Election Reform, Fraud, & Updates Thread for Tuesday

Election Reform, Fraud, & Updates Thread for Tuesday

In order to organize and document MelissaB 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.

If you see something that isn't here post it with a link to the thread and a thanks to the author. MelissaB is busy for a while so I'm taking over and Need Lots of Help posting news items!
Thanks,
Melissa G

Link to previous thread
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x369636

Gov. Directs Staff to Prepare for Special Election Campaign
By Robert Salladay, Times Staff Writer


SACRAMENTO -- After five months of failing to sway Democrats to his "year of reform," Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has directed his political staff to prepare for a special-election campaign that would denigrate the California Legislature and its union benefactors.

Escalating the governor's fight, chief political consultant Mike Murphy said Monday that Schwarzenegger may endorse an initiative that could hobble the money-raising machine of public employee unions. Murphy said the governor has asked him to conduct polling and voter focus groups on a so-called paycheck protection initiative.


"Arnold has not touched the Legislature with a feather yet compared to what the real campaign will be," said Murphy, one of the governor's closest advisers. "It's a referendum on the governor versus the Legislature, and he will win."

With a deadline approaching to call a special election, Schwarzenegger is attempting to refocus his efforts to pass a handful of voter initiatives that would strike at the heart of Democrats who control the Legislature and public employee unions that fund their campaigns. The governor also is taking more control of the political efforts, Murphy said, now that his signature-gathering effort is complete.

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-arnold17may17,0,3337697.story?coll=la-home-headlines

"A democracy can die of too many lies"
Television journalist Bill Moyers blasts flag-wearing phonies, reporters who parrot the government line, and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting's "dangerous" campaign to silence dissenting voices.

Editor's note: This is excerpted from an address given by Bill Moyers at the National Conference for Media Reform in St. Louis, Mo., on Sunday. It was broadcast on the national radio and TV program Democracy Now!

- - - - - - - - - - - -
By Bill Moyers



May 17, 2005 | The story I've come to share with you goes to the core of our belief that the quality of democracy and the quality of journalism are deeply entwined. I can tell this story because I've been living it.

As you know, CPB was established almost 40 years ago to set broad policy for public broadcasting and to be a firewall between political influence and program content. What some on its board are doing today, led by its chairman, Kenneth Tomlinson, is too important, too disturbing and, yes, even dangerous for a gathering like this not to address it. We're seeing unfold a contemporary example of the age-old ambition of power and ideology to squelch, to punish, the journalist who tells the stories that make princes and priests uncomfortable.

http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2005/05/17/moyers/index_np.html

Published on Monday, May 16, 2005 by CommonDreams.org
Take Public Broadcasting Back
by Bill Moyers
Closing address at the National Conference on Media Reform
St. Louis, Missouri
May 15, 2005

I can't imagine better company on this beautiful Sunday morning in St. Louis. You're church for me today, and there's no congregation in the country where I would be more likely to find more kindred souls than are gathered here.

There are so many different vocations and callings in this room -- so many different interests and aspirations of people who want to reform the media -- that only a presiding bishop like Bob McChesney with his great ecumenical heart could bring us together for a weekend like this.

What joins us all under Bob's embracing welcome is our commitment to public media. Pat Aufderheide got it right, I think, in the recent issue of IN THESE TIMES when she wrote: "This is a moment when public media outlets can make a powerful case for themselves. Public radio, public TV, cable access, public DBS channels, media arts centers, youth media projects, nonprofit Internet news services . . . low-power radio and webcasting are all part of a nearly-invisible feature of today's media map: the public media sector. They exist not to make a profit, not to push an ideology, not to serve customers, but to create a public-a group of people who can talk productively with those who don't share their views, and defend the interests of the people who have to live with the consequences of corporate and governmental power."

She gives examples of the possibilities. "Look at what happened," she said, "when thousands of people who watched Stanley Nelson's 'The Murder of Emmett Till' on their public television channels joined a postcard campaign that re-opened the murder case after more than half a century. Look at NPR's courageous coverage of the Iraq war, an expensive endeavor that wins no points from this Administration. Look at Chicago Access Network's Community Forum, where nonprofits throughout the region can showcase their issues and find volunteers."

http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0516-34.htm

Blair unveils new term blueprint

This year's Queen's Speech is set to contain a "bold" programme
Security and public health will be key themes among the government's programme of laws for the new parliamentary term.
The Queen's Speech will include a bumper package of about 40 bills for Parliament to debate by November 2006.

Ministers are renewing controversial plans for ID cards and a new offence of incitement to religious hatred.

Measures to tackle hospital infections, the EU constitution referendum and incapacity benefit are among other laws the prime minister wants to introduce.

snip
LIKELY KEY BILLS
Identity Cards Bill
European Union Bill
Health Improvement and Protection Bill
Work and Family Bill
Asylum and Immigration Bill
Violent Crime Reduction Bill
Welfare Reform Bill
Lords Reform Bill
Protection of Children Bill
Electoral Administration Bill
Anti-Terrorism Bill

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/4553403.stm

62 per cent of the electorate disagree with Blair on electoral reform
17 May 2005


snip
A survey by NOP for The Independent found that 62 per cent of people agree that Britain should bring in proportional representation (PR) so that the number of MPs each party secures matches its votes more closely. Only 17 per cent disagree. NOP's finding is believed to show the strongest support yet for a switch to a proportional system.
snip

Campaigners for reform welcomed NOP's findings last night. Nina Temple, the director of Make Votes Count, said: "This poll shows that there has been a strong movement in public opinion in favour of voting reform since the election. People have been shocked that a government can be formed with such a small minority of votes cast."

snip
Today the campaign for voting reform will be stepped up with a three-hour vigil near Downing Street by supporters from the Labour Party, the Liberal Democrats and the Greens. A letter will be delivered to No 10 urging Tony Blair to open up the Government's "secret" review of voting systems to allow a full public debate on alternatives to first-past-the-post. The Department of Constitutional Affairs, headed by the Lord Chancellor, Lord Falconer of Thoroton, is carrying out an internal government review of the use of PR for elections to the Welsh, Scottish and London assemblies and the European Parliament.

Campaigners may set up their own public inquiry if the Government does not make its own one more transparent.
http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/story.jsp?story=638939

Dems seek new tough-guy image
By Alexander Bolton


Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) are working behind the scenes to bolster their party’s national-security credentials, planning to pose a stronger challenge in a policy area that Republicans have dominated in recent years.

Polls last year showed that, while Democrats equaled or surpassed Republicans in public approval in a number of policy areas, more Americans trusted President Bush and Republicans to manage the war on terrorism competently. Their perceived supremacy on national security emerged a week after Election Day as a principal reason for Bush’s victory, according to pollsters and political scientists who met at Stanford University last November to parse data.

Democrats realize that, if they are to be more competitive at the polls in 2006 and 2008, they will have to be more credible in voters’ eyes on security issues. That is the political context for the ramping-up of Democratic activity, led by Reid and Pelosi, in the traditionally GOP-dominated policy area.

Reid and Pelosi’s national-security staffs are in touch with each other several times a week. Reid and Pelosi aides describe it as “a joint operation.”

http://www.thehill.com/thehill/export/TheHill/News/Frontpage/051705/dems.html

With Liberals losing control, will Canada shift to right?
http://abcnews.go.com/International/CSM/story?id=762987
By Susan Bourette

TORONTO Not so long ago, Chuck Cadman was a marginal political player, a pony-tailed rogue on the backbenches of Canada's federal Parliament. This week, he is arguably the most powerful man in the country.

Mr. Cadman's vote will, in all likelihood, decide the fate of Prime Minister Paul Martin and his embattled Liberal Party. Amid a political and financial scandal that has implicated people in his party, Mr. Martin's minority government is expected to face a vote of confidence Thursday. Cadman's vote could tip the balance, either granting the Liberals a reprieve, or thrusting the country into a summer election.

The results of those elections could not only mean a sharp turn to the right for Canadians on policy issues such as healthcare reform and immigration, but on international issues such as Canada's involvement in the war on terror.

snip
The fragility of Martin's minority government was on display last week as opposition parties effectively shut down Parliament. Joining forces as unlikely partners, the Conservative Party and the separatist Bloc Quebecois voted to adjourn the House for three days, demonstrating that the Liberal Party is effectively no longer able to conduct the business of government. Martin responded by scheduling a showdown for Thursday.

http://abcnews.go.com/International/CSM/story?id=762987

For poll workers, today is a lot of work, and fun

By David M. Brown
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Tuesday, May 17, 2005


Bernadine Smith, 60, and her mother, Ruth M. Summers, 81, are braced for a big day.
To get ready, they and their friends kept the Crock-Pots working last night, cooking chilli, beef stew, spaghetti sauce, soup. A niece was making a salad, and somebody else was at the store getting chips and dip.

snip

The women were preparing for a long day at their polling place in the Manchester neighborhood of the North Side, where Smith is the judge of elections and Summers is an elections clerk. They are among more than 6,000 poll workers set to show up this morning at 1,314 polling places throughout Allegheny County. Their job is to keep the primary on track.


snip

Each precinct has a judge, a pair of inspectors and two clerks. The workers perform a variety of basic tasks. They turn on the voting machines and check the ballots, verify voter registration information, help voters, keep records, tabulate returns and take the returns to regional centers after the polls close. The pay rate varies across the state. In Allegheny County, precinct officials each are paid about $95 a day.

snip

Mastriano recalls that when she started as a poll worker, before the county bought voting machines, she helped count the ballots using the "chicken feet" method -- scratching four marks on a piece of paper and drawing a line through them to represent the count of five ballots. "Things have changed a lot," she said. "But all in all, it's fun. If it wasn't fun, I wouldn't be here."

http://pittsburghlive.com/x/tribune-review/trib/pittsburgh/s_334927.html