tubbs Jones spoke before the House Administration Committee during their hearing on the Implementation of the Help America Vote Act following the 2004 election.

"I am thoroughly disappointed that the Secretary of State from my home state of Ohio, Ken Blackwell, chose not to testify today before the House Administration Committee," stated Rep. Tubbs Jones. "Just as he created tremendous confusion among voters in Cuyahoga County and across the state of Ohio during this past election by issuing bizarre directives and playing partisan politics, his failure to testify before this committee today shows that he is not committed to improving our election system.

"I would have thought that he would have seen this hearing as an opportunity to further examine the problems that occurred during this past election and work to develop a plan of action for addressing them. The Secretaries of State from key battleground States such as Iowa, New Mexico and Indiana felt it important enough to attend this hearing today. Ken Blackwell owed it the people of Ohio and of this country to be at this hearing today. They deserve the truth!"

Congresswoman Tubbs Jones recently introduced legislation with Rep. John Conyers in introducing the Voting Opportunity and Technology Enhancement Rights Act, or the VOTER Act of 2005 which seeks to combat the tremendous voting irregularities that plagued both the 2000 and 2004 elections.


source: http://www.freepress.org/departments/display/19/2005/1155

[dzika]

25. The why of the Ohio-recount matter

Published 02-14-05

The why of the Ohio-recount matter

by R. Foote

Ohio secretary of state J. Kenneth Blackwell's action clearly indicate he's trying to hide something.

I say this because, if I were secretary of state, and I oversaw an election, and people started accusing my oversight of having been tainted, I would say, "Listen, I have nothing to hide. Go ahead, look under every rug, in every crevice. I won't call up election officials and have them pre-select the 3 percent required for a recount. I will let it be done the way it's supposed to be done - randomly."

I would say all of this and allow things to proceed in this way because I am an honest person who thinks if even one person's right to vote was compromised by bad machinery, lack of machinery, etc., then we should get to the bottom of it.

It is clear that Ohio had many, many problems, one specifically being those pesky long lines in Democratic precincts (never Republican). Why only Democratic precincts, and why such a short supply of voting machines (even less than they had during the primaries in some cases)?

Blackwell keeps trying to make these problems out to be minor. I don't think those people who stood in line in the rain for hours upon hours found them to be so minor.

Why? Now that seems to be the question The Greens are trying to get to the bottom of. Once Blackwell stops the hedging and allows a real recount that follows Ohio law, then we will get to the why.


source: http://www.augustafreepress.com/stories/storyReader$31615

[dzika]

26. Florida's absentee chief of elections

Monday, February 14, 2005

Florida's absentee chief of elections

By Palm Beach Post Editorial


Florida's top election official was notably absent last week from the first congressional hearing on the 2004 elections. So was her counterpart in Ohio, the other state that drew numerous complaints from voters and was crucial to the presidential election.

That Florida Secretary of State Glenda Hood preferred to address the British-American Chamber of Commerce of Central Florida should come as no surprise to Floridians. The chairman of the House Administration Committee, who clearly doesn't know Ms. Hood, was disappointed. Rep. Bob Ney, R-Ohio, said he would try again to get testimony from her and Ohio's Kenneth Blackwell. "We can have disagreements," Rep. Ney told The Associated Press, "but you can't run and you can't hide. Not that Ms. Hood ever has hidden her disdain for questions about her work.

Rep. Juanita Millender-McDonald, D-Calif., found "the arrogance of these secretaries of state to not be here today is an affront." Maybe, but it's no surprise. Ms. Hood treated the congressmen the way she has treated Florida voters.


source: http://www.palmbeachpost.com/opinion/content/opinion/epaper/2005/02/14/a18a_hoodedit_0214.html

[dzika]

27. RAWSTORY: McClellan seen in gay bars!

2/14/2005

Reporter with prostitution links and false name got access to Bush; Questions surface on relationship with White House staff

Questions fly on Guckert’s relationship with White House

The former White House reporter for the conservative website Talon News, who resigned after his links to military escort domains appeared on the Web, is said to have paid two individuals to set up a site on which he intended to prostitute himself, RAW STORY has learned.
...
Such leveraging of personal relationships have seen increased scrutiny after the resignation of former New Jersey Governor James McGreevey, who admitted to having an affair with a male staff member.

Sources have intimated possible relationships with members of the White House staff.

RAW STORY has been told that the White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan visited a gay bar in Austin, Texas, on March 19, 1995. The date was placed exactly as a local memorial service was held on the same day.

The source, who would only comment on condition of anonymity, reserved comment on whether McClellan was actually gay, but said he was frequently seen at gay clubs. Another source also confirmed this account.

“He was often seen in gay clubs in Austin, Texas and was comfortable being there,” the Texan said. “He’s been seen in places that normal people who are looking for heterosexual relationships are not seen alone.”


Much more from RAW STORY: http://rawstory.com/news/2005/index.php?p=73

DU GD Thread: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x3111069

[dzika]

28. WA Election dispute attracts Republicans who lost also races

Monday, February 14, 2005 - Page updated at 12:00 a.m.

WA Election dispute attracts Republicans who lost also races

By David Postman
Dino Rossi's tantalizingly close finish in the governor's race — a finish so close he's suing to overturn the election — has rallied a corps of Republicans who tried before him to break Democrats' 20-year hold on the governor's office.
At least five former Republican gubernatorial candidates have gotten swept up in Rossi's post-election effort to wrest the governor's office from Democrat Christine Gregoire.

Some of their connections to Rossi were remote during the campaign. Now they boost his case on talk radio, represent him in court, scour records looking for fraud and malfeasance and push legislation to change the system that showed counting mistakes and alleged illegal votes.
...
"I think they clearly see Dino as sort of a torchbearer."

Republican Party Chairman Chris Vance agreed, and said he is sure former candidates pay particular attention to any campaign for the office they wanted.

"When you run for public office, when you spend a year or more of your life pursuing your goal and don't make it, you never forget that," he said.


more: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2002179528_revote14m.html

[dzika]

29. Look for the union label, folks

Posted on Mon, Feb. 14, 2005

Look for the union label, folks

By Robyn Blumner
St. Petersburg Times


Sen. John Kerry may think that having an Osama bin Laden videotape air on the weekend before the election lost him the presidency, but it was something else entirely. The Democratic Party's anemic showing can be summed up in two words: union members. Or, to be more precise, the lack of them.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the percentage of working Americans who belong to a labor union declined again last year. It stands at 12.5 percent, and if you remove public sector employees the percentage falls to 7.9. These numbers represent the lowest level of unionization in 60 years -- far below the highs in the 1950s when 35 percent of the workforce was unionized.

Had just a small additional percentage of Americans been union members, Kerry would have been the one throwing the $40-million inaugural party.

Of course, not every member of a union is also supportive of Democratic candidates. The Teamsters broke ranks with the rest of labor in 1980 and endorsed Ronald Reagan for president. But union members are generally more educated on worker-related issues, and that strongly favors Democrats. If, in the last election, bread-and-butter issues such as jobs, the minimum wage, overtime pay, tax fairness, Social Security protection and health care were eclipsed by the war on terrorism, Iraq and "values" concerns such as gay marriage, then it was union members who kept their eye on the prize.

A post-election survey conducted for the AFL-CIO by Peter D. Hart Research Associates found that 65 percent of union members voted for Kerry, while only 33 percent supported Bush. But the analysis gets more intriguing as it is broken down.



more: http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/news/opinion/10884741.htm

[dzika]

30. Video - CNN reports on "The Power of Blogs" Part 2 - 2/14 @ 4:15

Video - CNN reports on "The Power of Blogs" Part 2 - 2/14 @ 4:15

The story mentions Eason Jordan resignation; today's Gannon news from AmericaBlog; Daughter of Alan Keys attending Gay Rights Rally; Dean DNC Chairman, BradBlog catches CNN error, Rather-Gate and others.



Video in Real Media format (128k stream / 7 minutes):
http://www.edwardsdavid.com/BushVideos/cnn_ip_inside_blogs_050214-01.rm

[dzika]

31. Feingold for President

Saturday, February 12, 2005

Feingold for President

by Joel McNally


Wisconsin Sen. Russ Feingold told Democrats in Florida recently he would decide whether to run for the presidency after "going around the country" building "national organizations of people" committed to taking back the White House.

Of course, if Feingold weren't already leaning toward becoming a candidate, why would a Wisconsin senator be campaigning in Florida?

Feingold won his third term by crushing Republican Tim Michels, an early favorite of George Bush's political brain Karl Rove, at the same time Democrat John Kerry barely eked out a victory over Bush in Wisconsin.

The same qualities that made Feingold's previous elections extremely close - his courage to stand up for progressive political causes in a repressive political age - now have made him a formidable incumbent in state electoral politics.

What are the chances his political strengths could be translated nationally into a serious run for the presidency? They could be greater than they've been for any other state politician in history.


more: http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0212-06.htm

[dzika]

32. Report: Fixes Saved 1M Votes in 2004 (SPIN SPIN SPIN)

So, is this more spin from AP and the Bush-funded Caltech/MIT Voting Technology Project?

---

From SFGate.com:
Monday, February 14, 2005

Report: Fixes Saved 1M Votes in 2004

By ROBERT TANNER, AP National Writer


The report released Monday by the Caltech/MIT Voting Technology Project looked at a key measure of election integrity _ residual votes, or ballots cast during an election on which voters failed to mark a choice or machines did not record it.
...
In every election, some voters intentionally leave the presidential contest blank, possibly as a protest or because they're uninterested. But experts estimate that should be, on average, roughly half of one percent of all ballots, and anything above that is likely caused by flaws with design, equipment or voter education.

In 2000, the national residual vote was 1.9 percent of ballots cast for president. The report found a significant improvement this year, with the residual vote falling to 1.1 percent. The analysis examined 37 states and the District of Columbia; figures were unavailable elsewhere.

Basing the calculations on that change, the report concluded that of the slightly more than 122 million Americans who voted for president in November, roughly 1,030,000 voters were likely to have mistakenly left their ballots blank.

The report "provides some corrective to what's getting to be a common interpretation of this election, which is that the election was deeply flawed and things were worse in 2004 than in 2000," said Charles Stewart III, the report's author and a Massachusetts Institute of Technology political science professor.


more: http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/n/a/2005/02/14/politics/p134341S42.DTL

[L. Coyote]

33. How about starting an "Election Fraud, Reform, & Updates Thread"

with stories about "Election Fraud, Reform, & Updates."

This daily thread is getting clogged with other news. Perhaps a News thread could be posted somewhere, like in the News forum.

[dzika]

35. Since I'm the only one posting today...

I guess you are talking to me.

I do post stories because I believe that there is a relation (however distant) to the discussion of election results, reform and fraud.

Feel free to start whatever thread that you like. I really don't have the time to keep up this thread and I certainly don't have time to try to keep up another.

You can always hit the ignore button and ignore all of my posts. You can also click on the "hide thread" icon to hide this entire thread.


Yesterday and the day before you complained about the images. Today it's the content...

If you would like to discuss this then start a new thread and begin the discussion! Post a link to your thread in here.


Thanks for your comments.

[L. Coyote]

47. It takes forever to download this thread and try to find a few articles

that are actually on the thread topic. I think I'll just look elsewhere. This thread is being bombed with off topic posts and huge image files.

[dzika]

34. Videos - MSNBC / DemocracyNow report on CNN Exec, Eason Jordan

DemocracyNow reports on resignation of CNN Exec, Eason Jordan - 2/14 @ 6:10 PM ET



Video in Real Media format (256k stream / 1 minute):
http://www.edwardsdavid.com/BushVideos/democracynow_eason_jordan_050214-01.rm

---

MSNBC reports on resignation of CNN Exec, Eason Jordan - 2/14 @ 6:45 PM ET



Video in Real Media format (256k stream / 2 minutes):
http://www.edwardsdavid.com/BushVideos/msnbc_eason_jordan_050214-01.rm

[dzika]

36. Gannon won't give clear answer on whether he's seen classified CIA memo

Monday February 14, 2005

Gannon won't give clear answer on whether he's seen classified memo on Wilson-Plame case

Former Talon News Washington bureau chief and White House correspondent Jeff Gannon (aka James D. Guckert) told Editor & Publisher in a February 11 article that he "never said" he "had ... or had seen" a classified memo written by a State Department official and purportedly summarizing a meeting in which former clandestine CIA operative Valerie Plame allegedly suggested that her husband, former ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV, be sent to Niger to investigate reports that Iraq had tried to purchase uranium from the west African nation. But in previous interviews, Gannon has left a different impression.

The Editor & Publisher article stated that Gannon "threw into question media accounts suggesting that he had seen a classified CIA document critical to the Plame case, saying he had made references to the 'internal memo,' but adding, 'I never said I had it or had seen it.' But when asked if he had in fact seen it, he declined to say."

Gannon originally referenced the memo in an interview with Wilson, which Talon News http://www.talonnews.com&hl=en&client=firefox-a">posted on its website on October 28, 2003 (no longer available on TalonNews.com). Gannon asked Wilson about the memo and appeared familiar with its contents:

An internal government memo prepared by U.S. intelligence personnel details a meeting in early 2002 where your wife, a member of the agency for clandestine service working on Iraqi weapons issues, suggested that you could be sent to investigate the reports. Do you dispute that?

Similarly, on March 9, 2004, a Talon News article (no longer available on TalonNews.com) reported that its own reporter, Gannon, had been "targeted" by the Justice Department's investigation of the leak of Plame's clandestine identity in July 2003. The article quoted Gannon: "I will tell you that the information did not come from inside the administration. ... For something that is supposed to be classified, it seems that this document is easily accessible."

Most recently, on the February 11 edition of CNN's Wolf Blitzer Reports, Gannon strongly suggested he had seen the memo in his explanation of why Justice Department officials had interviewed him as part of the leak investigation:

GANNON: And the FBI did come to interview me. They were interested in where -- how I knew or received a copy of a confidential CIA memo that said that Valerie Plame suggested that Joe Wilson be sent on this mission, something that everybody -- they have all vigorously denied but is, in effect, true.

BLITZER: So they didn't make you go testify before the grand jury?

GANNON: No.

BLITZER: Do you have to reveal how you got that memo?

GANNON: No.

BLITZER: They didn't ask you?

GANNON: Well, the FBI kept asking. I said, well, look, I'm a journalist, I can't --

BLITZER: You didn't tell them?

GANNON: Yes. Can't divulge that. And they accepted that, and I've never been asked again.

Contacts:
Jeff Gannon
[e-mail]
Call in to "Jeff Gannon's Washington" on Rightalk, Thursdays 3-4 p.m.
1-866-884-TALK

Talon News
281-412-2184


source: http://mediamatters.org/items/200502140009

[MelissaB]

37. Report: Fewer 2004 Votes Missed

Report: Fewer 2004 Votes Missed

Associated Press Page 1 of 1

03:16 PM Feb. 14, 2005 PT

Improvements to voting machines and election administration saved a million votes that otherwise would likely have gone uncounted in the 2004 elections, with states and counties that made the most comprehensive upgrades recovering the most votes, a new academic analysis says.

The report released Monday by the Caltech/MIT Voting Technology Project looked at a key measure of election integrity -- residual votes, or ballots cast during an election on which voters failed to mark a choice or machines did not record it.

It was one of the fundamental problems of the 2000 voting stalemate and a focus of subsequent reforms.

In every election, some voters intentionally leave the presidential contest blank, possibly as a protest or because they're uninterested. But experts estimate that should be, on average, roughly half of 1 percent of all ballots, and anything above that is likely caused by flaws with design, equipment or voter education.

More here: http://www.wired.com/news/evote/0,2645,66602,00.html?tw=wn_tophead_3

[MelissaB]

38. Schwarzenegger gets early blessing

Schwarzenegger gets early blessing

Items compiled from Tribune news services
Published February 14, 2005


SACRAMENTO, CALIFORNIA -- Although Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has not said whether he will seek re-election, the California Republican Party on Sunday changed a party rule and endorsed him 16 months before the 2006 gubernatorial primary.

Delegates at the state convention made the exception to party policy so Republicans can pay early expenses, such as bulk mailing and voter registration, should he decide to run again.

Link: http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0502140210feb14,1,2122364.story?coll=chi-newsnationworld-hed&ctrack=2&cset=true

[MelissaB]

39. Calif. GOP backs Arnold for full term

Calif. GOP backs Arnold for full term

By UNITED PRESS INTERNATIONAL

Published February 14, 2005

>>>snip

Political observers said that by endorsing now, the party can begin raising money for Schwarzenegger's re-election effort rather than waiting until just five months before the November 2006 contest to promote his bid.

The endorsement was nearly unanimous among the 1,288 delegates to the GOP's spring convention.

GOP California Assemblyman Chuck DeVore seconded the endorsement by referring to a line from Schwarzenegger's Friday speech to party activists in which he likened his agenda to a "train that has left the station."

The governor had advised his opponents to "join and jump on the train, go and stay behind and just wave, or get in front of the train, and you know what happens then."

Schwarzenegger has repeatedly declined to comment on his re-election plans, but his deputy chief of staff, Cassandra Pye, used her remarks to party delegates to thank them "on behalf of my boss" for their endorsement.


Link: http://www.wpherald.com/North_America/storyview.php?StoryID=20050214-032911-9703r

[dzika]

40. White supremacy tries to effect elections

February 14, 2005

How white supremacy festers

I’ve been writing for some time now about how right-wing extremists — especially white supremacists — have been growing increasingly bolder, increasingly aggressive in their recruitment efforts. In recent weeks, this seems to be ratcheting up yet another notch.

In Calumet City, Ill., someone has been using an unusually graphic form of graffiti to inject an ugly tone of racism into local politics:

Calumet City police said that on Wednesday and Saturday of last week, someone hung a mannequin attached to a noose from a billboard on Michigan City Road just west of Burnham Avenue. The mannequin was painted black, and racial slurs were spray-painted on the billboard, NBC5’s Darren Kramer reported.

Mayor Michelle Markiewicz Qualkinbush said her opponents have been taking unfair shots at her about race, and she thinks the hate crime was designed to hurt her. There is primary election in two weeks, and Qualkinbush said the crime had as much to do with politics as race.

“I can’t tell you in most recent memory when there has ever been an incident like this and I have to be suspect of this incident two weeks before a primary election,” Qualkinbush said.

more here: http://www.reachm.com/amstreet/archives/2005/02/14/how-white-supremacy-festers/

[MelissaB]

41. Aljazeera: Corporate Welfare: How come Lockheed gets food stamps and we...

Opinion Editorials, February 2005

Corporate Welfare: How come Lockheed gets food stamps and we don't?

>>>snip

And guess who else is on the corporate welfare roles? ES&S and Diebold. 80% of America's votes are counted on jankity voting machines that NOBODY would buy if they weren't government-subsidized. Even slot machines are a lot more reliable than these. When California's Secretary of State Kevin Shelley blew the whistle on Diebold in 2004, it was he, not the head of Diebold, who lost his job -- just another fabulous demonstration of Welfare Economics.

More: http://www.aljazeerah.info/Opinion%20editorials/2005%20Opinion%20Editorials/February/14%20o/Corporate%20Welfare%20How%20come%20Lockheed%20gets%20food%20stamps%20and%20we%20don't%20By%20Jane%20Stillwater.htm

[dzika]

42. Indiana SB 499 Passed - Voting equipment integrity and updates

February 14, 2005

Indiana SB 499 Passed - Voting equipment integrity and updates

Senate Bill 0499 I sure hope the digest is accurate on this one because these &*#@^& election law bills just wither the soul when one tries to read them. I'd like to blame Brad King, co-director of the Indiana Election Division, but I'm not at all certain this is his doing (or that election bills can be done with bills that are measured in page rather than by weight.) Anyway, the digest reads as follows:

Makes changes regarding the certification process for voting systems and establishes a uniform date for the expiration of voting system certifications. Establishes a voting systems technical oversight program. Requires county election boards to perform public tests of electronic voting systems before election day. Requires precinct election boards to document certain information concerning optical scan tabulation systems before the polls open. Establishes civil penalties for violations of statutes concerning the use of voting systems in Indiana elections. Requires a county that uses a punch card voting system to enter into a contract, not later than July 1, 2005, for a voting system certified for use in Indiana elections for delivery not later than January 1, 2006, and allows the secretary of state to purchase a voting system for the county if the county does not act. Permits a voting system previously certified for use in Indiana to continue to be used after the certification expires if the voting system complies with the requirements of HAVA. Repeals obsolete references to lever voting machines, punch card voting systems, and paper ballots formerly printed by the election division.

Passed 47-0.


source: http://www.masson.us/blog/archives/2005/02/sb_499_voting_e.html

[dzika]

43. A lie told often enough becomes truth

February 14, 2004

A lie told often enough becomes truth

...
Americans have been lied to before. We were lied to about the Gulf of Tonkin. We were lied to about Watergate. We were lied to about Iran-Contra. We were lied to about Gulf War I. Maybe we’ve grown accustomed to the lies.

This time around, however, we were lied to in spades. We were lied to about 9/11. We were lied to about what they knew and what they did. We were lied to about Iraq. We were lied to about links between Al Qaeda and Saddam. We were lied to about aluminum tubes and uranium deals and mushroom clouds. We were lied to about chemical weapons and imminent threats. We were lied to and lied to and lied to about the reasons for waging a war against Iraq. But most of America didn’t seem to care.

They lied by commission and they lied by omission. They never told us that PNAC planned the wars they waged. They embellished the numbers in their tiny coalition and hid the body count of Iraqi civilians. They lied about the systemic torture of prisoners in Iraq and Afghanistan and Guantanamo – and threw the blame to a few bad apples in the lowest echelons of the military.

And they lied with straight faces about how safe we were as a result of their policies. They lied, and lied, and most of America was lulled into complacency. After all, they agreed, we were attacked on 9/11, and this, after all, was payback time. One lie gave rise to another and another and another, until all the lines were blurred. And most Americans, dunned by talk of terror and annihilation…were taken in.

And now they boast about the election in Iraq! The election, they say….the election…they repeat…is all that matters. That one day…they insist…is all that counts. All the lies are irrelevant. All the lies no longer matter. The election set up by the occupiers negates the lies. The election organized by the invaders vindicates the liars. Their logic is astounding, but they hope that millions of Americans agree. And millions of Americans do.

Is that really possible? Is there something about being lied to that does not offend our sensibilities? Is there something about being lied to that is not an affront to our dignity? Is there something about being lied to by those in power that does not frighten us to the core?

Is it really possible that millions of Americans would willingly ignore the consequences of four years of deliberate and unabashed lies? Tragically, it seems that it is.
...
And so it is. Bush and company were rewarded by a gullible American electorate in November. Condoleezza Rice was promoted for her dishonesty. Donald Rumsfeld and Paul Wolfowitz are still in charge of the Department of Defense. Colin Powell left his post unscathed by his shameless performances at the United Nations. But the lies go on.
...
Lies may be an inherent part of politics and power, but lies of such consequence cannot be tolerated. This country has been heading into an abyss for the past four years, - powered by a litany of lies orchestrated to distort the aims and ambitions of the Bush/PNAC administration. A continuing path of self-destruction is up to the people of this nation who have two choices and two choices only: Follow blindly or condemn the Liars.

There must be a cry of outrage, rather than the silence of acquiescence. There has to be support for the legislators who demand investigations that may uncover the truth. There has to be a clear demand for accountability from those whose lies have laid the groundwork for American policy here and abroad.

We live in an age in which communication is instant. Messages to television networks, newspaper editors, and to elected officials can be sent and received in seconds. Let them know that you know. Let them know that you will not tolerate another four years of lies and distortions, and let them know that you will hold them accountable for refusing to respond to your anger.

As a nation, we did not demand honesty in November. The American people assured their government that it was perfectly all right to lie at will. It either stops right now, or it will go on as a standard method of operation for a very long time, and democracy as we once knew it will completely disintegrate beyond recognition.


more here: http://www.tvnewslies.org/html/the_liars__den.html

[dzika]

44. Barbara Boxer to Receive 5,000 Roses!

Sun Feb 13th, 2005 at 16:24:22 PST

Barbara Boxer to Receive 5,000 Roses!

by clb8


Well, actually between 4500 and 6000; Stacy didn't tell me whether the florist was going with 3 or 4 roses per order...oh, and I apologize in advance for her direct mention of my name (she doesn't blog and doesn't understand that everyone on DailyKos has their "own diary", as it were).

Point is - this community helped make it happen. Stacy's Press Release (she emailed me a copy) below the fold.

For Immediate Release

Senator Boxer to receive bouquet of 5,000 Roses on Valentine's Day!

Senator Barbara Boxer of California will receive a bouquet of almost 5,000 roses from supporters and constituents across the country on Valentine's Day, February 14th, as a loving thank you for her recent outstanding service in the Senate. Organized by Stacy Davies of Claremont, California, the roses will be delivered February 14th to the Hart Senate Building office of Barbara Boxer in Washington DC. at 3:30 p.m. EST.

The note included with the flowers will read: "Dear Senator Boxer: You are a shining example of what a civil servant can, and should, be, and we, your constituents and supporters, deeply appreciate your heroic charge to bring accountability, responsibility and honesty back into our government."

Senator Boxer has recently emerged as the leading voice in the fight against the Bush Administration's destructive mandates both abroad and at home. She has disputed the questionable Ohio 2004 election vote, elegantly denied Condoleezza Rice a confirmation vote, and almost single-handedly stood up for the principles of freedom, truth, and accountability we expect from our elected officials. A grand public thank-you is in order

"I was so completely taken with Senator Boxer's candid and eloquent remarks during the Rice conformation hearings--her intelligence and her passion--that I thought it would be wonderful to send her roses on Valentine's Day to show my gratitude," says Davies, a freelance writer and DJ at the Claremont Colleges in Claremont, California. "Coast to Coast Florist (1-888-269-5297) was the first name to pop up on Google. I explained to the company's CEO Art Conforti, that my idea was that people be charged a simple $10 for three red roses that would then be sent, en masse. It didn't take long before he enthusiastically told me he would create the pledge line, set up a toll free number and retrain his reps. After we worked out the final details and I hung up, I was in a daze--it was going to happen!"

"I emailed my friends and all of the liberal web sites I could think of. It was Mike Malloy of Air America Radio who unknowingly provided the next much-needed step in this campaign. The day after receiving my email, he apparently talked about it on the air, with other hosts like Randi Rhodes joining in a few days later."

"In Arizona, a woman named Cynthia Black overheard Mike on the radio that night. Cynthia happens to be a major blogger, with her own diary on DailyKos.com. She posted the story and info, and the emails and phone calls to the florist poured in!"

"Responding to the flood of emails was time-consuming, but I was so grateful for the responses that I answered every one of them. It was important to me that people knew I was just one person, not even an activist, really, who happened to set a wheel in motion. No one backed me, I was with no group or club, and I certainly wasn't a corporation!"

"I received a call from Senator Boxer this past Friday. I told her that the grassroots response had been overwhelmingly positive, that we'd received emails from every state and even a few from abroad. She was gracious and very moved. She said she plans to keep just a few of the roses and will be sending the rest to the VA hospital for the `people who have been casualties of this administration's disastrous policies.' She told me she's looking forward to seeing Secretary Rice again this Thursday and said `Boy, do I have some questions for her!'

If you'd like more information about this wonderful event, please call 562-706-7262 or send an email to [e-mail].

source: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/2/13/192422/372

[dzika]

45. Federal court case for Constitutional Convention to protect voter rights

Federal court case filed for Constitutional Convention to protect voter rights

If the people lead, the leaders will follow.


February 10, 2005: There is a case currently before the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.

The case comes down to this: The Constitution requires that 34 states must apply before a constitutional convention can be called. All 50 states have applied, submitting a total of over 500 applications. Congress has failed to put out the call, thus illegally preventing a national convention from taking place.

The district court ruled that Congress has the authority to decide if it must obey a clause of the Constitution, giving that body—and presumably every citizen—the power to veto clauses of the Constitution it disagrees with.

Must Congress obey the Constitution or not? If the court says it does, there is a convention. If it says it does not, there is officially no longer a Constitution to protect American citizens. It's as simple as that, and we will know the answer soon.

The case and more information about it can be found at: http://www.article5.org

The following text outlines an interesting political idea.

---

January 12, 2005: Americans want to believe that their system of voting works. Concerning the recent elections, it is now clearer than ever the current system is broken and in need of repair.

Of the 120,000,000 votes cast on Election Day roughly a third were processed by electronic voting machines supplied by private corporations. The source code/software these machines operated on enjoyed the protection granted to private interests (proprietary).

In states that relied extensively on paper ballots the exit polls corresponded to the final tally. In states that relied extensively on electronic machines the exit polls did not correspond to the final tally.

Voters in eleven states reported touching screens to vote for a candidate, and seeing their ballot marked for another.

Besides the current state of the electoral system, within the last three years, America has witnessed clear breaches of ethics between the judicial, executive, and legislative branches. The core idea of the U.S. Constitution is that if, for whatever reason, any generation of America witnesses such abuses, they can retrieve it from whatever forces may have overtaken it.

One amendment to the Constitution could achieve that goal. The 28th amendment could secure America’s electoral process from corporate interests.

CC2 has registered with UFPJ http://www.unitedforpeace.org. UFPJ is an association of over 1,000 activist groups involved in issues as diverse as current military policy, media reform, civil and voting rights, health care reform, global trade, and environmental protections. These groups are currently practicing democracy in a plutocracy.

CC2 will send delegates to the UFPJ National Assembly in St. Louis, Missouri, 2/19/05, to propose that for the month of March, 2005, they adopt a strategy to re-direct its resources into calling for an Article V Convention.


more here: http://www.cc2.com/land.html

[dzika]

46. A note from Barbara Boxer with pictures of her roses

From: Barbara Boxer

I hope all of you have a wonderful Valentine's Day and that you get to spend it with those you love. Let's especially remember our brave men and women in uniform serving overseas on this holiday who won't be spending Valentine's Day at home. Thanks to your generosity, our wounded soldiers recovering at Bethesda Naval Hospital and Walter Reed Army Medical Center will also be able to enjoy your thoughtful gift -- we sent the roses there this afternoon.

We've got a lot of work ahead of us. But every once in a while it's nice to stop and smell the roses. Thanks again for such a warm and generous gift.

Have a happy Valentine's Day!

In Friendship,

Barbara Boxer

P.S. I've attached a couple photos from this afternoon. This is what 4,500 roses looks like!