Monday 3/7 Election Fraud, Reform, & Updates Thread

[MelissaB]

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=203x339299

[MelissaB]

1. "Nash-ional" election reform conference, Nashville 4/8-10/05: Y'all come!

Attention DUers:

The Tennessee election reform grassroots group, Gathering To Save Our Democracy, is pleased to announce (finally) that we will be hosting a three day conference in beautiful Nashville on April 8-10 that will focus on the 2004 election fraud and theft, and the action we must take as a nation to protect the franchise.

We have been really impressed by the successes of the two recent California "teach-ins" and of the other cities that are planning similar "teach-ins". Our goal here in Nashville is to broaden the reach of the conference by inviting the country to join us (literally). Nashville is a very central location, and we have already heard from election reform activists from over 20 states who intend to join us. We have also received a great deal of help and support locally and nationally and are honored by the willingness to participate of some of the national leaders in the election reform movement whom we have all grown to know and love (including some of our very own here on DU). (A list of some of the speakers follows -- more to come.) All of that support and cooperation will make this Nashville conference in April a success.

April 8-10 is a Friday through a Sunday. The actual conference will begin Friday evening at 5:30 pm and end on Saturday evening at 6:00 pm. In addition, we hope to have discussion groups early Friday afternoon (1-4 pm) and Sunday morning (9-noon) before and after the conference. (The list of topics follows below). This is a grassroots conference, organized to serve the needs and concerns of the grassroots around the country who'd like to get together for several intense days of education, discussion and consensus building.

And that means all of you folks. This conference is for you, it is for us.

So please read all about it below, and help me keep this kicked for a while. Let me know what you think and whether you'll be able to join us. In a day or so, people will be able to register for the conference at www.freepress.org, but we're not there yet. (I'll send through another thread when that happens.) In the meantime, send us Gathering folks some good vibes and your thoughts on how we plan to spend springtime in the Orange State takin' our country back. All y'all come now, y'hear?

Here's the detailed info on our goals, our guests and our interests. If you want a copy of the tentative program, email me at [e-mail] and I'll send it to you. Hope to see many of you soon in the mid-South. Bernie
---------------

GATHERING TO SAVE OUR DEMOCRACY
A NATIONAL CONFERENCE
NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE, APRIL 8-10, 2005

Background

Since November 3, 2004, there has been a groundswell of concern, and a plethora of evidence, that the conduct of the 2004 Presidential election in the United States was highly problematic. These concerns have been belittled by many and ignored by the corporate media in this country. However, the weight of the evidence is overwhelming that a multi-faceted strategy of voter intimidation and disenfranchisement, potential manipulation of electronically cast votes in many states, and other instances of election fraud and theft improperly influenced the will of the American people and may have subverted the “consent of the governed”.

This evidence was sufficient to have stimulated the Government Accountability Office and U.S. Representative John Conyers and other national leaders to investigate the evidence of wrong-doing. This evidence also caused the U.S. Congress to suspend their routine business and to debate the merits of accepting Ohio’s electoral votes on January 6, 2005, a historic occasion that highlighted the many problems in Ohio and also served to shed light on similar problems in other states. With this Congressional debate, the American people’s responsibility to win back our democratic process was enumerated and enjoined.

To date, most of the discussion and information sharing on the problems with the 2004 election have occurred in the virtual world of the Internet. While there have been some local gatherings and regional and national protests focused on this issue, there has been no opportunity for concerned citizens, researchers, activists and elected officials to meet under one roof to review the wealth of evidence for the many threats to our democratic processes which the 2004 election revealed and to discuss the urgent need for election reform. While some panels on this topic have been added to several national meetings, these panels are not nearly sufficient to present all of the evidence for the 2004 election problems. It is also insufficient to fully inform the American people enough to motivate them to seek redress for the violations of our voting rights which occurred with this past election and to coalesce sentiment around an election reform agenda.

For these reasons, this three day Gathering To Save Our Democracy – A National Conference will provide the appropriate forum for expanding public awareness, for congregating the accumulated knowledge under one roof and for providing a platform for mobilizing support for election reform and justice

Nashville, Tennessee is the setting of this conference. Nashville has a proud history of early successes in the 1960s civil rights movement, we are in a Southern and supposedly “red” state (we prefer to consider ourselves an Orange State, in deference to the Ukrainian example), we are centrally located within a day’s drive of 60% of the U.S. population, we have an international airport serviced by a dozen major airlines, and we have several locations tentatively identified as appropriate and historic venues for hosting the conference. But most importantly, we have an energetic (and growing) band of citizen-activists for election reform in Tennessee who would insure the successful implementation of this conference.

This conference will be a comprehensive and historic event that will bring together the “major players” who have surfaced in the dialogue over the problems with the 2004 election and the need for election reform. We also anticipate that the conference will be a gathering place for the many concerned citizens throughout the nation and the world who are intent on preserving democracies. We hope that this conference will help break the media silence about the problems with the 2004 election within our country and provide a forum for increasing the world’s attention to our threatened democratic principles. In addition, we will hold discussion sessions before and after the conference to exchange ideas and build coalitions to pursue the necessary elements of election reform and to redress our concerns with the 2004 election

The conference registration fee is $30 (with exceptions for hardships), and will cover all conference-related activities. Registration details will be posted later re: registering at www.freepress.org . People who cannot attend but who would like to support the conference by making a donation will be able to do that also. We will work to provide copies of the written materials and/or videotapes of the conference for these supporters.

Thank you for supporting the conference and for promoting the preservation of democracy in America.
--------------
NATIONAL CONFERENCE ON THE 2004 ELECTION AND THE NEED FOR ELECTION REFORM CONFIRMED SPEAKERS (in order of appearance)

Bernard Ellis, Gathering To Save Our Democracy
Civil rights leaders: Dr. Tommie Morton-Young, Dr. Sonnye Dixon, Dr. Charles Kimbrough
Cliff Arnebeck, Moss v. Bush
Bob Fitrakis, Moss v. Bush, www.freepress.org
R.H. Phillips, Ohio election fraud researcher
Joanne Roush, Ohio recount volunteer from Wisconsin
Bernard Windham, Election Incident Reporting System
Judith Alter, New Mexico
Paul Lehto, Washington state
John Gideon, votersunite.org
Kathy Dopp, USCountVotes
Jonathan Simon, exit poll researcher
Brad Friedman, BradBlog/Velvet Revolution
Democratic Underground spokesman
David Cobb, Presidential candidate, Green Party
Lara Schaffer, Verified Voting Consortium
Susan Truitt, CASE-America
Phil Fry, CASE-Ohio
Larry Quick, National Ballot Integrity Project
Teresa Hommel, Where’s The Paper
Larry English, Information Impact Intl
David Lytel, Honest Elections Campaign
Clinton Curtis, Whistle-Blower
(and many more)
-------------------
The conference itself will run in Nashville from 5:30 pm Friday, April 8 until 6:00 pm, Saturday, April 9. However, we are also scheduling pre-conference (early Friday afternoon) and post-conference (Sunday morning) discussion groups on topics of interest to the election reform and election justice movement. Topics will include:

1. Worthy (or emerging) state-level election reform models
2. Conducting an election audit: what is required?
3. Be the media: Strategies for increasing public awareness of election reform
4. A status report on Tennessee’s election reform legislation
5. Essential elements of a free, fair and verifiable election
6. Thinking & Acting for the Country: National Election Reform Strategies & Movements
7. Election Statistics 301 – An even more detailed review of the “data”
8. Electronic voting – the good, the bad and the really bad (and what to do about it)
-----------

So, once again, DUers. If you can, try to join us in Nashville. We'll work to find housing for as many of you as possible. It will be well worth it for this chance for so many of us to get together. Besides, Steve Earle's playing in town on Saturday night, so anything's possible....

Stay tuned, and keep this thread kicked. And thanks to all of you for your encouragement and support for this idea that we've talked about here (and everywhere else) for a while. In great part, it's the DUers' spirit that really made this Nashville conference happen.

Hope to see all of you soon. The dogwoods and the democrats will be in bloom.


Thanks to Fly by night here: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x339433

[tommcintyre]

2. ADDED: Express Curtis BlogCall Blaster: 2 CLICKS/4 SECONDS YOUR DONE!

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x339502

It doesn't get any easier to potentially make a difference than this!

Tell the National Media to Participate in the Upcoming BlogCall Virtual Press Conference (info below)

Two choices: Quickly - Tell the Top 52 National Media Contacts to Participate in the Upcoming BlogCall Virtual Press Conference

http://www.independentmediasource.com/voteintegrity_express.htm
2 clicks/4 seconds your Done!

Or: Tell 391 National Media Contacts to Cover the BlogCall Press Conference!

http://www.independentmediasource.com/voteintegrity.htm
Message just updated, so you can do it again!

DO BOTH!

IF YOU REALLY WANT ELECTION FRAUD UNCOVERED AND MEANINGFUL ELECTION REFORM...

JUST DO IT!

<To those who do it (or have done it) - THANK YOU! We really need your support for these tools to work - and it is appreciated. :D>
---------------------------------------------------------------
Synopsis:
Vote Rigging in Florida- “The Clint Curtis Story”
BlogCall Press Conference: March 8, 2005, at 1pm, EST.

Computer Programmer Clint Curtis, in sworn testimony, claims to have been hired by US Congressman Tom Feeney in 2000, to design a software program to rig the Florida election. Events of this fascinating story continue to unfold, even five years later. Journalists and media professionals are invited to join Clint Curtis and Brad Friedman of www.bradblog.com (who initially broke the story in December 2004) for a live press conference (via telephone), on Tuesday, March 8th at 1pm. For more information and details about how to participate on this call, visit http://democrats.com/blogcall2 For more information on the story, visit www.BradBlog.com/ClintCurtis.htm

More info here:
Why We Should Support the Upcoming Clint Curtis BlogCall (and future ones)
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x339274

Attention Journalists & Bloggers- Clint Curtis LIVE Blog Call- Tuesday!
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x339417

[dzika]

3. Videos from the weekend of 3/5 through 3/6

Fox News Watch - Clinton in 2008; Mary Maples to write book - 3/5

Video in Real Media format (3 minutes)

---

NBC Meet the Press - Hillary Clinton in 2008 - 3/6

Video in Real Media format (4 minutes)

---

CBS Face the Nation - Barbara Boxer: the Bush plan will destroy Social Security - 3/6

Video in Real Media format (9 minutes)

---

CNN Reliable Sources: Interview with Tom Fenton author of Bad News - 3/6

Video in Real Media format (6 minutes)

---

CNN Reliable Sources Media Minute - 3/6

Mentioned in this clip:

• NY Times has new Libritarian Colmnist, Mark Tierney
  
• Armstrong William to host radio show
  
• Mary Mapes to publish book on "Rathergate" scandal
  
• CNN/Gallup poll on popularity of blogs

Video in Real Media format (1 minute)

[dzika]

4. Democrats Call on President Bush to Fully Support Election Reform

From All American Patriots:

March 4, 2005

Democrats Call on President Bush to Fully Support Election Reform

Washington, D.C. – In 2004, hundreds of thousands of people had problems voting or couldn’t vote at all. In some neighborhoods, there weren’t enough voting machines; in other areas the machines malfunctioned. Forty years after Congress reaffirmed the right of every eligible citizen to vote, this is unacceptable. Forty years later, some barriers remain.

Next week marks the 40th Anniversary of the March on Selma, the event that helped finalize the passage of the landmark 1965 Voting Rights Act. Signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson, the Voting Rights Act removed barriers that systematically kept African Americans and other minorities away from the polls.

Joining other Democrats and Civil Rights leaders, the Democratic National Committee (DNC) called on Republicans in Washington to fully support reforming the nation’s election system.

"I call on President George W. Bush and all Republicans to stand up for real election reform so that the problems of 2004 do not happen again," said DNC Chairman Governor Howard Dean.

The DNC is committed to ensuring that every eligible citizen has the right to vote and to vigorously working for the reauthorization of the Voting Rights Act. The DNC has posted a petition urging people to call on President Bush to publicly stand up for real election reform. In addition, the DNC formed the Ohio Election Task force which is looking into election irregularities in Ohio in 2004.

See the petition here: http://www.democrats.org/action/200503040001.html?psc=press

source

[dzika]

5. Fight for voting rights on new road

Sun, Mar. 06, 2005

Fight for voting rights on new road

This pilgrimage is for minorities whose votes aren’t counted or aren’t allowed to vote

1965 MARCH ACROSS EDMUND PETTUS BRIDGE

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — Amid settings of the civil rights movement that fought for voting rights 40 years ago, members of a congressional delegation said Friday that the struggle continues and could escalate in Washington over the next two years.

The 1965 Voting Rights Act — enacted after a violent confrontation between nonviolent marchers and white policemen at the foot of Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Ala. — is coming up for reauthorization in Congress at a time when blacks, Hispanics and other minorities say they again face intimidation and suppression at polling places.

“We know in America (today) that voting rights are not assured for every American; that’s what this pilgrimage is all about,” Rep. Steney Hoyer, D-Md., told nearly 150 VIPs who began a three-day tour of civil rights landmarks in Alabama.

The group of 37 representatives and senators, Democrats and Republicans alike, is led by U.S. Rep. John Lewis, D-Atlanta. As head of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, he was a leader of the 1965 Selma march and nearly died from the beating he suffered at the hands of police and state troopers.

...
Instead of Alabama, Georgia and Mississippi, they are talking about taking the fight to Ohio, Florida and New Mexico, where, in recent elections, voters complained their ballots were not counted or that officials tried to keep them from voting.

read more

[dzika]

6. Faith-ful Hil playing it coy

March 6, 2005

Faith-ful Hil playing it coy

BY HELEN KENNEDY

Sen. Hillary Clinton
is still mum on
presidential run.


The 2008 drumbeat grows ever louder. Barely a day goes by now without some new mention of the former First Lady, Sen. Hillary Clinton, returning to the White House as President.

Even halfway around the world, the question pops up. When New York's junior senator met with young politicians in New Delhi last week, they wanted to discuss her chances of being the next leader of the free world.

"She smartly dodged our queries," a member of parliament, Jitin Prasada, told the Times of India in a gushing story that began, "She came, she spoke, she conquered."

Clinton always ducks the query, saying she's focused on reelectionnext year, but try to find a political pro who's not sure 2008 is her real target.

more here

[dzika]

7. Ex-hostage contradicts U.S. story, car was traveling at 'regular' speed

Sunday, March 6, 2005

Italian journalist ex-hostage contradicts U.S. story
She says car was traveling at 'regular' speed when fired upon

Tracy Wilkinson

Rome -- An Italian journalist freed from kidnappers in Iraq and then shot by U.S. troops returned home Saturday and raised questions about the official U.S. explanation of the shooting, as emotional outrage swept Italy.

Giuliana Sgrena was wounded and an Italian intelligence agent who helped win her freedom was killed Friday night when U.S. soldiers opened fire on the Italians' car as the reporter traveled to the Baghdad airport in darkness shortly after her release. Sgrena had been held hostage for a month.

...
Sgrena, a 56-year-old veteran reporter for the left-wing Il Manifesto newspaper, was hit in the shoulder and two other agents in the car were also wounded.

...
Later, speaking to Italian prosecutors who are determining whether criminal charges can be brought against the Americans, she said the "regular" speed of her car did not justify the shooting, according to the Italian news agency ANSA.

more here

[dzika]

8. Governor's re-election may hinge on special vote

Sunday, March 6, 2005

Governor's re-election may hinge on special vote

Phillip Matier, Andrew Ross

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's move toward a special election this fall is more than just a bid for "reform" -- it's also a high-stakes bet on his re-election.

"It's going to be like having the 2006 election a year early, because if we're able to push through all of this stuff -- either through negotiations with the Legislature or through the election outright -- he's going to be golden,'' said one Team Arnold adviser.

...
It's a bold strategy, to say the least -- and one that's fraught with risk. For unlike Schwarzenegger's past endeavors -- such as the multibillion- dollar bailout bond, revamping workers' comp or getting Indian casinos to pay their "fair share" to the state -- Arnold's current issues aren't exactly barn burners with the public.

In fact, the new bunch -- public worker pension reform, teacher tenure, a new spending cap and redistricting -- are generating fierce opposition from some of the most popular groups in the state, including firefighters and teachers.

more here

[dzika]

9. White House cranks up publicity machine

March 6, 2005

White House cranks up publicity machine

The Bush administration has set up a communications operation (war room) inside the Treasury Department to help sell the president's proposal to add private investment accounts to the Social Security system.

The effort is being coordinated through the Social Security Information Center. Three people have been hired and two more hires are possible soon. The first three employees are veterans of the Bush-Cheney campaign or the Republican National Committee.

...
Among other things, the center is to:

• Coordinate the schedules of administration officials on a two-month travel blitz to promote Bush's plan.
  
  
• Develop talking points to ensure that all officials are "singing off the same song sheet," said Rob Nichols, chief Treasury spokesman.
  
  
• Distribute positive statements and columns that back Bush's plan, and respond to negative media reports and to activities by the opposition.

...
"They have the right to say their piece and to respond, but to create a whole team of PR experts to try and influence the media, I think, is an excessive use of taxpayer money," said Joan Claybrook, president of Public Citizen, which opposes the Bush plan.

more here

[dzika]

10. Blogger alert: Election regulators are watching

Monday, March 7, 2005

Blogger alert: Election regulators are watching

By Anne E. Kornblut The New York Times

Politics on Internet is being reviewed


WASHINGTON Federal election commissioners in the United States are preparing to consider how revamped campaign finance laws apply to political activity on the Internet, including online advertising, fund-raising e-mail messages and Web blogs.

Anyone who decides to "set up a blog, send out mass e-mails, any kind of activity that can be done on the Internet" could be subject to Federal Election Commission regulation, Bradley Smith, a Republican commissioner, said in an interview posted last week on the technology news site Cnet.com.

...
"In theory, there's no reason why everything that goes on a blog advocating a candidate wouldn't be an independent expenditure and subject to regulation," Smith said.

...
The Republican commissioners interviewed agreed that it would be difficult to place a value on most political activity conducted online, and thus to determine whether it fell under the campaign contribution limits. "If you have a very successful blogger who attracts a lot of attention based on the commentary he or she is undertaking, and maybe that activity is coordinated with a candidate, what is the value of that?" said Michael E. Toner, the third Republican member of the commission.

more here

[dzika]

11. Botched Sgrena Hit Does Not Bode Well for Bush and Berlusconi

From uruknet.info:
March 06, 2005

Botched Sgrena Hit Does Not Bode Well for Bush and Berlusconi

Kurt Nimmo

Newspapers across the United States are publishing and posting the same story by Frances D’Emilio on the shooting of Giuliana Sgrena and the murder of Nicola Calipari. The story is entitled “Story of Italian Hostage’s Release Unclear” and it is divided between the “circumstances” surrounding Sgrena’s release and the “friendly fire incident” that killed Calipari and wounded Sgrena. D’Emilio, however, left out a few important facts, as noted by Lew Rockwell < http://blog.lewrockwell.com/ >:

“Despite the universal reprinting of Pentagon press releases by the US media—the Italian car carrying the hostage and her rescuers was speeding towards the checkpoint and refused to stop despite warning shots—the foreign press reports the truth. When the USG soldiers opened fire, the car was 700 yards from the airport and had passed all checkpoints. Giuliana Sgrena had helped expose Abu Graib and other US military crimes, including massacres in Fallujah, and she has much more to say. She is hated for not being embedded and FOXified, so they opened fire. One can never rule out a snafu—this is the government, after all—but the rest of the world sees it as an attempted hit.”

Consider the following posted on the Turkish Press site < http://www.turkishpress.com/news.asp?id=38029 >:

“The Americans and Italians knew about (her) car coming,” Pier Scolari (Sgrena’s companion) said on leaving Rome’s Celio military hospital where Sgrena is to undergo surgery following her return home. “They were 700 meters (yards) from the airport, which means that they had passed all checkpoints… Giuliana had information, and the US military did not want her to survive,” he added.

Predictably, the corporate media in the United States is in the process of downplaying the fallout from this incident, viewed by many Italians as an attempt to assassinate Giuliana Sgrena. “About 100 demonstrators outside the U.S. Embassy in Rome blocked traffic and one banner read: ‘USA, war criminals.’ A few dozen communist demonstrators at the U.S. Consulate in Milan handed out leaflets reading, ‘Shame on you, Bush,’” reports ABC News < http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=554289 >. In other words, just a few commies, no need to take note, move along.


It is fair to say part of their “work” is killing journalists determined to tell the truth about what is happening in Iraq.

“A senior correspondent for the Communist daily, Il Manifesto in Rome, the journalist (Sgrena) has been no friend of the US invasion and occupation,” writes Arab News < http://www.arabnews.com/?page=7&ion=0&article=60023&d=6&m=3&y=2005 >. “US troops have killed journalists before. Two cameramen, a Ukrainian and a Spaniard, were slain in April 2003 when a US shell was fired into the Palestine Hotel, a known base of international journalists opposite the Baghdad Sheraton. Earlier an Al-Jazeera correspondent was killed when the TV station's local office was struck by a US missile.”

And:

“When Sgrena was kidnapped on Feb.4 , other journalists were told by US officials that the event highlighted the danger of working outside their Green Zone-focused loop. There was also apparently grim satisfaction that a journalist who was so opposed to US policy should have become a victim of the insurgents. The conclusion of the sinister explanation must therefore be that the Americans were settling the score with a foreign commentator whose published views infuriated them.”

more here

[AtLiberty]

12. Rev. Jackson: Selma 40 Years Later

http://www.freepress.org/departments/display/19/2005/1185

[dzika]

13. Is the party over for Colorado's governor Bill Owens?

Sunday, March 06, 2005

Is the party over for Colorado's governor Bill Owens?

By Susan Greene

Bill Owens has seen his political fortunes turn
halfway through his second term as Colorado’s
governor. “The wheels have come off his wagon,”
a fellow Republican says of the man once considered
presidential material.


Two years ago, the future looked limitless for Bill Owens.

Colorado's 40th governor had snagged his second term with the largest vote count in state history. The National Review lauded him as "The Best Governor in America." And Republicans nationwide beseeched him to run for president.

Then, Owens' political stock began to plummet.

After news in 2003 that the "family values" champion was separating from his wife came the trouncing of his statewide water referendum. Then followed a string of more crushing upsets in 2004 - most notably, Republicans losing control of Colorado's House and Senate, bucking a trend of GOP wins elsewhere in the nation.

"He took his eye off the ball and failed to stay engaged with what was going on in the state," said Sen. Ron Teck, R-Grand Junction. "The wheels have come off his wagon."

more here

[dzika]

14. Communication or manipulation?

March 7, 2005

Communication or manipulation?
Press and president clash over approach

By Mark Jurkowitz, Globe Staff

In his new journalist-scolding memoir, ''Taking Heat," former White House press secretary Ari Fleischer presents a series of grievances against the news media that include excessive commentary, oversimplification, liberal bias, and the ''drive to find conflict anywhere and everywhere."

Fleischer's adversarial view of the reporters who have covered President Bush, which will come as no surprise to political and media analysts, underscores what many say is an ongoing tension between the White House and the press. Citing James Guckert (a.k.a. Jeff Gannon), the obscure conservative Web journalist who asked softball questions at White House press gatherings; revelations about administration payments to sympathetic commentators; the use of fake journalists in propagandistic video news releases; and the administration's generally chilly relationship with the press, some observers say the Bush administration has taken the art of media manipulation to new heights -- or lows.

''You've got some very sophisticated media managers that are working this," says Lucy Dalglish, executive director of the nonprofit Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press. ''It's absolutely a philosophy. It's a profound lack of understanding of the role the media plays."

...
''The Bush White House has virtually no respect for the media's traditional role," says Craig Crawford, a columnist for Congressional Quarterly and author of the forthcoming book ''Attack the Messenger: How Politicians Turn You Against the Media."

more here

[dzika]

15. Election bills face key panel in New Jersey

Monday, March 7, 2005

Election bills face key panel in New Jersey
Goal: User-friendly voting

By LAUREN O. KIDD
Gannett State Bureau

TRENTON - Lawmakers on both sides of the political aisle say they hope a package of bills aimed at reforming the state's electoral process will encourage more New Jerseyans to cast ballots by making voting convenient, accommodating and user-friendly.

"Everything that we can do to give greater access to the polls and increase voter participation is a very good idea," said Assembly Majority Leader Joe Roberts Jr., D-Camden.

Over the last three months, Roberts held a series of meetings with lawmakers, county clerks and election officials to draft reform bills that are "not just effective, but also manageable," he said.

Seventeen of the 18 bills in the original "Every Voter Counts" package unveiled last October by Assembly Democrats are set to be considered today at the meeting of the Assembly State Government Committee.

more here

[dzika]

16. Ted K `respects' Hillary, but Kerry gets his vote

Monday, March 7, 2005

Ted K `respects' Hillary, but Kerry gets his vote

By Andrew Miga

WASHINGTON - Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (related, bio) said yesterday that while Sen. Hillary Clinton may be the early 2008 Democratic presidential front-runner, he's still backing Sen. John Kerry (related, bio).

``Oh yes,'' Kennedy replied when asked if he is sticking with Kerry despite Clinton's popularity surge. ``And I have enormous respect for Sen. Clinton. I admire and respect her. She's qualified for the job, but my man is John Kerry.''

Kennedy, appearing on ABC-TV's ``This Week'' program, said that he expects Kerry, who lost by three percentage points to President Bush (related, bio) in November, will make another run for the presidency in 2008.

``I'm from Massachusetts, and we have a candidate, I think, probably up there as well,'' said Kennedy, who campaigned extensively and raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for Kerry in 2004.

more here

[dzika]

17. Are Athens, Ohio political elephants on endangered species list?

2005-03-07

Are Athens, Ohio political elephants on endangered species list?

By Nick Claussen
Athens NEWS Associate Editor

At a time when Republicans dominate Ohio and federal politics, Republican candidates and officeholders are scarcer than hens' teeth in the city of Athens.

...
Susan Gwinn, chair of the Athens County Democratic Party, agreed with the Republicans that the numbers of registered voters do not show an accurate ratio of Democrats to Republicans, but she thinks the true number would show an even higher dominance for the Democrats.

Gwinn maintained that the divide between Republicans and Democrats in Athens is now much bigger than it used to be. Many people who used to consider themselves moderate Republicans have turned to the Democratic Party locally, Gwinn said.

Also, many people who in the past did not pay attention to political affiliation in local races, started to realize that party affiliation can be important in local offices, Gwinn said.

"I think (Ohio Secretary of State) Kenneth Blackwell did so much to make people realize how much a local person or statewide person could affect a presidential race," Gwinn said. "I think we are at the height of partisanship right now."

more here

[dzika]

18. '65 Voting Act An Undertone On Rights Tour

March 7, 2005

'65 Voting Act An Undertone On Rights Tour

BOB KEMPER

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. -- Amid the settings of the civil rights movement that fought for voting rights 40 years ago, members of a congressional delegation said Friday the struggle continues and could escalate over the next two years in Washington.

...
Several post-election analyses of the November elections showed that generally a white voter's ballot was more likely to be counted than a black voter's. That was in part because of technological problems many black precincts had older, less reliable voting machines, fewer poll workers and less funding to upgrade their systems.

...
"We need to make sure these laws are strengthened so those who came before us and those who are still us know that in fact that their legacy continues and these injustices will never come back," said Rep. Fred Upton (R-Mich).

The Rev. Jesse Jackson announced Friday he is launching a petition drive to collect a million signatures to renew the Voting Rights Act, which struck down Jim Crow-era barriers to minority voting and requires federal approval of redistricting and voting procedure changes in the affected states.

more here

[dzika]

19. PENTAGON SUED FOR RECORDS ON PROPAGANDA, PSY-OPS AND “PERCEPTION MANAGEMEN

PENTAGON SUED FOR RECORDS ON PROPAGANDA, PSY-OPS AND “PERCEPTION MANAGEMENT” TARGETTING U.S. CIVILIANS

Pentagon Media Consultants Develop “Empower Peace” Internet Site Aimed at School Children

For Immediate Release
Mar 4, 2005

Contact: Press Office
202-646-5172


PENTAGON SUED FOR RECORDS ON PROPAGANDA, PSY-OPS AND “PERCEPTION MANAGEMENT” TARGETTING U.S. CIVILIANS

Pentagon Media Consultants Develop “Empower Peace” Internet Site Aimed at School Children


(Washington, DC) Judicial Watch, the public interest group that investigates and prosecutes government corruption, announced today that it has filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia seeking records under the provisions of the Freedom of Information Act (“FOIA”), 5 U.S.C. ' 552, from the Department of Defense concerning Pentagon funded programs engaged in “strategic influence, perception management, strategic information warfare and/or strategic psychological operations” through media consultants, “think tanks,” foreign expatriate political organizations and Internet sites. Judicial Watch filed its FOIA request with the Pentagon on March 23, 2004. Following eight (8) requests for a status update, several phone calls and Judicial Watch offers to accept incremental production of the requested records, the Pentagon produced only two (2) spreadsheets listing Defense Department contracts. Judicial Watch was forced to file suit on February 25, 2005.

Judicial Watch is seeking, among other matters; information on a “peace movement” Internet site that reportedly was funded and established by the Pentagon called “Empower Peace.” The site was developed by The Rendon Group, a media consultancy firm the Pentagon has paid more than $40 million dollars to since 2001, and targets participation of American school age children, teachers and schools in what appears to be a “grassroots” peace movement. The Rendon Group’s relationship with the Pentagon has been reported in the New York Times and public relations trade magazines. “Empower Peace” offers “cultural awareness,” interactive web broadcasts between New York and Jordan, as well as Boston and Bahrain, and interaction with school age children of Islamic countries. There is no indication on the site that it is a project of the U.S. Defense Department.

The Smith-Mundt Act of 1948 (22 U.S.C. ' 1461), forbids the domestic dissemination of U.S. government authored or developed propaganda or “official news” deliberately designed to influence public opinion or policy. The Pentagon has made aggressive use of various information warfare techniques, developing new programs and hiring outside media consultants in executing their various missions in the Global War on Terror.

“Programs such as ‘Empower Peace,’ in addition to their dubious value, may be in violation of U.S. law,” stated Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton.

To view a copy of the complaint, click here.

source

[dzika]

20. The Benefit of the Dumb - It can't be just said that it was just an accide

From Rigorous Intuition blog:
Sunday, March 06, 2005

The Benefit of the Dumb

"It can't be just said that it was just an accident.
We can't accept this, it is not possible." - Giuliana Sgrena.

Blessed is the state that hides its most egregious crimes behind the smokescreen of incompetance.

Consider the attempted assassination of Italian journalist Giuliana Sgrena.

Pier Scolari, Sgrena's partner, said yesterday "either this was an ambush, as I think, or we are dealing with imbeciles or terrorized kids who shoot at anyone." Since the latter has already been tragically demonstrated many times over in Iraq (graphically evidenced here), it makes an almost plausible explanation of what befell Sgrena's car, and a consoling fable to those who still balk at the notion that the United States has deliberately targetted journalists in Iraq. Which may very well be why the attempt on her life was made in this fashion.

...
The US has the troops first firing warning shots, then shooting into the engine block to stop the vehicle. The Italians say they were hit by hundreds of bullets. The Observer reports up to 400 rounds struck their car "from an armoured vehicle. Rather than calling immediately for assistance for the wounded Italians, the soldiers' first move was to confiscate their weapons and mobile phones and they were prevented from resuming contact with Rome for more than an hour." Sgrena's car, the US claims, is now "lost," and cannot be inspected.)

And what should we think of this: if the US forces regarded the vehicle as a threat, why did its driver escape unscathed? The only fatality was secret service agent Nicola Calipari, who "was killed as he threw his body across Sgrena." He died instantly, struck in the temple.

Before the invasion began, Kate Adie, then of the BBC, reported she had been told by a Pentagon official that any uplinks by journalists would be fired on" by US aircraft. The message couldn't be clearer: Embed or die.


Robert Fisk, had this to say in April, 2003, about the deaths of several colleagues:

First the Americans killed the correspondent of al-Jazeera yesterday and wounded his cameraman. Then, within four hours, they attacked the Reuters television bureau in Baghdad, killing one of its cameramen and a cameraman for Spain's Tele 5 channel and wounding four other members of the Reuters staff.

...
Back in 2001, the United States fired a cruise missile at al-Jazeera's office in Kabul – from which tapes of Osama bin Laden had been broadcast around the world. No explanation was ever given for this extraordinary attack on the night before the city's "liberation"; the Kabul correspondent, Taiseer Alouni, was unhurt. By the strange coincidence of journalism, Mr Alouni was in the Baghdad office yesterday to endure the USAF's second attack on al-Jazeera.

Far more disturbing, however, is the fact that the al-Jazeera network – the freest Arab television station, which has incurred the fury of both the Americans and the Iraqi authorities for its live coverage of the war – gave the Pentagon the co-ordinates of its Baghdad office two months ago and received assurances that the bureau would not be attacked.

The year 2004 was the bloodiest on record for journalists, with much thanks to US forces in Iraq. How many of those deaths can incompetence explain? And when does Eason Jordan get back his job?

more here

[dzika]

21. Video - DemocracyNow remembers Selma March and Bloody Sunday - 3/7

Video - DemocracyNow remembers Selma March and Bloody Sunday - 3/7

Amy Goodman interviews Joanne Bland, executive director of the National Voting Rights Museum, who marched 40 years ago at the age of 11.

"I think these commemorations are important because our struggle from 40 years ago is nearly the same today. We were struggling for the right to vote. Just the right to have that right that was supposedly given. Today we are still fighting to retain that right." - Joanne Bland



Video in Real Media format (8 minutes)

(transcript)

[dzika]

22. Tom Feeney, Friend to Firm Harboring Spy, Implies Rather a Communist

3/5/2005

Tom Feeney, Lobbyist and Friend to Firm Harboring Communist Spy, Implies Dan Rather a Communist!

Throws 'C'est La Vie Comrade Rather' Political Fundraising Event!...
While continuing to protect actual Communist spies with whom he worked in Florida.




As reported in yesterday's The Hill :

Rep. Tom Feeney (R-Fla.) is hosting a fundraiser Wednesday at the Capitol Hill Club to celebrate the last broadcast of veteran "CBS Evening News" anchor Dan Rather, who has long vexed conservatives with what they see as a liberal bias.

The "C'est La Vie Comrade Rather" event - for the benefit of Tom Feeney for Congress - will be held from 5-7 p.m., during which attendees will watch Rather's final newscast at 6:30.

Feeney told The Hill that the open bar will remain open only if guests drink from their left hands.

We find the irony of Tom Feeney hosting a "C'est La Vie Comrade Rather" fundraiser to be full of more hubris than can possibly be described in a single blog item.

So we'll just leave it to the reader to draw their own conclusions on that matter while reminding them that Feeney himself was, for years, the corporate counsel and registered lobbyist for a Florida software company run by Chinese nationals. A firm which has been confirmed by Federal officials to have employeed an illegal Chinese alien who has recently been convicted of committing espionage against the United States of America for illegally shipping Hellfire anti-tank missile chips to Communist China during the time in which they were represented by Feeney.

more here

[dzika]

23. New Mexico Election Reform Update

Monday, March 07, 2005

New Mexico Election Reform Update

by Dory Shonagon

The NM House Elections Committee heavily amended the Governor's combo election bill, HB1063 (Sandoval), on Sunday, but did not pass it yet. They will have it in comittee again on Tuesday, March 8, at 8:00 AM, in Room 305 and it will probably pass. Click to track this bill.

The NM Senate combo election reform bill, SB678, is in the Senate Judiciary Committee this afternoon sometime after 2:30 PM, with many of the amendments we wanted. If it passes, it will go to the Senate floor for debate and voting sometime later this week, possibly this weekend. We'll try to keep you posted on this as the debate should be a lively one and it would be a very interesting session to attend. Click to track this bill.

I will be leading another educational trip up to the Legislature this coming Saturday or Sunday, March 12th or 13th, depending on what people want. An email will be going out shortly on this to all DFA-DFNM members in Albuquerque.

source

[dzika]

24. Integrity of the Vote

From Silent Lucidity:
March 05, 2005

Integrity of the Vote

ELECTRONIC MISCOUNTS OF VOTES
ARE A FACT - NOT A THEORY

Technologists warn that electronic voting machines are flawed. They say we should "trust but verify." Others disagree. For example Florida's Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections Theresa LePore counters technologists' analysis of electronic voting machine flaws with her claim: "It's just a bunch of lies." But Broward County is now unable to comply with Florida law because of the flaws technologists, Congressman Robert Wexler (D-FL), and many others have pointed out!

Many people are very troubled by the use of uncertified software in recent California elections. Many are concerned about the backgrounds of some programmers and managers who control the secret voting machine software.

Our primary concern is the threat that unverifiable electronic voting poses to elections in the United States. We have been concerned that without a paper record verified by the voter, there would be no way of knowing whether votes were recorded accurately and no way to do a meaningful recount if one is necessary.

Now we are seeing these predicted problems occuring in real elections. We are seeing election results that will remain forever in dispute because an audit was impossible. We are seeing that electronic miscounts of votes is no longer a theory - it's a fact.

What if the miscounts we know of are only the tip of an undetected iceberg of electronic miscounts? They might be. We have no way of knowing.

After the last two presidential elections, it's incredibly important to repair our election system. We need to guarantee paper printouts for electronic voting machines, cut long lines, and prohibit partisan election officials.

There's lots of legislation in Congress to do just that, and we need to demand our representatives pass it immediately.

This is urgent because states are preparing to spend over a billion dollars on new electronic voting machines. Unless Congress requires paper printouts now, we'll be stuck with expensive machines that can't do a simple recount.

I hope you'll sign this petition to send this message to Congress.

Also be sure to check out the Velvet Revolution and see the many bi-partisan groups coming together to demand:

• A U.S. Constitutional Amendment guaranteeing The Right to Vote!
  
• Voter-verified, auditable paper ballots must be mandatory in every polling place in America.
  
• Elections officials must be non-partisan.
  
• Private companies may not run our elections through secret, proprietary, uninspected and unsecure software.
  
• Voter suppression, intimidation and gerrymandering of electoral districts for pure partisan gain must stop forever.

Also of interest, Conyers Forces Election Reform on House Floor By William Rivers Pitt.

source

[dzika]

25. Ohio, the heart of it all . . .

From BloggerRadio.com:
March 07, 2005

Ohio, the heart of it all . . .

Wow. DA beat me to the punch with that last post (about Oregon Rep. Wu) on what are sometimes (laughingly) called Ohio's "voting irregularities" during the last election -- and here I'm the one who's from Ohio and even worked on the recount!

I have all kinds of links bookmarked for putting together a post on what's happening with election fraud/reform issues -- both here in Ohio and in DC -- but I keep putting off writing about it -- I guess because, as our ersatz prez would say, it's Hard Work * At some point I'll knuckle down and do it. For now, though, here's a tid bit that happened just the other day.

Rep. John Conyers of Michigan, who as ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee has played a central role in investigations of election fraud here in my state, forced the election reform issue onto the House floor last Wednesday in advance of the vote on H.R. 841, a bill "To require States to hold special elections to fill vacancies in the House of Representatives not later than 49 days after the vacancy is announced by the Speaker of the House of Representatives in extraordinary circumstances."

Shortly before the bill was to come to a vote Conyers proposed a Motion to Recommit, i.e., to send the bill back to committee for the purpose of inserting the following paragraph:

(6) MINIMUM REQUIRED VOTING SYSTEMS AND POLL WORKERS IN POLLING PLACES USED IN SPECIAL ELECTIONS.--In carrying out special elections under this subsection, each State shall provide for the minimum required number of functioning and accurate voting systems and poll workers required in each precinct used on the day of the election, using a uniform and nondiscriminatory geographic distribution of such systems and workers based on a ratio of the number of systems and workers per voter, taking into account voter registration statistics for the precinct, the most recent available census data regarding the number of individuals residing within the precinct who are eligible to register to vote, and the level of voter turnout during previous elections held in the precinct.

All the Democrats and Independents on the floor voted for the amendment -- including DA's congressman, David Wu. Of course, every single GOP representative present -- including my rep, Bob Ney* -- voted against the amendment to require fair allocation of voting machines and poll workers. So, of course, it didn't pass . . .

Which may leave you, the reader, wondering "what's the point?" Well, Conyers got five minutes of floor time, which means five minutes on C-Span, to draw attention to election reform and force Republicans to vote against it. And it all becomes part of the Congressional Record, too. So, at the very least, Conyers managed to document the atrocity of GOP reps voting against free and fair elections. And when election time comes 'round that can't be a bad thing . .

source

[dzika]

26. Registered Franklin County Voters Whose Provisional Ballots Were Rejected

March 7, 2005

Registered Franklin County Voters Whose Provisional Ballots Were Rejected on the Ground that they were "not registered"

0535-Franklin County Ohio voters whose provisional ballots were categorized Code 200 - Not Registered (No Vote) in the 2004 General Election, yet who are listed in the BOE registration database

source

[MissWaverly]

30. Why can't charges be brought

if these voters were registered and were denied the right to vote in Franklin County, isn't that a crime, or is this just another, whoops, we're sorry, I live in Maryland, and the results for the entire state for president, are questionable, they're looking into in the state house, maybe we'll get our money back from Diebold.

[dzika]

27. Bush Administration Used Fake Torture Story to Influence Public

From PolitInfo.com:
Mar 6, 2005 Washington

Bush Administration Used Fake Torture Story to Influence Public

In July 2003, the Washington Post published a harrowing account of the torture of an Assyrian Christian woman in Baghdad. The woman, Jumana Hanna, took Post reporter Peter Finn to the prison where she said she had been jailed, tortured and raped for nothing more than marrying a non-Iraqi. Ms Hanna told the reporter her husband had been killed in a nearby prison and his lifeless body was later passed to her.

After the Post story appeared, US Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz mentioned it in testimony to the US Senate: "There is a positive aspect in the distressing story of Jumana Hanna. That is her courage in coming forward to offer U.S. officials what is very likely credible information, information that is helping us to root out Baathist policemen who routinely tortured and killed prisoners."

...
It did not take long for a professional journalist to find out that very few if any details of Jumana Hanna’s account were true. She was not married to a foreigner, but to an Iraqi Arab. Her husband was not killed and was probably never in prison. Ms Hanna may have been jailed for a few months, but most likely for prostitution. One of her key witnesses appears to be a boyfriend to whom she has been sending money from the United States. So what is the true story of Jumana Hanna?

“It’s just a story about a homeless prostitute who single-handedly fooled the Pentagon, the Coalition Provisional Authority and the Washington Post,” says Sara Solovitch. Jumana Hanna also fooled many ordinary Americans who, touched by her story, rushed to deposit charitable contributions into the Iraqi woman’s account.

...
Jumana Hanna’s story of torture was something politicians needed, journalists were looking for and the American public expected. Sara Solovitch says that’s why for a long time no one thought to verify the facts, which would have been easy enough. Unfortunately, the dreary true story does not seem to hold the same appeal as the false one of torture.

more here

[dzika]

28. Washington State Capitol Watch: Voting on reform

Tuesday, March 8, 2005

Washington State Capitol Watch: Voting on reform

SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER EDITORIAL BOARD

The list of suggestions from the state Election Reform Task Force offers few surprises. It is, after all, no surprise that changes in the elections system are long overdue. It took a contentious gubernatorial race won by a questionably tight margin to finally focus the attention of the public and public officials.

Based on the Legislature's slow pace to date, with only a few modest reform bills having made progress, letting the task force complete its work has proved no hindrance to lawmakers.

The task force says move the date of the primary election forward by at least four weeks from the current third Tuesday in September, make voters produce photo identification at the polls, eliminate duplicate or illegitimate ballots, standardize local elections protocols, handle provisional ballots separately and complete the overdue statewide voter database.

The identification requirement at the polls is troubling, and may well face constitutional questions. A broader criticism is that much of the reforms address a shrinking segment of the election process. More and more Washingtonians are voting by mail, not at the polls.

Can the state efficiently run what are effectively two elections in one -- one at the polls and another through the mail? The discussion of election reform will not be complete until we thoroughly evaluate conversion to an all-mail ballot for all jurisdictions. No, an all-mail election will not eliminate all the problems exposed by last November's election. But simplification is often the first step toward reform.

source

[Wilms]

29. kick n/t