Sunday 3/27 Election Fraud, Reform, & Updates 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 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=203x349292

March 26, 2005

Bush's Dangerous Propaganda Game

By Jim Hightower, AlterNet

This deliberate manipulation of our news is more than outrageous – it's a frontal assault on our democracy and is totally disrespectful of the American people.

You're used to hearing television reporters give their signature tag lines: "In Washington, I'm Karen Ryan reporting." "This is Jennifer Morrow reporting." "I'm Pat O'Leary reporting."

But these days, you can't know if your news presenter is a reporter ... or a ringer. Karen Ryan, for example, is a veteran of the government's propaganda machine, having posed as a "reporter" for fake news segments produced and distributed by seven federal agencies in the past two years. Ryan is really a PR consultant, who candidly calls herself a "paid shill for the Bush administration."

Likewise, Jennifer Morrow is a fake – that's not even her real name. She's really an employee of a PR firm, hired in 2002 to pose as a reporter presenting a gushing story about the work of Bush's homeland security agency. Her "news segment," paid for by us taxpayers and produced by the Bushites, aired all across America, with no mention that it was covert propaganda.

Pat O'Leary is not a real reporter, either. He's one of two full-time poseurs hired by Bush's department of agriculture to produce videos that are shipped to hundreds of local stations and aired as "news." They travel the country, often covering Bush's secretary of agriculture – and their reports are unfailingly flattering, free of any critical comments from those who differ with Bush's policies. No surprise, since their reports must be approved by the ag department's PR office before being sent to your TV station.

This deliberate manipulation of our news is more than outrageous – it's a frontal assault on our democracy and is totally disrespectful of the American people. It's also a dangerous game for those playing it – the Bushites and the station owners are sabotaging their own credibility, which was not strong to start with.

This is not about technical legalities, but about fundamental morality. Both the government and the media are claiming a right to lie to us.

source

March 26, 2005

Social Security debate misses obvious solution

The Bush propaganda machine is in panic mode. Its shrill minions bleat ever louder in an effort to drum up support for its war on Social Security. The most outrageous effort I have read to date has to be "Our crisis in waiting" by Jay Ambrose (March 7). The Kennebec Journal should be ashamed for running such blatant rubbish.

...
The idea that our government would ever default on redeeming these, while paying off treasury bonds owned by, say, Saudi Arabia, is a dangerous falsehood. What's next? Are our savings bonds worthless too?

...
As Republicans ratchet up their attempts to privatize and then destroy Social Security, there are several ploys to guard against, in addition to Ambrose's attempt to steal the trust fund. The most egregious is a drastic cut in benefits, disguised as a mere change in accounting methods (earnings vs. inflation). Future retirees could see their benefits cut by nearly 50 percent, compared to those promised under current law.

Also floated is an increase in the retirement age. Fifty years of work is not enough.

...
Resist the lies. Keep our most successful government program intact for future generations.

Don't allow Republicans to destroy Social Security.

more here

March 26, 2005

Indiana Voter ID Law will do little to prevent fraud

By Kevin Knuth

In her March 16 column, Andrea Neal wrote that requiring state or federal photo identification cards would deter election fraud and errors. She continued by commenting that it is a “shame that an important matter of public policy has become a victim of partisan squabbling.”

I agree that we should be doing what we can to deter fraud in elections. I also agree that important issues like fair and accurate elections should not become the victims of partisan battles. Unfortunately, Neal ignored important aspects of this issue that are not addressed by the legislation in question (SB 483) and contributed to the partisan bickering.

To begin with, Neal ignored Indiana’s current identification requirement. If a voter’s signature does not match the signature on file, the voter can be challenged. I know for a fact that this happens in Allen County every election.

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The truth of the matter is that, although many claim that there is fraud, no one knows the types or extent of the fraud in Indiana. For this reason, it is impossible to write legislation that will address the issue adequately.

more here

March 26, 2005

Life as We Don't Know It

By Michael Kinsley

Based on the two big domestic stories of last week -- Terri Schiavo and Social Security personoramification (or whatever they want us to call it instead of privatization) -- the Republican philosophy seems to be that people need more control over their own retirements but less control over their own deaths.

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Why have they done this? There is a reflexive habit in Washington of assuming that everything Bush does is the result of opportunism. If he were to cure cancer in his spare time, people would ask, "What is Karl Rove up to?" In fact, George W. Bush is probably more motivated by principled belief than any other recent president. He enjoys the stubborn conviction of the unreflective mind. Unfortunately -- or fortunately for the Democrats -- his principled convictions are often wrong and sometimes unpopular. This leaves an opening for rival principled convictions, if only the Democrats had some to spare.

...
People say Bush's real motive for privatizing Social Security is to turn millions of Americans into Republicans over the next half-century by giving them a stake in the stock market. You could call this idealism or Rovism, but it would be Rovism on a stick so long that it almost doesn't count. Something similar did work politically for Margaret Thatcher in the 1980s. She allowed millions of Britons living in public housing to buy their apartments, thereby creating a whole class of homeowners.

But this technique appeals to a very different kind of conservatism than the one Bush is offering. It is the conservatism of order and security, not of uncertainty and risk. As people grow older, plan for retirement and think about death, they become hungry for reassurance and more resistant to it at the same time. Fear of the unknown looms larger. What Bush's tinkering with Social Security and his meddling in the right to die have in common is that both make life's last couple of chapters seem less predictable and secure. That may not matter to Bush, since he enjoys the ultimate security of knowing -- or thinking he knows -- what happens in the chapter that follows these two. And it looks pretty good. Others are not so sure -- about themselves or about him.

more here

March 26, 2005

Bush's Back-and-Forth Reflects Rift in Party

By Peter Baker

President Bush hurriedly flew back to Washington
March 20 to sign legislation in the Terri Schiavo case,
but has since said little about it.


The juxtaposition of racing through the night in Air Force One to sign legislation intended to force doctors to reinsert Schiavo's feeding tube and choosing not to use his bully pulpit to advocate for her life afterward demonstrates how uncomfortable the matter has become for the White House. For years, Bush has succeeded politically in stitching together the disparate elements of the conservative movement, marrying the libertarian and family-values wings of his party. Now he faces a major Republican rupture.

Polls show the vast majority of Americans, including conservatives and evangelical Christians, disapprove of the decision by Bush and Congress to get involved in the Schiavo matter. And more worrying for the White House, those polls have also shown a significant drop in Bush's overall approval ratings.

"It's been a very sticky issue for the president," said Stephen Moore, a Bush ally and president of the Free Enterprise Fund, which promotes limited government. "I think no matter what course he took, he was going to come under criticism. I personally believe Bush would have been better off not intervening at all."

The case came at a time when Bush was struggling to sell his plan to overhaul Social Security. "This is the second bad thing to happen to him this year, Social Security being the first," said Andrew Kohut, executive director of the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press. "We've had a week that I don't think they can count on advancing their agenda."

more here

March 26, 2005

Business Sees Gain In GOP Takeover

Political Allies Push Corporate Agenda

By Jim VandeHei

Fortune 500 companies that invested millions of dollars in electing Republicans are emerging as the earliest beneficiaries of a government controlled by President Bush and the largest GOP House and Senate majority in a half century.

MBNA Corp., the credit card behemoth and fifth-largest contributor to Bush's two presidential campaigns, is among those on the verge of prevailing in an eight-year fight to curtail personal bankruptcies. Exxon Mobil Corp. and others are close to winning the right to drill for oil in Alaska's wildlife refuge, which they have tried to pass for better than a decade. Wal-Mart Stores Inc., another big contributor to Bush and the GOP, and other big companies recently won long-sought protections from class-action lawsuits.

Republicans have pursued such issues for much of the past decade, asserting that free market policies are the smartest way to grow the economy. But now it appears they finally have the legislative muscle to push some of their agenda through Congress and onto the desk of a president eager to sign pro-business measures into law. The chief reason is Bush's victory in 2004 and GOP gains in Congress, especially in the Senate, where much of corporate America's agenda has bogged down in recent years, according to Republicans and Democrats.

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Bush and his congressional allies are looking to pass legal protections for drug companies, doctors, gun manufacturers and asbestos makers, as well as tax breaks for all companies and energy-related assistance sought by the oil and gas industry.

more here

March 27, 2005

Log Cabins Go Against the GOP Grain

By Mike Allen and Dana Milbank

The Log Cabin Republicans are looking less and less Republican. Members of the group for gay and lesbian Republicans describe themselves on their Web site as "loyal Republicans" who believe in low taxes, limited government and a strong military. But Log Cabin withheld its endorsement of President Bush last year because of his support for a ban on gay marriage, and yanked the charter of its Palm Beach County, Fla., chapter when it backed the president.

Now, the group has released plans for a four-day convention and Liberty Education Forum National Symposium in New Orleans beginning Thursday, and much of the agenda doesn't look so Republican.

It focuses on "the battle for gay and lesbian civil rights." Panel topics include "Corporate Diversity"; "Family Fairness," described as "the best strategy for achieving protection and recognition for gay and lesbian families"; "Is Sexual Orientation a Choice?" (with a speaker, Chandler Burr, who has written extensively about research into a biological or genetic basis for homosexuality); and "Examining the Truth about Don't Ask, Don't Tell," about the "best way to end" the nation's policy on gays in the military.

The group's Web site does, however, embrace a couple of GOP priorities. "Social Security Reform Tops Log Cabin's 2005 Legislative Reform Agenda," it says, and "Log Cabin Applauds Introduction of Permanent Death Tax Repeal Legislation." Christopher Barron, the group's political director, said: "We believe in the classical vision of the Republican Party -- the principle of expanding the definition of liberty."

more here

March 26, 2005

Daschle named to election reform commission

Associated Press

WASHINGTON - Former Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle of South Dakota has been named to a study commission that will recommend changes in the nation's federal election system.

Heading the bipartisan panel will be former President Carter and former Secretary of State James Baker.

The commission, announced Thursday by American University's Center for Democracy and Election Management, is charged with examining such matters as the disputed 2000 presidential election.

...
Besides gauging how federal reforms worked in the last election, the panel will come up with ways to "restore full confidence of the American people in the inclusiveness and integrity of the U.S. electoral system," Munro said Friday. "It's kind of a tall order, but some very distinguished folks are appointed."

Other members of the privately funded panel include former Reps. Lee Hamilton, D-Ind., and Susan Molinari, R-N.Y., and Robert Mosbacher, the first President Bush's secretary of commerce.

more here

March 27, 2005

Republicans have become `a party of theocracy'

Maureen Dowd says Schiavo case is about DeLay, denial and demagoguery

Oh my God, Americans really are in a theocracy. Are the Republicans so obsessed with maintaining control over all branches of government, and are the Democrats so emasculated about not having any power, that they are willing to turn the nation into a wholly owned subsidiary of the church?

The more dogma-driven activists, self-perpetuating pols and ratings-crazed broadcast media prattle about "faith," the less we honour the credo that a person's relationship with God should remain a private matter.

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Maybe President George Bush should spend less time preaching about spreading democracy around the world and more time worrying about our deteriorating democracy.

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DeLay wanted to show that he is still a favourite of conservatives. Dr. Frist has become a laughingstock by trying to rediagnose Schiavo's condition by video.

Republicans easily abandon their cherished principles of individual privacy and states' rights when their personal ambitions come into play. The first time they snatched a case out of a Florida state court to give to a federal court, it was Bush vs. Gore. This time, it's Bush vs. Constitution.

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The president and his ideological partners don't believe in separation of powers. They just believe in their own power.

more here

March 27, 2005

Liberal activists push for election reform

Three Shore leftists make their marks
on the Net, public TV, at political gatherings

By James Fisher
Daily Times Staff Writer

SALISBURY -- After John Kerry lost his bid for the presidency last November, Shelton Lankford was down in the dumps. Don Singleton and Joel Roache felt the same way.

Now, months later, the three are spearheading a liberal organization more active than any that existed on the Eastern Shore in the run up to the 2004 elections. They have leveraged an Internet presence to secure a weekly public affairs show on local television, held a meeting of the politically like-minded at Lankford's home and targeted letter-writing campaigns to elected officials.

In an interview this month, national issues -- the war in Iraq, Social Security and health care -- held their attention, mostly to the exclusion of more humdrum local politics. But one state controversy has their full attention: a push to make Maryland's electronic ballots produce paper receipts for each voter. Until that goal is accomplished, the three said there's little point in taking sides on smaller-scale issues.

"If you control the machines, you control the vote," Singleton said.

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"The right-wing extremists control the image of everything," Roache said. "None of this gets sufficient coverage in the corporate media."

more here

March 27, 2005

The Pack Versus The Press

By DANA MILBANK

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You could dismiss my view as an admittedly self-serving claim coming from one of the dinosaurs of a dying media oligopoly. But the consequences are ominous for the country as well as for newspapers. Consider a poll two weeks before the 2004 election by the University of Maryland's Program on International Policy Attitudes: The survey found that 72 percent of President Bush's supporters believed that, at the time of the U.S. invasion, Iraq had stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction or at least major illegal weapons programs. It also found that 75 percent of Bush voters believed that Iraq either gave al-Qaida “substantial support” or was directly involved in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. Further, majorities of Bush supporters believed that U.S. weapons inspector Charles Duelfer and the 9/11 commission backed them up on these points.

It's fine to argue about the merits of the Iraq war, but these views are just plain wrong. Duelfer did not find weapons or active programs to make them; the 9/11 commission found no “collaborative relationship” between al-Qaida and Iraq.

The poll's director, Steven Kull, argues that media fragmentation is at least in part to blame for these misperceptions. If the only “news” you get is from talk radio and conservative blogs, you could be forgiven for continuing to believe that Saddam Hussein was tight with al-Qaida and that Iraq really did have the banned weapons. This is not to pick on Bush followers. Many on the left harbor their own fantasies that they consider fact — about how Bush knew of 9/11 in advance, or how he was coached during one of the presidential debates via a transmitter between his shoulder blades.

Two decades ago, the late senator-scholar Daniel Patrick Moynihan remarked that “everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts.” Now, ideologues are claiming their own facts as well.

...
“Today, a host of new forms of communication offer a way for newsmakers to reach the public,” the Project for Excellence in Journalism observed in its annual report last week. “Journalism is a shrinking part of a growing world of media. And since journalists are trained to be skeptics and aspire at least, in the famous phrase, to speak truth to power, journalism is the one source those who want to manipulate the public are most prone to denounce.”

more here

March 27, 2005

Stop taxpayer-funded fake news

Which is more important, steroid use or fake news? Republicans in Congress have tried to make steroid use in baseball the major issue for America. With the Iraq quagmire worsening and more reports about fake news (propaganda) paid for by taxpayers, it is clear why the White House and Republicans are trying to draw attention away from the bad news. Especially considering that both Congress' and the president's approval ratings are down.

Almost more shocking is the fact that the corporate news media are not reporting all the facts regarding the scandals the Bush administration has been involved in, including using our tax dollars to influence the so-called news.

One sure way to stop the fake news reports would require Americans to make the greatest sacrifice -- turn off their televisions until the news is real again.

CHRISTOPHER ORTEGA

Modesto

more here

Utah beats most states in counting provisional ballots

By Thomas Burr

3/27/05

If you voted a provisional ballot in Utah during last year's election, it had a good chance of being counted compared to similar ballots cast in other states.

Utah ranked 10th in the nation for counting 70 percent of the provisional ballots cast during the 2004 elections, according to Electionline.org, a nonpartisan clearinghouse for election-related information. One state, Delaware, counted only 6 percent of provisional ballots cast and 23 states counted less than half, the organization said.

Provisional ballots are offered to voters who do not appear on registration rolls on Election Day, but who are registered to vote in that county. The ballots are not counted unless the voter's registration can be verified and a voter must be able to produce photo identification and some type of proof, such as a utility bill, that he or she lives in the precinct.

-snip/more-

http://www.sltrib.com/utah/ci_2624530

Just a reminder of this great website.

http://shadowbox.i8.com/patriot.htm

Ready to run

At 18, Nick Catalano is setting his sights on the school board
By JEANETTE MINSON
Dominican High School
Posted: March 27, 2005

Nick Catalano thinks he can serve effectively on the Whitefish Bay school board, and he's not letting the fact that he might be the youngest person to ever seek the job deter him.

Nick, a senior at Whitefish Bay High School, was only 17 when he declared his candidacy, but he turned 18 this month, making him eligible to take office if he wins. If elected, Nick wants to ensure that future students in Whitefish Bay attain the same level of satisfaction with their education as he has found.

He's one of four people seeking two open seats on the board. The others are Martha Berg, 59, James Phillips, 50, and Marie Greco, 45.

Though all are also first-time candidates, they bring much more life experience to the race. Berg serves on the village's library board, Phillips belongs to Advocates for Education, and Greco has been with a parent teacher organization.

But that didn't stop Nick from joining the race. No one in his family has been involved in politics, but Nick said he's always been opinionated about government. He became active for the first time last year with the presidential campaign of former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean.

"Once I saw everything he represented on his (Web) site, I was hooked on helping on his campaign," said Nick. He gained further political experience by attending leadership camps and assisting with Whitefish Bay High School student government functions.

At Whitefish Bay, he co-founded the largest high school Democratic organization in the state. After Dean dropped out of the presidential race, Nick worked on the John Kerry campaign and served as an intern at the Wisconsin Victory 2004, the coordinated campaign of all Wisconsin Democratic candidates.

More: http://www.jsonline.com/lifestyle/jump/mar05/312837.asp

Standardized voting machines coming to all

Thursday, March 24, 2005

JEAN SPENNER
THE SAGINAW NEWS

Voters across Saginaw County all will soon cast their ballots in the same fashion, thanks to Help America Vote Act funds.

New optical scan voting machines -- about 70, valued at around $336,000 -- should arrive in all county municipalities by fall, said County Clerk Susan S. Kaltenbach.

Townships that have not had the technology will get machines and other areas that have used optical-scan machines will get newer, faster versions, she said.

-snip/more-

http://www.mlive.com/news/sanews/index.ssf?/base/news-14/1111677617222140.xml

I just read in Salon's forum that the MI SOS (Bush operative Terri Lynn Land) has issued a decree that op scans be replaced with Diebold Accuvotes!
http://tabletalk.salon.com/webx?50@140.gKZdaVeyty6.5@.596c5668