Monday 1/24/05 Election/Fraud/Recount/Protest Thread

In order to organize and document I thought it would be a good idea to have a daily thread to place items related to the recounts/fraud. 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.


(I can't link to the thread from yesterday because it doesn't seem to exist anymore. If anyone knows why it disappeared, please post here. If we made a mistake, we need to know so that it doesn't happen again. Also, I'm blocked from this site at work, so I won't have time to work on it until this afternoon. Another thanks to those who are helping with this.)

Jan. 23, 2005, 10:37PM

Lawmakers, crank up your engines

Vo-Heflin election challenge to begin;
Senate budget hearings also start

By CLAY ROBISON

AUSTIN - After a week off, state legislators return to work today, anticipating committee assignments and Gov. Rick Perry's traditional State of the State address this week.

Business over the next few days also will include an election contest in the House and the start of Senate budget hearings.

State Rep. Will Harnett, R-Dallas, named "master of discovery" by Speaker Tom Craddick, will hear evidence Thursday on former Republican state Rep. Talmadge Heflin's challenge of his 33-vote loss to Democrat Hubert Vo in southwest Houston's District 149.

The full House, which ultimately will decide the case, could uphold Vo's election, order Heflin seated or require the governor to call a new election. Heflin says the election was marred by voting irregularities, an allegation that Vo denies.


http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/metropolitan/3005679

Sunday, January 23, 2005 · Last updated 3:57 p.m. PT

Election law in Washington state

As the legal challenge to the governor's election makes its way through the courts, lawyers from both sides will focus on chapter 29A.68 of state statute, which governs election challenges. Some relevant sections:



Never before has a governor's election been challenged in Washington State. But other election challenges have made it to the state Supreme Court. Here are excerpts from two rulings:


continued
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/aplocal_story.asp?category=6420&slug=WA%20Election%20Challenge%20Legal%20Glance

(this appears to be a right-leaning article but interesting)

January 23, 2005

Calling GOP! Sailer Vindicated On Marriage Gap…And Immigration?

By Steve Sailer


The prominent Democratic polling firm Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research, headed by Stanley Greenberg, has issued an important analysis of the 2004 Presidential election.

It validates my recent conclusion on VDARE.com: the "Marriage Gap" is the single best way to understanding why states vote Republican or Democrat.

As you will recall, I found that Bush's share of the vote by state correlated (at the extraordinarily high level of r = 0.91, in quant speak) with the average years married among white women ages 18 to 44 in those states.

And, I went on to argue, GOP success depends far more than you'd expect upon whether voters can afford a house big enough for a spouse and several children.

Some readers countered that, to be sure that marriage matters, I needed to look at the individual level as well as the state level.

Well, now Greenberg’s individual polling data has confirmed my approach.

Greenberg's new report "Unmarried Women in the 2004 Presidential Election" (PDF format) finds that:



Greenberg apparently has access to the unpublished individual level data from the 2004 exit poll data. So he can do "cross-tabulations" on narrow demographic breakdowns.

(How about those exit polls? While I was, correctly, disputing their initially inflated Hispanic share figures for Bush, I contended that the 2004's exit poll was unusually shoddy. And last week, my assessment was confirmed by the polling company's own report on its performance—as summarized by Mystery Pollster. Still, the figures for single vs. married voters seem relatively untroubled, and they coincide well with my own analysis of the raw exit poll data from the 2002 Congressional elections. The 2004 exit poll numbers also aren't too far off from a phone poll Greenberg conducted right after the election.)

Greenberg found that:





continued
http://vdare.com/sailer/050123_vindicated.htm

Columns
Bob Fitrakis

J. Kenneth Blackwell: The “J” is for Judas

January 23, 2005

Ohio Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell is perhaps the single most opportunistic politician in the history of Ohio. His career began in Cincinnati in the 1970s and progressed to statewide office until today. Along the way, he metamorphed from a charter reform Democrat, into a Carter Democrat, then a New Democrat, then an Independent, then a moderate Republican, then a conservative Republican, and is now the state’s leading reactionary right-wing Republican.

Blackwell has always represented opportunism in search of a political position. His flamboyant rhetorical style has never changed, as he has gone from arguing for civil rights to recently comparing himself to Gandhi and King as he offered himself up for arrest in defiance of a federal court ordering him to count provisional ballots cast within a voter’s county.

Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell has come under intense fire for his role in officiating the disputed Ohio balloting and vote count. Blackwell served as co-chair of the Bush-Cheney campaign while running an election he says went “smoothly.” The fact that the vast majority of voters he disenfranchised are poor and minorities is lost upon the born-again Blackwell who has staked out the far right-wing of Ohio politics populated by intolerant bigots and white supremacists.

Blackwell will gladly do their bidding if they will anoint him governor.

In many ways, Blackwell is similar to George Wallace, who decided that in order to be governor of Alabama he would have to be the greatest racist in that state’s history. Blackwell relished the position as co-chair of the Bush-Cheney re-election campaign in Ohio. His partisan activities are now notorious.

continued
http://www.freepress.org/columns/display/3/2005/1049

January 23, 2005

Voting Problems and Uncounted Votes in Lucas County, Ohio

by Justine Smith

I wish to acknowledge the work of Pat Lent, Brian Taylor and Cindy Darrah who contributed research and ideas for this paper. Dan Kornacki converted the data from Lucas County into an Excel Spreadsheet.

This report contains overwhelming evidence of voter suppression in Lucas County, Ohio.

A list of voters who voted provisionally was obtained from the Lucas County Board of Elections. The report listed name, address, precinct voted in and reason for the vote being invalidated. Voter turnout data by precinct was obtained from the Lucas County Board of Elections website. Other information was obtained over the telephone from the Lucas County Board of Elections and the Wayne County City Clerk’s office.

A large number of citizens voted by provisional ballot in Lucas County on November 2nd and most of the uncounted provisional votes were cast in Toledo.

Lucas County Provisional Votes
Total Provisional Votes - 4,469
Votes Not Counted - 3,123
Provisional Votes Counted - 1,346

The unofficial figure for votes counted was 215,720 in Lucas County. Of these 133,977 were in Toledo and 81,743 were in suburbs and townships in Lucas County.

As a basis of comparison, I looked at the provisional votes cast in Detroit and Wayne County. Detroit is less than an hours drive from Toledo. The two cities have a lot in common. Both are great lakes cities with a history of heavy manufacturing that have suffered severe job losses in the past four years. Michigan’s Electoral College voted for Kerry while Ohio’s voted for Bush.

more
http://www.freepress.org/departments/display/19/2005/1116

New links

by Free Press staff
January 23, 2005

A few of links have come to our attention lately that we don't think you've seen before.

Check 'em out:

http://www.votersunite.org/MB2.pdf

http://home.att.net/~m.standridge/AR04graph.htm#h1

http://www.rememberohio.org



source
http://www.freepress.org/departments/display/19/2005/1115

Arkansas in 2004: Did Bush Really Win?

by Max Standridge
January 24, 2005

Past Election Patterns, Pre-Election, Tracking and Exit Poll Patterns, Bill Clinton, Vote Discrepancies, Undervotes, and A "Convenient" Power Failure in Little Rock, All Combine to Suggest Otherwise

This report will be based on several categories of data, both historical and statistical in nature, which strongly suggest that John Kerry was making a showing in the American south in the 2004 election.

1. Past election patterns: A common myth the media have often deliberately or otherwise purveyed, has been that there is a "monolithic" South, in which all Southern states fall into a set pattern, with similar percentages of victory for Republicans versus non-Southerner Democratics. This pattern can be seriously challenged when one examines individual vote tallies in individual southern states, on a year-by-year basis. The most telling examples will be found in those election years in which the Republican supposedly "swept" the entire South, or virtually the entire South.

1972: Richard Nixon is supposedly re-elected as the first Republican President to carry the South. His vote patterns are described in the news media as representing a "realignment" of the entire South with conservative voting patterns. But serious problems begin to emerge when one examines certain Southern states, as to how votes are actually falling in various categories. For example, George Wallace's Alabama probably would not have been in Nixon's column, even had Wallace not been anywhere on the Democratic ticket, under normal circumstances. However, Wallace, at that time, was hospitalized in the wake of a shooting incident in a Florida mall while he'd been campaigning for the Democratic Presidential nomination.

Then-Democratic Presidential candidate George McGovern's taking Sen. Thomas Eagleton, D-MO, from his VP spot and replacing him with Sargent Shriver of Maryland had an impact on those two states, one of which is regarded as a "border" state (MO), while the other (MD) is regarded loosely as a "southern" state. While much was made of a Nixon "over two to one sweep" of votes throughout the South, it can be seen from the vote tallies in both Missouri and Maryland that Nixon's margins were far lower than 2-1 in those two states.

In addition, disaffection with the Republicans in the South is reflected in the fact that a Virginia Elector cast one vote for the Libertarian Presidential ticket of John Hospers and Theodora Nathan. This prevented Nixon from claiming all the South's Electoral votes.

continued
http://www.freepress.org/departments/display/19/2005/1119

Monday, January 24, 2005

Dead voters won't count in Rossi's election challenge

Constitutional issues will be key instead

By REBECCA COOK
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

WENATCHEE -- Allegations of dead voters and election fraud elicit gasps from outraged voters and pundits, but they won't really matter in the legal challenge to the Washington governor's election.

As legal arguments unfolded in court last week, it became clear the case will turn instead on a close reading of the state constitution. Who has jurisdiction over election challenges -- the courts or the Legislature? What is an "illegal vote"? What kind of proof does the constitution require to nullify an election?

These questions lack the sexy sparkle of voting felons, true, but the answers will determine whether Gov. Christine Gregoire stays in office.
...

Republicans contend that election workers' errors, especially in the Democratic stronghold of King County, irrevocably tainted the results by allowing illegal votes to be counted.

Democrats argue that while mistakes were made, the hand recount was accurate and Gregoire is the legitimate governor.

Before the case even gets to questions about illegal votes, however, Democrats hope to get it dismissed on jurisdictional grounds.

Democrats argue the election challenge should go to the Legislature, not the courts.


continued
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/209121_elexlaw24.html

The Republicans better give this one up. If I were them, voter fraud issues are the last thing I would want to focus the media on.

Students Kick Out Military Recruiters on J20

Someone sent me this description of the J20 protest at a Seattle college:

(from Newsgroup soc.culture.usa)

I, George W. Bush Jr:


Past Work Experience :

• I ran for US Congress and lost.
  
• I produced a Hollywood slasher B movie.
  
• I bought an oil company, but couldn't find any oil in Texas; the company went bankrupt shortly after I sold all my stock.
  
• I bought the Texas Rangers baseball team in a sweetheart deal that took land using taxpayer money.
  
• With my father's help and name, I was elected Governor of Texas.

Accomplishments as Governor

• I changed pollution laws in favor of the power and oil companies and made Texas the most polluted state in the Union.
  
• I replaced Los Angeles with Houston as the most smog-ridden city in America.
  
• I cut taxes and bankrupted Texas government to the tune of billions in borrowed money.
  
• I set the record for the most executions by any Governor in American history.
  
• I became US President after losing the popular vote by over 500,000 votes with the help of major Enron money and my father's appointments to the Supreme Court.

Accomplishments as President

• I attacked and overtook two countries.
  
• I spent the US surplus and effectively bankrupted the US Treasury.
  
• I shattered the record for the largest annual deficit in US history.
  
• I set an economic record for most private bankruptcies filed in any 12-month period.
  
• I set the all-time record for the biggest drop in the history of the US stock market.
  
• My record for environmental issues is the least of my concerns.
  
• I am the first president in US history to enter office with a criminal record.
  
• I set the all-time record for most days on vacation in any one year period.
  
• After taking-off the entire month of August, I then presided over the worst security failure in US history.
  
• I am supporting development of a "Tactical Bunker Buster" nuke, a WMD.
  
• I am getting our troops killed, under the lie of Sadam's procurement of Yellow Cake Nuke WMD components, then blaming the lie on our British friends.
  
• I set the record for most campaign fundraising trips by a US president.
  
• In my first year in office over 2-million Americans lost their jobs and that trend continues every month.
  
• I set the all-time record for most foreclosures in a 12-month period.
  
• I appointed more convicted criminals to administration than any president in US history.
  
• I set the record for least amount of press conferences than any president since the advent of television.
  
• I signed more laws and executive orders effectively amending or ignoring the Constitution than any president in history.
  
• I presided over the biggest energy crisis in US history and refused to intervene when corruption involving the oil industry was revealed.
  
• I presided over the highest gasoline prices in US history and refused to use national reserves as past presidents have done.
  
• I have cut health care benefits for war veterans and support a cut in duty benefits for active duty troops and their families -- in war time.
  
• I have set the all-time record for most people worldwide to simultaneously protest me in public venues (15 million people) shattering the record for protest against any person in the history of mankind.
  
• I've dissolved more international treaties than any president in US history.
  
• I've made my presidency the most secretive and unaccountable of any in US history.
  
• I'm proud that the members of my cabinet are the richest of any
  administration in US history. My "poorest millionaire," Condoleeza Rice, has a Chevron oil tanker named after her.
  
• I am the first president in US history to have almost all 50 states of the Union simultaneously suffer massive financial crisis.
  
• I presided over the biggest corporate stock market fraud of any market in any country in history.
  
• I am the first president in US history to order a preemptive attack and the military occupation of a sovereign nation, and I did so against the will of the United Nations and the world community.
  
• I created the largest government department bureaucracy in the history of the United States.
  
• I set the all-time record for biggest annual budget spending increases, more than any president in history.
  
• I am the first president in US history to have the United Nations remove the US from the Human Rights Commission.
  
• I am the first president in US history to have the United Nations remove the US from the Elections Monitoring Board.
  
• I removed more checks and balances, and have the least amount of
  congressional oversight than any presidential administration in US history.
  
• I rendered the entire United Nations viewpoints irrelevant.
  
• I withdrew the US from the World Court of Law.
  
• I refused to allow inspectors access to US "prisoners of war" (detainees) and thereby have refused to abide by the Geneva Convention.
  
• I am the first president in history to refuse United Nations election inspectors (during the 2002 US election).
  
• I am the all-time US and world record-holder for receiving the most corporate campaign donations. My largest lifetime campaign contributor, and one of my best friends, (Kenneth Lay, former CEO of Enron Corporation) presided over the largest corporate bankruptcy fraud in US history.
  
• My political party used the Enron private jets and corporate attorneys to assure my success with the US Supreme Court during my election decision.
  
• I have spent more money on polls and focus groups than any president in US history.
  
• I garnered the most sympathy for the US after the World Trade Center attacks and less than a year later made the US the most resented country in the world, possibly the largest failure of diplomacy in World history.
  
• I am actively working on a policy of "disengagement" creating the most hostile of Israel-Palestine relations in at least 30 years.
  I am first president in history to have a majority of Europeans (71%) view my presidency as the biggest threat to world peace and security.
  
• I am the first US president in history to have the people of South Korea more threatened by the US than by their immediate neighbor, North Korea.
  
• I changed the US policy to allow convicted criminals to be awarded government contracts.
  
• I set an all-time record for the number of administration appointees who violated US law by not selling their huge personal investments in corporations bidding for US contracts.
  
• I failed to fulfill my pledge to capture Osama Bin Laden, dead or alive.
  
• I failed to capture the anthrax killer who tried to murder the leaders of our country at the US Capitol Building. Even after 18 months I have no leads and no credible suspects.
  
• In the past 18 months following the World Trade Center attack I have successfully prevented any public investigation into the biggest security failure in the history of the United States.
  
• I removed more freedoms and civil liberties for Americans than any president in US history.
  
• In a little over two years, I created the most divided country in decades, possibly the most divided since the Civil War.
  
• I entered my office with the strongest economy in US history and have turned every single economic category downward -- all in less than two years.

Records and References:

• I have at least one conviction for drunk driving in Maine. My Texas driving record has been erased and is not available.
  
• I was AWOL from the National Guard.
  
• I refuse to take a drug test or even answer any questions about drug use.
  
• All records of my tenure as Governor of Texas are now in my father's library, sealed, and unavailable for public view.
  
• All records of SEC investigations into insider trading or bankrupt companies are sealed in secrecy and unavailable for public view.
  
• All records or minutes from meetings that I, or my Vice-president, attended regarding public energy policy are sealed in secrecy and unavailable for public review.

And Im back in 2005 !

As Bush tries to cook the books, Iraq may be heading for civil war,

True to form, the Americans and the puppet regime they have installed
are cooking the books.

Senior US officials and interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi repeatedly
insist that all is well because insecurity will restrict voting in
"only four of Iraq's 18 provinces".

Four out of 18 is a little over 20 per cent and in the circumstances
might be acceptable.

But the truth is very different.

Anywhere between 40 and 50 per cent of the population live in those
four provinces.

From The Sydney Morning Herald, 1/21/05:
http://smh.com.au/news/Opinion/Voter-turnout-wont-be-enough-to-legitimise-election/2005/01/20/1106110879989.html

Voter turnout won't be enough to legitimise election

As the US tries to cook the books, Iraq may be heading for civil war,
writes Paul McGeough.

There is something truly remarkable about the Iraqi human spirit.

Cast around for a comparison of the numbers that might vote next
Sunday and Afghanistan is a good choice.

There, more than 10.5 million signed up last year in a security
environment that made a mockery of the international observance of
fragile polls when only a handful of monitors was brave enough to set
foot in the country - but was not courageous enough to go beyond the
capital.

Iraq does not have the same voter registration process because
Saddam's old food-distribution register is being co-opted for this
fraught experiment.


(Why would anyone think that the US Administration would allow
fair elections in Iraq? Take it as a warning of how bad the next
US elections will be as the neo-cons continue to usurp rights from
the American people.)

January 23, 2005

Defining Ignorance Down II

Greg Palast watched the oaf of office and says what everybody is thinking hasn't had the nerve to say:




Posted by Melanie at January 23, 2005 03:38 PM

Comments

Well I agree the election is probably the best evidence that the US is a post-democracy; a test of minimal voter competence that the US failed. However to say that most Americans voted for him, quite apart from ignoring the barely 50% turn out, is a leap of faith in the ability of a bunch of desperate crooks to not do what they had to do: cheat.

I know, I know when the vote doesn't match the exit polls it doesn't mean the same in the USA as it does in the Ukraine. Call me old fashioned but I don't think Bush won the election. Again. Prove it to me.

Bush steals an election and the so-called left don't cop to it for years -- out of some bizarre need to deny things are that screwed up. This isn't exactly new territory is it? Deja vu. Well last time it took about 3-4 years for most of the left to catch up.

Let me put it this way things are always more screwed up than you think. Really. If it does come out that Bush lost the popular vote I can bet the response will be, "Oh. Alright then." Pretty much the same level of outrage over the US tax payer bribery of the media by Bush.

I agree with the rest of the article, especially the part where he weighs in on my side the long running, stupid or mendacious? debate,

(Bush) doesn't believe a single word he's saying.

The article does highlight an important question though. Rather than continually act surprised about the same thing happening again and again and again, we need to figure out why so many people are dumb enough to vote for Bush -- even if it might not have been 59 million it's obviously enough to be dangerous.

Maybe I missed the answer and someone already came up with it.

(Also can anyone tell me why Democrat senators won't vote forn their base's interests?)

http://www.node707.com/archives/002936.shtml

(I include headlines about Iraqi election fraud only because
they are being largely influenced by the Bush Administration.)

Monday 24 January 2005, 18:10 Makka Time, 15:10 GMT

Iraqi minister warns of election fraud

The US ambassador to Iraq and the interim finance minister have both expressed doubt about the forthcoming elections, saying they could be marred by irregularities and security problems.

Iraqi Finance Minister Adil Abd al-Mahdi, a leading candidate on the front-running Shia Muslim list for the 30 January elections, has said he feared the milestone polls could be marred by fraud.

Police in the holy Iraqi city of Najaf on Monday announced a special security plan for the January 30 elections, banning all non-residents for a five-day period.

"One of the main points is that we will ask all the people who are not from Najaf to leave the city for the elections. Those who stay will be arrested and treated as terrorist suspects."

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/A1F78B06-E7A2-47AB-B8C1-D9F250BBC80F.htm

1/24/2005 9:02:15 AM

Blackwell Says AFL-CIO Doesn't Have Enough Signatures

The AFL-CIO is considering its options after Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell said it didn't have enough valid signatures to start a referendum process aimed at overturning Ohio's new campaign finance law.

Blackwell decided Thursday that the labor organization was 57 signatures short of the 100 required to begin the referendum process for the November ballot.

The law passed late last year quadruples contribution limits to $10,000, restricts county parties' campaign funds and bans third-party ads funded by unions and businesses 30 days before elections.

Carlo LoParo, a spokesman for Blackwell, said the AFL-CIO still can submit the 100 signatures. The union then would need 193,740 valid signatures of registered voters by March 30 to delay the new law and put the issue on the Nov. 8 ballot.

"We will not allow the secretary of states office to stop us," said Donald McTigue, the union's attorney.

McTigue, of Columbus, was one of 43 signatures rejected by Blackwell. Officials said his signature didn't match one on his voter-registration card or poll-registration lists.

McTigue argued Blackwell's office incorrectly told the elections board staff to compare signatures to those recorded on Election Day, instead of signatures on original voter registration cards.

LoParo said the union should take up that issue with the county board, not the secretary of state's office.

http://www.wcpo.com/news/2005/local/01/24/afl.html

Ohio Dems not ready to grab chance

After a decade and a half of Republican dominance of Ohio, even Republicans like U.S. Sens. George Voinovich and Mike De-Wine view the state's condition with alarm. And now the cash-strapped government is faced with difficult, unpopular choices. So conventional wisdom holds that in '06, the "it's-time-for-a-change" cry should be powerful.

The state government will be up for grabs. Gov. Bob Taft is term-limited. Attorney General Jim Petro, Auditor Betty Montgomery and Secretary of State Ken Blackwell plan to leave their jobs to run for governor. (Secretary Blackwell has to move because he, too, is term-limited.)

For more than a decade, Republicans have functioned as a team. Ambitious GOP politicians have meekly accepted election assignments. But now they all want to be governor. That's another reason the Democrats have a special opportunity. But do they have the candidates?
...

Two of those jobs — secretary of state and auditor — are more important than they look. Their occupants serve on the board that draws new legislative districts. Republicans have sustained lopsided majorities for their party in the state legislature by controlling those jobs.

Democrats need to be searching for some candidates. Much in politics is luck. But a party has to be ready to take advantage. Otherwise, 2006 could be the year when the party that gets the breaks loses anyway.

http://www.daytondailynews.com/opinion/content/opinion/daily/0124ted.html

(Blackwell, Blackwell and more Blackwell...)

Monday, January 24, 2005

Legislator owes two consultants $15,000

COLUMBUS - A state representative owes a political consultant and a fund-raiser a total of $15,000 after firing the two amid a federal investigation.

Rep. James Hoops, a Republican from northwest Ohio, acknowledges that he owes $10,000 to consultant Brett Buerck and $5,000 to fund-raiser Kyle Sisk for the early termination of their contracts.

The two used to be top aides of former House Speaker Larry Householder. They were fired in June after a federal grand jury began subpoenaing records pertaining to Householder's fund-raising practices.

Hoops said he ended his contracts with the two shortly after the House Republican caucus fired them.

"Perception is everything, and I thought it would be better to terminate them and let the process work," Hoops said. He said neither did anything wrong on his behalf.

Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell has argued that the termination fees are illegal, but the Ohio Elections Commission found otherwise.

http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050124/NEWS01/501240364/1056

(Blackwell needs to go down. I assume that they mean to title
Blackwell as Secretary of State instead of attorney general)

1/24/2005

Citizens At Great Risk In ‘Ownership Society'

Letters To The Editor:
Jack Strayer from the National Center for Policy Analysis (NCPA), a group with offices in Texas and Washington, informs us that lowering drug costs by reimporting from Canada will not solve the problem of runaway drug costs (“Importing Canada's drugs is no solution,” Jan. 19).

I agree that it is not a long-term solution. Pharmaceutical companies have reduced the quantities of drugs going to Canada as well as seen that the George W. Bush administration has inserted language into bilateral trade agreements that forbid countries from sending drugs back to the U.S.

Of more interest is NCPA itself. After going to its Web site, I found that it strongly espouses pro-business, pro-finance views and the laissez-faire economics that corporations in this country have grown to love. Its experts include Ohio's Republican attorney general, Ken Blackwell, and Gov. Pete Dupont from Delaware.

The Web site also shows that the group will be a major player in advocating President Bush's plan to privatize Social Security. Other major players are the Heritage Foundation and the Cato Institute, a libertarian group that has worked for Social Security “reform” for 25 years. Cato's “Project on Social Security Privatization” has recently renamed itself by replacing “privatization” with “choice.” Other new groups financed by business groups include “Alliance for Worker Retirement Security,” “New America Foundation” and my favorite, “Women for Social Security Choice.”

President Bush's “ownership society” means that citizens will own all of their risks and create their own safety net. The recent stock market meltdown in 2000 should be a cautionary tale.

Laurie Santos
Clinton

http://www.theday.com/eng/web/news/re.aspx?re=E3993E35-3D0B-4C99-A0C3-B9D91A818CD1

(yes... more Blackwell)

Article published Monday, January 24, 2005

Blackwell advances quest to be governor

COLUMBUS — In December, 2003, the headline on this column asked this question about the 2006 governor’s race in Ohio: “Is Ken Blackwell up to the challenge?”

“No matter how elegant the drawing of Mr. Blackwell’s head looks in , he must convince Ohioans that he’s more than an ideologue, he’s more than a media-generated product of that nation-state we call Cincinnati, that he won’t talk about the number of ‘companion pets’ versus real people in Ohio as he did last week, and that’s he prepared to govern,” this column wrote.

The question still is an open one, but much has changed since then that could mean an ideologue could be the next governor of Ohio.

A coalition of state unions and attorneys last year blocked Mr. Blackwell’s attempt to repeal the sales tax-rate increase about seven months earlier than scheduled.

Working with the Cincinnati-based Citizens for Community Values, Mr. Blackwell led the effort last November to add a ban on same-sex marriage to the Ohio Constitution.

Most notably, Mr. Blackwell gained national notoriety in his dual role as associate chairman of President Bush’s re-election campaign in Ohio and the state’s chief elections officer.


more
http://toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050124/COLUMNIST04/50123039/-1/NEWS03

(How many times will Bush criminals be rewarded with promotions to higher offices? After Watergate Bush Sr. promoted from Head of GOP to Head of CIA; After 2000 election K. Harris promoted from SOS to US Representative, Feeney to US Representative without his name appearing on the Florida ballot... the list goes on... just look at Bush's choices for Attorney General, Secretary of State and Homeland Security. Will Wolfowitz will take Rumsfeld's job too? Are we going to allow Blackwell into the club? It's just crazy.)

http://www.liberty-news.com/showNewsletter.php?id=200501241
by Paul Conrad

January 21, 2005

If It Passes the "Presumed" Test, Put it On the Air?

During the "Mailing It In" segment today (January 21, 2005) on Your World w/Neil Cavuto, Cavuto used an interesting word when he introduced an email about yesterday's dent-in-the-limo story.

Cavuto said, "And Bennjamyn Scott in Orlando, Florida can't believe I was making such a big deal of the presumed dent in that presidential limo."

COMMENT: Presumed??? Is "presumed" all that's needed to imply, to the whole world, that something strong enough to dent an armored tank hit the President's limo during the inaugural parade yesterday? Presumed? If something passes the "presumed" test it goes on the air? Is "presumed" where Fox sets the bar?

(By the way, here is Bennjamyn Scott's funny email: "Hey Neil, if the limo can take an RPG to its armor, do you really think a snowball would dent it? Maybe your head hit it. Somebody should check your hair for paint chips.")

link
http://www.newshounds.us/2005/01/21/if_it_passes_the_presumed_test_put_it_on_the_air.php#more

Machine that lost votes in N.C. did same in Pennsylvania

Last updated: January 23. 2005 3:02PM
The Associated Press

The same model of voting machine that lost 4,438 votes in Carteret County also erased votes in three Pennsylvania counties, officials in that state said.

"We continue to be uncertain about these machines," said Michael Coulter, who heads an independent committee examining voting machine mishaps in Mercer County, Pa., where he said machines in 13 precincts erased some voters' choices.

Mercer County, as well as Beaver and Greene counties along the Ohio border, use the Unilect Patriot voting machine. The electronic mechanism, which does not produce a paper ballot, is the same model that lost votes on the Nov. 2 Election Day in coastal Carteret County.

-snip-

All three of the western Pennsylvania counties recorded a high percentage of "undervotes" for president, which occurs when a voter doesn't vote in that race. Mercer County's undervote was 7.8 percent, four times higher than in 2000, when they used old, lever machines.

-snip/more-

<http://www.wilmingtonstar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050123/APN/501230693&cachetime=5>

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<http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x302026>

Problems in Pa. heighten N.C. officials' concerns about paper-free electronic devices

MARK JOHNSON
Charlotte Observer
23 January 2005

-snip-

All three of the western Pennsylvania counties recorded a high percentage of "undervotes" for president, which is when a voter doesn't vote in that race. Mercer County's undervote was 7.8 percent, four times higher than in 2000, when they used old, lever machines.

-snip/more-

<http://www.votersunite.org/article.asp?id=4698>

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<http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x302026>

A Certain Outcome

January 23, 2005
By Jeff Schult
The Hartford Currant

-snip-

Summing up all the allegations, a lawsuit filed on behalf of 37 Ohio voters by the Alliance for Democracy concludes that Bush, rather than winning the state by 118,000 votes, actually lost to Kerry by more than that.

The federal Government Accountability Office is investigating. So is the FBI.

-snip-

Connecticut's own Secretary of the State, Susan Bysiewicz, is a great deal more accessible than Blackwell, who reportedly does business out of a 12-story building in Columbus that is neither owned by the state nor open to the public.

-snip-

Well, I guess Bush did. Almost certainly ...

-snip/more-

<http://www.votersunite.org/article.asp?id=4697>

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<http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x302032>

Monday, January 24, 2005; 12:53 PM

The Speech That Wasn't What It Seemed

By Dan Froomkin

The initial reaction to President Bush's second inaugural speech, in which he vowed to end tyranny everywhere, was that it sounded awfully ambitious. (See Friday's column.)

But now comes word from the White House that Bush wasn't actually setting out a new agenda at all. He was simply describing what his approach has been all along.

And that has invited additional concerns, among them that revisionism may be pushing aside reality-checking in the Bush White House.

In hindsight, the White House is apparently suggesting, the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq weren't so much about bringing Osama bin Laden to justice and destroying Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction. They were about lighting the flame of freedom.

And in spite of the mixed success in both countries, Bush continues to express unfaltering confidence in his world view.


continued
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A32589-2005Jan24.html

Novak: Dems are "nasty," inauguration protesters are "punks"

Nationally syndicated columnist and CNN host Robert Novak said that people who protested President Bush's inauguration "are a lot of punks and it's none of their business and it isn't free speech." He also claimed that Democrats are "so nasty" and that Republican partisans are "nothing like these Democrats."

From the January 22 edition of CNN's The Capital Gang:



Here are just a few examples of Novak's "nothing like these Democrats" partisan attacks:

• Novak called Texas Dems "scumbags"
  
• Novak smeared Sen. Clinton as "Madame Defarge"; Begala demanded apology
  
• Novak falsely attacked Bill Clinton's remarks on tsunami relief effort
  
• Novak wrongly accused Rep. Darlene Hooley (D-OR) of hypocrisy
  
• Yet again, Novak made discredited allegation that "the Indians stole" South Dakota's 2002 Senate election
  
• Novak led conservatives in boosting Schachte -- despite mounting evidence discrediting anti-Kerry vet
  
• Novak spread "most liberal" Kerry-Edwards distortion
  
• Novak revived long-discredited anti-Clinton stories on Meet the Press

Contact:
Robert Novak
novakevans@aol.com

Contact:
CNN
One CNN Center, Box 105366, Atlanta, GA 30303-5366
Phone: 404-827-1500
Fax: 404-827-1906

Contact:
The Capital Gang

source: http://mediamatters.org/items/200501240005

1/24/2005 12:28 PM

Election challenge places burden of proof on Heflin, not Vo

By: Harvey Kronberg

This week, Houston Republican and former House Appropriations Chairman Talmadge Heflin will challenge the legitimacy of the election that seated Democrat Hubert Vo.

Vo eked out a 33-vote margin of victory last November.

The outcome of this election challenge will say more about the Texas House of Representatives than anything else that happens the next four months. During former Speaker Pete Laney's 10 years, three Democratic losers challenged the election. In each case, the Democratic majority looked at the evidence and then seated the Republican victor.
...

Proving substantial voter fraud is a high standard and the burden rests exclusively with Heflin. Last week's filings by Heflin point to some election irregularities, but I am not sure there is much evidence of fraud.

Meanwhile, Republican Party chairman Tina Benkiser has been ratcheting up the rhetoric, calling for a GOP grassroots uprising. Alleging a history of Democrats stealing elections, she has called upon the Republican faithful to lean on their legislators. She claims outside pressure is being exerted to keep the challenge from reaching the floor of the House. But with a Republican super majority and a fearless Republican speaker who is firmly in charge, Benkiser's claims of outside pressure ring hollow.

Of course, the so-called "stolen" elections to which Benkiser refers were in South Texas where Democrats administered the elections.

This election was held in Houston where Republicans administered the election and counted the votes.

more
http://www.news8austin.com/content/headlines/?ArID=129795&SecID=2

STATE OF NORTH CAROLINA

NORTH CAROLINA GENERAL ASSEMBLY
STATE LEGISLATIVE BUILDING

RALEIGH, NORTH CAROLINA 27601



January 24, 2005


MEMORANDUM

TO:
Members, Joint Select Committee on Electronic Voting Systems

FROM:
Senator Austin Allran, Co-Chair
Senator Eleanor Kinnaird, Co-Chair
Representative Verla C. Insko, Co-Chair
Ms. Susan T. Adams, Co-Chair

SUBJECT:
Joint Select Committee on Electronic Voting Systems Meeting

There will be a meeting of the Joint Select Committee on Electronic Voting Systems on Tuesday, January 25, 2005, at 10:00 a.m. in Room 414 of the Legislative Office Building.


Posted: January 24, 2005


(send dzika a PM if you need more information)

January 24, 2005

Another challenge filed in Washington governor's race

By MELANTHIA MITCHELL


SEATTLE - The state's Republicans, still pressing their court challenge to the disputed governor's election, have filed a separate challenge with the state Legislature.

"We did this to cover all our bases," said Mary Lane, a spokeswoman for Dino Rossi, the Republican who narrowly won the original vote count and a mandatory recount. In a hand recount, he lost to Democrat Christine Gregoire by 129 votes out of 2.9 million cast. Gregoire was sworn into office Jan. 12.

Republicans have filed a legal challenge against the hand recount in Chelan County Superior Court, saying mistakes were made and calling for another statewide vote. That same challenge was filed with the Legislature Friday evening, "as an insurance policy," Lane said Saturday.

The challenge, however, goes to the Democrat-controlled Legislature, which certified the election Jan. 11 despite a GOP request for a two-week delay.

State Democratic Party spokeswoman Kirstin Brost said the move indicated Republicans are afraid they won't win in court.

"The Republicans are in a hopeless situation," Brost said. "What we have seen in the last couple weeks is them floundering and grasping at straws trying to find some way to undo the election results."



more
http://www.katu.com/stories/74349.html

They also show a clip of last Saturday's SNL skit



Real Media:
http://www.edwardsdavid.com/BushVideos/cnn_boxer_050124-01.rm

Posted on Mon, Jan. 24, 2005

(Ken Blackwell) Election Chiefs' Politics Spark Debate

ANDREW WELSH-HUGGINS


COLUMBUS, Ohio - In the turbulent weeks before and after the presidential election in this battleground state, Kenneth Blackwell's fairness and integrity as Ohio's chief elections officer were called into question at almost every turn.

After all, Blackwell is an ardent Republican and was President Bush's honorary campaign co-chairman.

The Ohio furor - and a similar uproar in Florida during the disputed White House race of 2000 - have raised this question: Should top election officials be allowed to participate in the very campaigns they oversee?
...

The issue has risen to prominence largely because of Blackwell, who as Ohio secretary of state oversaw the election in the state that ultimately sent the president back to the White House. Among other things, the conservative black Republican tried to enforce an old rule requiring voter registration forms to be printed on 80-pound paper, and was accused of trying to suppress the black vote by rejecting ballots cast in the wrong precinct.

He also drew criticism more recently when it was disclosed that he sent a letter to GOP donors thanking them for helping deliver Ohio for Bush.

Blackwell "pushed the envelope as hard as any secretary of state ever," said James Ruvolo, the Ohio chairman of John Kerry's campaign. "Once you are elected there is an expectation you will not be the leading partisan. He shouldn't be the head cheerleader, and I think that's where he's gone wrong."


more (requires free subscription)
http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/news/nation/10721775.htm

Monday, January 24, 2005 — Time: 11:17:48 AM EST

Optical scanners may be optimal solution

-snip-

...no ifs, ands or hanging chads about it.

-snip/more-

<http://www.advertiser-tribune.com/edit/story/0124202005_edtedit0124.asp>

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<http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x303244>

Seattle Post-Intelligencer

Revote? If Florida and Ohio go first

Tuesday, January 25, 2005

PAUL LOEB
GUEST COLUMNIST

After the most meticulous counting in Washington state history, Republicans are crying fraud. Yet compared with the abuses that happened elsewhere, but not in our state, we should feel proud.

-snip/more-

<http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/opinion/209165_paulloeb.html>

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<http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x303252>

Widespread systematic vote machine fraud, and dirty tricks and suppression of minority registration and voting in at least 20 states in 2004 Election: summary of some of the documentation

http://www.flcv.com/ussumall.html

Official disputes unverified voter tally

10,000-vote figure based on estimate, she says

By GREG J. BOROWSKI
gborowski@journalsentinel.com
Posted: Jan. 21, 2005

A week after questions arose over 10,000 voters who registered on election day but whose identity couldn't be confirmed with verification cards, Milwaukee's top election official declared Friday that the number is inaccurate because it is based on an estimate.

-snip/more-

<http://www.jsonline.com/news/metro/jan05/295308.asp>

DU Thread:

<http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x303272>

see:
<http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x303273>

BradBlog

Election Probe in PA Reports Votes 'Vanished' from UniLect Machines!
Same Models as Those Which Lost 4,400 Votes in NC!

Unusually High Rate of 'Undervotes' in both States on Same Machines.

Blogged by Brad on 1/23/2005 @ 7:11am PT...

After November 2nd, 2004, there were increasing reports from elections officials, small local papers, and, yes, bloggers who had bothered to studiously examine official election results, The New York Times...

After November 2nd, 2004, there were increasing reports from elections officials, small local papers, and, yes, bloggers who had bothered to studiously examine official election results, The New York Times published several articles labelling such concerns by Americans as "conspiracy theories".

So we sent them a list of "15 Unanswered Questions" -- all of them based on hard evidence -- that we'd hope they'd investigate and report on to the American people. That was on November 21st, 2004.

-snip/more-

<http://www.bradblog.com/archives/00001141.htm>

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