Mark Crispin Miller with a "Head's Up!"

[galloglas]

This message was received, with attendant URL's, the day before yesterday. I think that the underlined sentence, in particular, bears remembering.

Hopefully, it will mean, "Here's a slammer for you, Vu!"


From MCM:

Friends, I'm still out of commission, with a nasty virus (the kind that
afflicts humans)and a wee bit of work left on the new intro to the forthcoming paperback of Fooled Again. This is (still) why you haven't heard from me.

But this news cannot wait (although I'm waiting for the media to catch up with it). It's now been proved in court that BushCo did indeed deliberately subvert the recount in Ohio after the 2004 election.

Spread the word. Too many Democrats are tuning out the issue of election fraud, and the dire need for radical reform, because they lately won so many seats in Congress. Actually, the evidence suggests that they won quite a few more than they think; but they're so grateful and relieved to have won any seats at all that they're not fighting
for the ones they only seemed to lose; and they're not talking about fixing the whole system.

So please do spread the word.

MCM



Ohio poll workers convicted

From the Associated Press
January 25, 2007

CLEVELAND -- Two election workers were convicted Wednesday of rigging a
recount of the 2004 presidential election to avoid a more thorough
review in Ohio's most populous county.

Jacqueline Maiden, elections coordinator of the Cuyahoga County
Elections Board, and ballot manager Kathleen Dreamer each were convicted of a felony count of negligent misconduct by an elections employee. They also were convicted of one misdemeanor count each of failure to perform their duty as elections employees.

Prosecutors accused Maiden and Dreamer of secretly reviewing preselected ballots before a public recount on Dec. 16, 2004. They worked behind closed doors for three days to pick ballots they knew would not cause discrepancies when checked by hand, prosecutors said.

Ohio gave President Bush the electoral votes he needed to defeat
Democratic Sen. John F. Kerry in the close election and hold on to the
White House in 2004.

Maiden and Dreamer will be sentenced Feb. 26.

More:

1. Two Cuyahoga County, Ohio, Election Officials Convicted of Felony and
Misdemeanor for 2004 Election; One Official Acquitted
_http://fairnessbybeckerman.blogspot.com/2007/01/two-cuyahoga-county-ohio- election.html_
(http://fairnessbybeckerman.blogspot.com/2007/01/two-cuyahoga-county-ohio- election.html)

2. TWO OHIO ELECTION OFFICIALS CONVICTED FOR RIGGING 2004 PRESIDENTIAL
RECOUNT!
Will be Questioned by Special Prosecutor Before Sentencing to Learn if Higher Ups Involved

RELATED: Kerry Drops Out of 2008 Race. In Advance This Time.

FULL STORY:_http://www.bradblog.com/?p=4071_(http://www.bradblog.com/?p=4071)

[The Count]

1. You'd think the two candidates would let us know....

[Botany]

2. head of elections Vu goes to head of the BOE in Cuyahoga County,

Bob Bennett, (also chair of the Ohio GOP), and he goes right to the White House.

People, please keep pushing this issue we a very close to busting "it" wide open.



I bet you that the 2 poll workers are being offered big bucks to take the fall.

[galloglas]

4. Yep! Taking a fall

I bet you that the 2 poll workers are being offered big bucks to take the fall.

You can bet on that!

On the other hand, the prosecutor's again have the opportunity to weigh in on the sentencing if these two co-operate.

And, facing three years hard time, they may be going "Doh!!" and slapping their foreheads (ala Homer Simpson) for not taking the plea bargain that I am quite sure the prosecutors offered before this went to trial.

Reflecting on a payoff, I hope they are thinking "Yeah. Sure. Show Me the Money! You said we would never get convicted. Fool me once, shame on you! Fool me twice, shame on me!"

Let us pray, anyway!

[bleever]

9. Maybe Karl Rove sat idly by while the recount got under way.

:rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl:

[galloglas]

14. I just LOVE that picture !

Someday, if I am ever rich (not likely), I want to have Da Vinci or Michelangelo brought back to life. Then have them paint that picture for me, on shiny porcelain. When it is finished, I will have a toilet torn out and that shiny, porcelain urinal put up in its place.

Ahhh, dreams! Such as to escape this fractious life...

[diva77]

16. hilarious, gallo! [pls. ask Da Vinci about "mysterious expression" on Susan

Ralston's face while you're at it.]

thanks!

:spray:

[galloglas]

11. Another thread where it spells out the prosecutor's offer

Algorem started this thread, orginating with a piece from Freepress.

If accurate, it spells out the first offer to the (now) guilty ones. Question is, will they go down the rat hole for the "Real Rats", whose "tail" may stretch from Cleveland to Washington?



Check out the snippet below:

Defense attorney Roger Synenberg was passionate about learning what was on the audiotape, since he represents one of those defendants, ballot manager Kathy Dreamer. Kevin Baxter, the special prosecutor assigned to the case, didn't want to give it up.

"It affects further investigations," Baxter told the judge. "It may compromise witnesses in future investigations. It may contain info about other uncharged suspects." Specifically, elections director Michael Vu.

Baxter has offered immunity to another defendant, Jacqueline Maiden, who worked as elections coordinator in 2004, if she'll implicate Vu in these crimes. He has offered Dreamer diversion (avoiding a criminal record, in this case) if she'll do the same. So far, neither has accepted his offer. In fact, Dreamer offered to take a polygraph to prove she doesn't know anything...



http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x465909

[bleever]

12. Wow, how did I miss that?

Intriguing. :thumbsup:

[EST]

3. This has been a beacon of hope and joy ever since it appeared,

thursday or friday.
Brad has been of enormous value in keeping the horns blowing on the issue of election fraud.
However, there are times when his opinion of himself seems to inflate to match his, admittedly justified, dislike of John Kerry.

"Oh, wait, that was just about everyone else other than The BRAD BLOG, across the near-entirety of both the MSM and the bulk of the Progressive blogosphere.

Although he is right about the warm stream media, there were thousands of activists and dog knows haw many bloggers working on election fraud.

[galloglas]

5. Yes!! This was citizen involvement that nailed the case.

It was a citizen, exercising her right to film the recount, that provided the inescapable evidence of the fraud. It was that film which nailed the case shut.

Below is an email from her which came in within an hour of the verdict. Many know this person, and anyone can check the court records for the ID. But, despite this person's passionate advocacy for election reform, in the public sphere, this particular caper was done as a citizen.

And as a citizen goes, no one did better work (and I include those thousands of activists and bloggers in the definition of "citizen").



I was informed about a half hour ago, the jury rendered its verdict of the three election officials charged with potential election fraud in the 2004 Recount in Cuyahoga County, Ohio.

Jacqui Maiden and Kathleen Dreamer were convicted of one the most serious felony counts of negligent misconduct and one misdemeanor of failing to perform duties.

The professional misconduct charge carries a possible 6 to 18-month prison term and an automatic termination from the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections.

The third defendant, Rosie Grier, was found not guilty of all charges.

Both women were released on bail. Sentencing for Maiden and Dreamer is scheduled for February 26th.

This is a bitter sweet victory for election integrity advocates throughout the country.

Sweet because it proved, without a doubt, that with the proper access, oversight, participation and the right for citizens to videotape every phase of the election process, the integrity of our elections can be protected and maintained, without the need for expert intervention and oversight. We should begin to the drum beat for HCPB Now, not later, because it was citizen oversight that made this trial possible and the election officials held accountable for violating Ohio election code. No small victory for citizen empowerment!

Bitter because the outcome of this case also calls into question whether the training procedures for these election employees were properly carried out by Election Director, Michael Vu. If it is found that Vu failed in his duty as Election Director to properly train Maiden and Dreamer in following these recount procedures in accordance with Ohio election code, this makes him at least partially responsible for these election employees failing to appropriately following the law.

Neither Vu nor Deputy Director, Gwen Dillingham deserve a free pass in this case, because it still remains to be seen whether they were remiss in their respective duties to make certain all election employees under their charge received the proper training necessary in making certain that all election laws would be properly followed by their subordinates. After all, that's their job.

[Morgana LaFey]

6. This is explosive -- there was a definitive link to BUSHCO?

in this trial? I hadn't seen that. DOes anyone have that link?

It's now been proved in court that BushCo did indeed deliberately subvert the recount in Ohio after the 2004 election.

Surely someone has a link???

[Ellipsis]

7. Not yet...

that I'm aware of anyway.

Supposition. Wishful thinking.

Bennett would be the logical connection.

http://www.gop.com/States/StateDetails.aspx?state=OH

Edited to add: good background article from 2005 from Common Dreams

Attack on Election Board Whistleblower and Leaked Blackwell Threats Re-fire Ohio's Election Theft Scandal
by Bob Fitrakis and Harvey Wasserman

http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0523-29.htm

[galloglas]

8. Is this the link? Fitrakis & Wasserman?

Perhaps this is the link you wanted?


Do new Ohio recount prosecutions indicate unraveling of 2004 election theft cover-up?
by Bob Fitrakis & Harvey Wasserman
January 19, 2007

Three criminal prosecutions in Ohio's biggest county have opened with strong indications that the cover-up of the theft of the 2004 presidential election is starting to unravel. Prosecutors say these cases involve "rigging" the recount in Cuyahoga County (Cleveland), where tens of thousands of votes were shifted from John Kerry to George W. Bush, or else never counted. Meanwhile, corroborating evidence continues to surface throughout Ohio illuminating the GOP's theft of the presidency. According to the AP, County Prosecutor Kevin Baxter opened the Cuyahoga trial by charging that "the evidence will show that
this recount was rigged, maybe not for political reasons, but rigged
nonetheless. Baxter said the three election workers "did this so they could spend a day rather than weeks or months" on the recount.

Jacqueline Maiden, the county election board's third-ranking employee, faces six counts of misconduct involving ballot review. Rosie Grier, the board's ballot department manager, and Kathleen Dreamer, an assistant manager, are also charged. All three are on paid administrative leave, and are being supported by the county board of elections.

The county prosecutors do not allege vote fraud. No do they say mishandling the recount affected the election's outcome.

But Cleveland, which usually gives Democrats an extremely heavy margin, was crucial to Bush's alleged victory of roughly 118,000 votes out of 5.5 million counted. Some 600,000 votes were cast or counted in Cuyahoga County. But official turnout and vote counts varied wildly and improbably from precinct to precinct. Overall the county reported about a 60% turnout. But several predominantly black precincts, where voters went more than 80% for Kerry, reported turnouts of 30% or less. In one ward, only a 7% turnout was reported, while surrounding precincts were nearly ten times as high. Independent studies indicate Kerry lost thousands of votes in Cuyahoga County that rightfully should
have been counted in his column.

In the Cuyahoga case, the poll workers are charged with circumventing state recount laws that require a random sampling of at least three percent of the votes cast in a given precinct, to be recounted by hand and by machine. The prosecution charges that the workers instead hand picked sample precincts to recount that they knew did not have questionable results. Once they were able to match those recounts with official results, they could then do the rest of the recount by machine, in effect rendering the entire process meaningless. "This was a very hush operation," said prosecutor Baxter.

More here:

3. http://www.freepress.org/departments/display/19/2007/2362

[autorank]

10. Isn't that the truth. It's time to clean things up. KR

The Democratic victory came because there was just enough bright light on the nasty processes in some areas of this country and there were just enough eyes looking. Even so, there were 8-12 elections that made no sense - consistent leads in district specific election polls for the Congressional races and a loss in all but two of the quesitonable races. That bears investigation.

But we have proposals in Congres, from Democrats proposing to fix the machines. How about fixing the fact that the voting machines are owned/operated by those who hare highly favorable to right wing Republican politicians and causes.

Can you imagine Mellon-Scaife owing a voting machine company?

Get rid of the machines, hand count paper ballots (like Kucinich's bill proposes) and move on to restored trust and lots more voting.

Excellent post.

[galloglas]

13. Mellon-Scaife owning a voting machine company?

Can you imagine Mellon-Scaife owing a voting machine company?

You mean they DON'T?

Well, only time (and Ourselves Alone) will prevent that!



To All.

Ok, Team, now listen up! Time to get in gear. Tell those Congresspersons (and all the other "officials" downstream) what we want!
HCPBs Now!, precinct counted and posted at the door!


What else?

Yes, that's it! Full transparency.


What that mean?

The vote count can be watched by anyone who wishes, photographed, filmed or sculpted by anyone who wants to!

And keep the ballots available for ever forever. Photocopy them and put them online, just like birth certificates


What else?

That's it! Citizen oversight, if not ultimate control, of all elections. Those people work for us, not the other way around!

They should hold the elections the way we choose, not the way that Mellon Scaife, Ahmannson, Deepwater and Halliburton, Inc., wish us to!

Ok, team. Let's go out in the second half and eat their lunches!

[autorank]

17. "Melon-Scaiffe like" owenrs of voting machine companies

Melon-Scaife funded the Clinton teardown through investigations, publications, "exerts" and even think tanks. The inside work, it seems was carried out in the privacy of the polling computerized vote management software, which we can't see. What a great operation. Lets see if the people ever get the real software from FL 13.

Hand counted paper ballots, open registration inclusive of all, full citizen access to all aspects of the voting process...NOW, not later.

[Stevepol]

15. This remains the most critical issue in America today! And it will remain so...

until our elections are conducted with at least minimal verification. Until we can be sure the secret vote counting is not defrauding us of our democracy, this has to be THE BIGGEST ISSUE IN THE COUNTRY.

None of the other issues can even be addressed if we can't get reasonable and at least minimally idealistic Congressmen and women.

Otherwise, more wars and horrible laws and the kind of representation being played out in the Senate right now by the Publicans.