Friday 3/25 Election Fraud, Reform, & Updates Thread

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Part 2 - Ed Helms reports: Academics fail on journlism ethics

http://www.edwardsdavid.com/BushVideos/dailyshow_journalism_ethics_ed_helms_050324-56-01.rm">Part 2 - dial-up version

Cable news now seems to be diametrically opposed to journalism.

In the last 3 minutes of this clip, Keith talks about how similar the 1976 TV News Movie called "Network" is to the state of cable news networks today.



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Stranger than fiction...

This man tried to rob a store with a box cutter and demanded a gun for which he planned to use to "rescue" Schiavo. Instead of handing over the gun, the store owner simply pointed it at the suspect and held him until the police arrived.



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As I was watching a piece on BBC News about the Kyrgyzstan election tonight, I really began to wonder how much the US had to do with the revolt there. Two other ex-Soviet states have fallen towards pro-European/American interests in the last year in similar ways.



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Oops! More Uncounted Ballots in a Hotly Contested New York Election

WHITE PLAINS, March 24 - Remember the seemingly endless Senate race in Westchester County last year that came down to only 18 votes, the one that took more than three months and teams of lawyers to decide?

This week, the race had a last gasp, when the county Board of Elections discovered 24 unopened ballots.

Elections officials said the affidavit ballots from the 35th District would not affect the outcome, which was certified on Feb. 8, because only 13 of them were deemed valid. The race was won by the Republican, Senator Nicholas A. Spano, who barely edged out Andrea Stewart-Cousins, a Democratic county legislator.

But the surfacing of the new votes prompted cries of foul from Democrats and bemusement from Senator Spano.

"It sounds like an early April Fool's joke to me," the senator said in Albany. "This election was a never-ending saga, the results of which just became more and more bizarre. I'm glad it's over, that the election is certified and that I am working in Albany on the budget."

Election Commission Urges Finance Rules for Online Politics

WASHINGTON, March 24 - The Federal Election Commission on Thursday proposed new ways to apply campaign finance rules to online political activity, inviting members of the public to comment on how the agency should regulate things like online advertising and e-mailed political messages.

The proposal, which would primarily address paid political advertising on the Internet, was the first step toward new rules that were mandated by a federal court last year after the commission lost a legal challenge.

Accordingly, the six-member commission, split evenly between Democrats and Republicans, is treading lightly as it begins what will be a months-long process that includes a public hearing in June.

"It is a narrowly tailored and narrowly crafted proposal," said Michael Toner, a Republican commissioner.

Hinchey lambastes Bush plans

KINGSTON - Calling the Bush Administration's plans to privatize Social Security a hoax, U.S. Rep. Maurice Hinchey said he'll be introducing legislation in Congress he says will fix the system by putting money into it, rather than taking money out.

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"We have a budget here which increases the deficit, increases the national debt, transfers the taxing responsibilities from the wealthiest people to middle-income and lower-income people, and cuts programs that are essential to national security, economic development, to education, and to the future health, safety and welfare of our country," Hinchey said.

Hinchey is also in the process of forming a Congressional Media Caucus, aimed at addressing the increasing consolidation of the media and tackling what he calls "political propaganda" coming out of the White House.

He said the formal announcement of the group will come in May, but that he already has about 40 members involved. He compared the increasing cooperation between the media and the Bush Administration, as evidenced by so-called reporters being paid to distribute administration messages and planted reporters in presidential press conferences, to the process by which totalitarian regimes gain power over information.

For more information on Hinchey's stance on the 2006 federal spending plan, a schedule of local forums on Social Security, or to check out the Social Security calculator, visit www.house.gov/Hinchey.

Senate Democrats saw bill on Schiavo 'no-win for them'

WASHINGTON — When the Senate vote came Sunday afternoon to allow the parents of brain-damaged Terri Schiavo to bypass the Florida courts and take her case directly into federal court, Democrats were nowhere to be found.

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As the bill moved toward eventual passage, Senate Democrats — even those who expressed opposition to it — stepped aside twice rather than engage in the kinds of parliamentary maneuvers they often use to thwart the Republican majority's efforts.

Once was last Thursday, when the Senate passed a private relief bill to give Schiavo's parents, Robert and Mary Schindler, 30 days to convince a federal court that removing her feeding tube would violate a federal law or the U.S. Constitution.

The second time was Sunday, when no Democrats showed up for the Senate's consideration of a similar bill worked out in compromise with House.

"I think the Senate Democrats made a mistake," said Rep. Robert Wexler, a Democrat from Delray Beach who helped lead the House Democrats' opposition. "I believe there was a very principled argument for Democrats to make that the Congress was over-reaching... and that it was unprecedented for Congress to play the role of judge and jury and appellate court."

In the Twilight / Media have no choice but to respond

Warp between time and information

The first "warp effect" that I have in mind became quite pronounced during the U.S. presidential election. Regardless of the margin of victory-a landslide or razor thin-a U.S. president exercises the same enormous power for a four-year term.

In George W. Bush's case, both in 2000 and in 2004, he won by the slimmest of margins. What this means is that both before and after the four years during which he showed us how he would govern, he was supported by barely half the nation. Between this fact and the authority he wields, there obtains what one might call the phenomenon of "warping" or "distortion."

What place is there under Bush's administration for the opinions of the half of the nation who have been critical of him? I suspect there is no place at all.

A second warp effect is manifested by the following circumstance: While the policies of the U.S. president affect virtually every country on Earth, the citizens of no country but America can cast a vote. If all the people of the world had made their choice between Bush as the Republican Party candidate and John Kerry as the Democratic Party candidate, how would the election have turned out?

The actual vote in America split roughly down the middle. But in the rest of the world, according to polls conducted primarily in July and August of last year, support for Kerry was about double that for Bush.

(WA) New system aimed at closing felon-voting loopholes in state

The statewide voter registration list due to go online this year should close most, but not all, of the loopholes that have allowed felons to get away with voting despite the law against it, election officials say.

It appears that hundreds of felons cast illegal votes in November, an issue sure to surface in the legal challenge to Gov. Christine Gregoire's 129-vote victory over Republican Dino Rossi. The GOP has sued to set aside the result, claiming widespread election irregularities.

King County prosecutors have identified 192 felons who voted illegally in November and are reviewing hundreds of additional names of alleged felon voters submitted by Republicans. Other counties also have moved to strike felons from the voter rolls.

When the new computerized information system first kicks in, there likely will be numerous challenges to registrations based on felony convictions, said Assistant Secretary of State Steve Excell. But the rate should drop off once the initial purging cleans up longstanding abuses, he said.

The state constitution bans felons from voting unless their civil rights have been restored. To vote legally, a felon must serve his sentence and complete any community service imposed on him, pay any fines ordered by the court and obtain a certificate restoring his rights.

Reforms for voter fraud unveiled in Colorado

Colorado Secretary of State Donetta Davidson on Thursday outlined a package of voting reforms designed to fix problems that surfaced during last year's elections.

The reforms cover everything from the forms that citizens sign when they register to the machines on which they cast their ballots.

And those reforms aim to decrease the incidents of voter fraud that surfaced in the 13 counties that reported voting irregularities to the secretary of state's office.

"I promised people before the elections that we would come back and tell you and really move forward," Davidson said, "that if there was problems, we would prosecute if the prosecution needs to move forward, and that is exactly what we are doing."

Carving up the Kerry vote

HILLARY RODHAM Clinton continues to dissect John Kerry's political base like a frog in a biology class.

Slice. On March 16, New York's junior senator hosted a group of women, most from Massachusetts, for dinner at her Washington home on Embassy Row.

She wowed them in a house filled with intimate family photographs, including one showcasing Hillary and Bill Clinton gazing adoringly into each other's eyes. During a dinner of salad and fish, Clinton spoke briefly about her recent trips to Iraq and Afghanistan, the fight over Social Security, and other top Washington policy issues. Then she turned the evening over to questions from her guests, who of course asked about her plans for 2008. Of course, she told her guests she is focusing on her 2006 Senate race.

Barbara Lee, a Boston philanthropist, Democratic activist, and John Kerry supporter in 2004, hosted the day of support for Clinton in Washington. Lee says she, too, is focused first on helping Clinton win reelection in 2006, but notes, ''My life's mission is to elect a woman president. She would be a great president. If the country gets lucky, Hillary will be president in '08.''

Slice. Last week, Ann Lewis, a longtime Democratic activist who is now director of communications for Hillary Clinton's political action committee, told the Forward, a weekly New York City-based newspaper aimed at a largely Jewish audience that the Kerry campaign had ''a different message every two or three weeks.'' Lewis also told the newspaper that the Kerry campaign ''kept trying to rationally convince, to put a presidency together, line by line, plan by plan'' and people ''don't vote for plans, they vote for presidents.''

As she slices up the traditional Democratic base, Clinton is also reaching out to the middle, seeking common ground on contentious issues from war to abortion. It is an early, but impressive show of political gamesmanship. And it is all happening while the rest of the Democratic pack of presidential possibilities train their arrows mainly at President Bush and Republicans in Congress.

A Cheney candidacy in 2008?

President Bush famously rewards loyalty and competent service. There is one more promotion logical for him to make in his second term: engineering the 2008 GOP presidential nomination for Dick Cheney.

Such a move is not, of course, within the president's plenary authority. Others will surely want the nomination. Republican-primary voters will have to be heard from. But as the 2004 election demonstrated to the surprise of many, Mr. Bush is something close to a beloved figure among Republicans nationally. That's true at the grassroots level, and it's true among the party's biggest donors. They all regard Mr. Bush as having persisted against huge adversity in a sober but bold fashion to the benefit not only of his personal political stature but also of the party. If Mr. Bush decides that he would like Mr. Cheney to succeed him, the momentum created would be huge and instantaneous.

The biggest obstacle to a Cheney candidacy is usually given as Mr. Cheney himself. I had a chance to put the question to him directly over the summer, and he convincingly stated, as he has on other occasions, that he was looking forward to 2004 as his last campaign, and that he believed an essential part of his effectiveness in offering counsel to Mr. Bush was the absence of further political ambition on his part.

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But is a Cheney candidacy in Mr. Bush's interest? Mr. Bush could, after all, sit back and let history judge him on his eight years. But one gets the impression that Mr. Bush is rather more ambitious than that — that when there is an opportunity to reach for more, he takes it. I was in Brussels when he announced the nomination of John Bolton as U.N. ambassador, which produced a collective shudder. I pointed out that the selection of Mr. Bolton in a time of turmoil and reform ferment at the United Nations was actually a sign that Mr. Bush was taking the place seriously. If he didn't care, he could have easily found a null placeholder. I noted that no one in the administration had more credibility with the American right on the United Nations than Mr. Bolton, and that this would make it easier rather than harder for him to be effective in promoting a reform agenda.

Little Reporting on Paranoia in High Places

Journalists often refer to the Bush administration’s foreign policy as “unilateral” and “preemptive.” Liberal pundits like to complain that a “go-it-alone” approach has isolated the United States from former allies. But the standard American media lexicon has steered clear of a word that would be an apt description of the Bush world view.

Paranoid.

Early symptoms met with tremendous media applause in the immediate aftermath of 9/11. Skepticism from reporters and dissent from pundits were sparse while President Bush quickly declared that governments were either on the side of the USA or “the terrorists.” Since then, the paranoiac scope of the administration’s articulated outlook has broadened while media acceptance has normalized it -- to the point that a remarkable new document from the Pentagon is raising few media eyebrows.

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One of the few major U.S. news outlets to report on the Pentagon’s “strategy of the weak” declaration, the Los Angeles Times, merely mentioned it in passing near the end of a back-page article. In contrast, outside the corporate media, Inter Press Service did its usual excellent job of shedding light on the latest twist of Washington’s foreign policy doctrines.

Overall, speaking for the U.S. government, the Bush administration has turned Uncle Sam into the world’s preeminent paranoid, conflating nearly all who oppose him. Actually, make that Him.

Our fight for election reform and voting rights is rooted in the civil rights struggles of the past.

Watch this video for a great retrospective of "Bloody Sunday" and the march to Selma. These events lead to passage of the Voting Rights Act.



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Watch this video created by DU members as a reminder of illegitimate 2004 election

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Note: Other formats of this video are available at VelevetRevolution.us

White House payments to columnist probed

WASHINGTON - Congressional investigators will look into whether the Bush administration violated any laws when it paid syndicated columnist Maggie Gallagher to help promote a marriage initiative, Democratic Sens. Edward Kennedy and Frank Lautenberg said.

The Government Accountability Office told the two senators, who had requested the inquiry, that it would investigate in a letter sent to their offices late Thursday.

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"The Bush administration is manufacturing propaganda, plain and simple," said Lautenberg, of New Jersey.

"The president should put in place sound policies that benefit all Americans rather than pay the press to promote bad policies," said Kennedy of Massachusetts.

No one answered the telephone at the White House press office Friday regarding comment on the GAO investigation.

PETITION TO SUPPORT REAUTHORIZATION OF THE
VOTING RIGHTS ACT OF 1965

Whereas, 1965 Voting Rights Act is one of the nation’s most important civil and human rights victories leading to political empowerment and voter enfranchisement;

Whereas, key provisions of the Voting Rights Act will expire in August 2007 unless Congress acts to reauthorize them;

Whereas, a mass mobilization must be undertaken to combat the conservative efforts underway to dilute and undermine – or eliminate – the Voting Rights Act;

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED THAT THE RAINBOW/PUSH COALITION WILL INITIATE A “1 MILLION FOR VOTING RIGHTS CAMPAIGN” TO REAUTHORIZE THE VRA IN 2007;

AND BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED THAT THE RAINBOW/PUSH COALITION WILL INITIATE A MASS MARCH AND RALLY IN AUGUST 2005 COMMEMORATING THE 40TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE VOTING RIGHTS ACT AND MOBILIZING FOR ITS EXTENSION IN 2007;

AND BE IT FINALLY RESOLVED, THAT THE RAINBOW/PUSH COALITION WILL UNITE ALL WHO CARE TO BE UNITED AND BUILD A BROAD COALITION OF LABOR, PEACE, CIVIL AND HUMAN RIGHTS ORGANIZATIONS TO WIN EXTENSION OF THE VOTING RIGHTS ACT SO AMERICA CAN BECOME A MORE PERFECT UNION.

Click here to sign the petition

Government Accountability office says it will probe Bush payments to columnists

GAO will probe Bush payments of columnist

Today, upon the request of Senators Lautenberg and Kennedy, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) said in a letter released to RAW STORY that it will investigate the legality of the payments made to columnist Maggie Gallagher by the Bush Administration. The Department of Health and Human Services transferred $21,500 in taxpayer funds to Ms. Gallagher to help promote President Bush’s marriage initiative.

The GAO will address whether this contract between HHS and Ms. Gallagher is a violation of the prohibition against using taxpayer funds to pay for publicity or propaganda.

“Whether it is paying real journalists to create fake

news or hiring fake journalists to pose as real reporters, the Bush Administration is manufacturing propaganda, plain and simple,” said Lautenberg. “The Bush administration has violated the trust of the American people.”

“The GAO is doing the right thing by investigating the illegality of the Bush Administration’s payments to Maggie Gallagher. Despite continued claims by the President that these propaganda campaigns with taxpayer funds will stop, more and more are being discovered. The President should put in place sound policies that benefit all Americans rather than pay the press to promote bad policies,” said Senator

Ken Mehlman has gone back "in" again, local gay repubs "out" him anew as gay, and Mehlman's male host allegedly sexually assaulted a young man

As you may know, Republican National Committee chairman Ken Mehlman, who also was the head of Bush's presidential campaign last year, was recently outed by a Bush campaign official in GQ magazine as a heterosexual. Well, it appears that out-heterosexual Mehlman may be back "in" again. While at the same time, some loyal gay Republicans just outed him as gay. And Mehlman's host at the event is allegedly a closeted gay man, married to a woman, who has a police report accusing him of sexually assaulting a young guy.

According to the big gay paper in Ohio, Gay People's Chronicle, Mehlman is back to refusing to answer questions about his sexual orientation, and what's more, he's now giving really really really odd answers for an "out" heterosexual. Says the Chronicle:

“You have asked a question people shouldn’t have to answer,” said Republican National Committee chair Ken Mehlman to a reporter asking if he is gay....

Mehlman added that his sexual orientation, whatever it is, “changes nothing” as to how the party will operate under his leadership.

Excuse me?

Then we get this little zinger at the end of the article, after reading a few paragraphs of self-loathing from gay Republicans:

Four members of the Cleveland Log Cabin Republican group attended the dinner to hear Mehlman....

Fred Bachhuber (one of the members) said he expected not to hear a GLBT welcome from Mehlman.

“He just can’t do it yet,” said Bachhuber, “but as long as he’s sleeping with men behind the scenes, that’s all I care about.”

First of all, thanks for outing him, Fred. Second of all, as a politically active gay man, all you care about is that Mehlman is that you think Ken is having sex with other men. That's what cinches your support for the Republican party, that you think he's a closet case doing guys, regardless of him embracing anti-gay position? Lovely.

Unintended Consequences of the “Moral Values” Vote

Much has been said about the Ohio constitutional amendment banning gay marriage, an issue that many observers feel tilted the state to George Bush instead of John Kerry in the 2004 elections. That led to approximately 15 billion stories about so-called “moral values” and the heartland voters who were sending a message to the godless liberal elites.

But as the triumphant defeat of gay marriage fades from the headlines, many Ohioans are realizing that the sword of moral values cuts in more than one direction. The Ohio amendment not only keeps legal status and civil unions out of the reach of gay people, but all unmarried couples. One of the first casualties: A judge recently ruled that the amendment’s wording prevented unmarried couples from filing domestic violence charges. The case in question is against Frederick Burk, who already has a prior domestic violence conviction:

Burk, 42, is accused of slapping and pushing his live-in girlfriend during a January argument over a pack of cigarettes.

His public defender, David Magee, had asked the judge to throw out the charge because of the new wording in Ohio’s constitution that prohibits any state or local law that would “create or recognize a legal status for relationships of unmarried individuals.”

Before the amendment, courts applied the domestic violence law by defining a family as including an unmarried couple living together as would a husband and wife, the judge said. The gay marriage amendment no longer allows that.

Under the old laws, Burke would have received up to 18 months in prison if convicted of felony domestic violence. With the new amendment in place, the harshest punishment he can receive is a misdemeanor assault charge with a six month sentence. And imagine the fun when unmarried Ohio couples try to hammer out issues such as property disputes or child custody under the amendment’s restrictions. At least they’re saved from the horror of legally recognized gay relationships, right?

This situation probably isn’t what many people wanted when they stormed the polls to protect the “sanctity of marriage". But it’s what they got.

Exclusive: Former UN weapons inspector Ritter says NeoCons ‘godless parasites’ feeding on the Republican Party

Keep faith out of politics, says Blair

Watching America (dot com)