Election Reform, Fraud and Related News Tuesday, 11/ 28/2006

[Melissa G]

Election Reform, Fraud and Related News Tuesday, 11/ 28/2006


Most of the elections may be over but the analysis is just getting started...
Read about the stories on the Election Reform Daily News Thread and
Post important action items that you know are happening!
Democracy is not a Spectator Sport! Get Involved and Inspire others to Participate! :patriot:


All members welcome and encouraged to help.

Give us a hand and post Election Reform, Fraud, & Related News on this thread.

1. Post stories and announcements you find on the web.

2. Post stories using the "Election Fraud and Reform News Sources" listed here:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x371233

3. Re-post stories and announcements you find on DU, providing a link to the original thread with thanks to the Original Poster, too.

4. Start a discussion thread by re-posting a story you see on this thread.

Please "Recommend" for the Greatest Page. It's the link just below... :dem:

[Melissa G]

1. Touch-Screen Votes Flipping in Arkansas Run-off Election

Brad Blog

BLOGGED BY Brad ON 11/27/2006 5:30PM
Touch-Screen Votes Flipping in Arkansas Run-off Election
Mayoral Candidate's Own Votes Repeatedly Flipped in County Clerk's Office — in Front of County Clerk — Told 'Election Must Go On, Go Get Court Order'
Yes, we're as tired of writing about it, as you likely are of reading about it. But as run-off elections proceed (Arkansas' is tomorrow), touch-screen votes are still flipping from one candidate to the other on ES&S' touch-screen machines during early voting. (ES&S made the touch-screen machines in FL-13, btw.)

Heber Springs, Arkansas mayoral run-off candidate Jackie McPherson began to suspect problems when both his mother-in-law and her mom told him their attempted vote for him flipped over to McPherson's opponent during early voting. He went to the County Clerk's office to test the problem for himself — in front of the County Clerk who at first told him it was not possible — and then they were both able to watch the vote flip about 20 times in a row.

McPherson then says the head of the local Elections Commission told him "the election would have to go on," and that he "would have to get a court order to review the machines and the problem that obviously exists."

Neato, huh?

Key grafs fom McPherson's description of his vote-flipping adventure at the County Clerk's office are below.
http://www.bradblog.com/?p=3853

[Melissa G]

2. Blue bit of Texas (yes, there are some) turned red by DREs?

Thanks to tbyg52 for the post and the DU discussion here
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x460564
Original message
Blue bit of Texas (yes, there are some) turned red by DREs?
This is from one of my mailing lists, copied in its entirety with permission from the author. It's also the front page story (as of 11/27/06) on http://www.blackboxvoting.org / (Sorry! I mentioned to the person I'm quoting here that there are other organizations.....!)

***********

I am gathering evidence that points to the REAL reason behind the "results" of the recent elections in Texas. I have almost 30 years experience in Information Technology, with programming experience in Elections systems. I was a Poll Watcher at the Central Tabulating Station on Election Night in Hill County. Problems lasted into the early morning hours with periodic numbers pronounced as "good" that didn't add up. Early in the a.m., the Elections Administrator, worn to a frazzle, was ready to accept ANY numbers that the ES&S technician onsite blessed. I repeatedly pointed out errors in the numbers until the last set, which I was not able to see until the EA said they were final. At that time I asked if they could get those numbers to match the tapes from the DRE's, and they could not because one of the printed tapes was not legible. They could not reproduce the tape because they said the machine was still at the polling location!!! I lodged a formal complaint for vote counting irregularities based on that, and the problems experienced throughout the evening. I also later lodged a complaint with the SOS and was told someone would contact me. I have still not heard back from them.

My local candidates filed requests for Public Records, and the results tell the tale!!! Anomalies that are statistically next to impossible abound. Hill County voters used a combination of paper ballots and the No paper trail DRE's from ES&S. ALL the candidates, up and down the ticket had much better numbers on the paper ballots, and ALL the local candidates won on paper, both in early voting and on E-Day. Before you attribute it to only Democrats asking for paper ballots, you need to know that we had Precincts running out of paper ballots at 9am!!! During the school for elections workers, the EA dept told everyone to "...push the machines, because you WILL run out of paper ballots otherwise...".

ES&S has blamed their "poorly trained" technician for the problems, but he NEVER made an independent move, and ALWAYS had his cell phone stuck in his ear for instructions, as HE was running the console.

Hill County has ALWAYS been a Blue County, and the paper numbers verify it still is! Another statistical anomaly happened in the 2 contested County Commissioner races. The Republicans in both races got the same number of votes - 1179!!! When the ES&S representative (Chris Moody) was asked in Commissioners Court at the Special Canvass meeting what the odds of that happening were, he replyed, "...the Lottery...".

Rural Counties like Hill, with little technical expertise, are easy targets for this type of manipulation, but it does not stop there!!! ALL of the voting machines were deployed throughout the country pre-programmed with a formula that Karl Rove was probably talking about when he said he had "...done the math...". The logistics of pre-programming these machines meant that the formula had been done based on the "math" in early October at the latest. By the time early voting and E-Day rolled around, the mood in the country had changed considerably, but it was too late to re-program unnoticed. All across the country the voters beat the percentage or got close. Tons of money (that we can never match) was poured into races that just didn't make sense, but for only the reason to give the impression that IT made the difference. For example, one of the Republican Commissioner candidates here spent over $8000, with "...little of his own money...", and the balance coming from "donations".

A citizen WatchDog group founder told me, this was one of the best reports she had ever heard, when I told her my tale in detail.. Since ES&S has picked up the scent that we were on to something, we have now gone public. The major media outlets will be reluctant to report on this, but with pressure from the public, they shouldn't have much choice.

We owe it to the voters of Texas and the United States to insure the integrity of the vote. We owe it to all of the Democrats who worked their asses off, and got shafted by the machines, to shine some light on this and FIX it!!! If the voters don't have confidence that their vote counted, they'll quit voting, AGAIN!!! If we don't fix this, all the work you've done, and are going to do for the next election, will be for naught!!!

Please help me, by keeping this topic in the limelight. A simple review of the close races in the Texas House and Senate shows that Democrats really won control. It also looks like we really won some of the statewide races. I would urge you to look at the numbers yourself, especially the differences in Counties that had paper and machine voting, and ANYWHERE there were "glitches" with the machines.

[Melissa G]

3. Recount required in Ohio House race

Recount required in Ohio House race
2006/11


By ANDREW WELSH-HUGGINS, Associated Press Writer 8 minutes ago

COLUMBUS, Ohio - Republic, , ) won re-election Monday by a margin so slim that a recount will be required.

Pryce lost Franklin County, the district‘s most populous, but she retained her lead thanks to votes she picked up in two other counties: Madison certified results Monday; Union reported its results last week.

Pryce ended up with 50.2 percent of the vote, compared with 49.8 percent for Kilroy in the unofficial totals.

Pryce spokesman George Rasley was confident of the ultimate result despite the recount.

Despite the impending recount, Pryce said Monday she considers herself the winner and is planning her return to Washington. "If there is a recount, that will just further the integrity of the process," she said.

http://www.newsone.ca/westfallweeklynews/ViewArticle.aspx?id=29606&source=2

[Melissa G]

4. Paper trail experience a winner with voters

Paper trail experience a winner with voters

By CARLOS CAMPOS
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Published on: 11/28/06

Voters overwhelmingly gave a thumbs up to an Election Day experiment with paper trails on electronic voting machines in three Georgia precincts, according to an exit poll conducted by the University of Georgia.

New electronic voting machines capable of producing voter-verified paper audit trails were used in three precincts on Nov. 7, one each in Bibb, Camden and Cobb counties.

The UGA's Survey Research Center interviewed 459 voters who used the machines. Among its findings, released by the secretary of state's office on Monday:

• 96 percent of voters said the paper audit trail was easy to use.

• 88 percent of voters said their overall voting experience was "good."

• 89 percent of voters said they were either "very" or "somewhat" confident in the accuracy and security of the voting machines. Eighty-seven percent of voters said they had previously been confident in the machines.

• 82 percent of voters said they favored a paper trail for Georgia's voting system.

• 99.8 percent of voters said the paper trail accurately reflected their choices.

The audit trail let voters compare the choices they made on an electronic touch screen with those shown on a printed piece of paper — similar to a grocery store receipt — produced by the voting machine. Once approved by the voter, the paper trail, under a clear piece of plastic, scrolls out of sight into a locked box.

http://www.ajc.com/news/content/metro/stories/2006/11/27/1128metvoting.html

[Melissa G]

5. An audit to nowhere?

An audit to nowhere?
Early edition

By ALISA ULFERTS
Published November 27, 2006


For 12 hours Tuesday, state elections officials will try to recreate a slice of Sarasota County’s controversial election day.


A handful of electronic voting machines will be set up in a mock polling place. Workers, acting as voters, will follow a precise script, selecting candidates using the same ballot actual voters saw and noting any problems they have with the machines recording their votes.

snip


The point of the exercise is to try and shed light on the mystery of the nearly 18,000 so-called “undervotes” in the bitter congressional District 13 race.

snip
Democrat Christine Jennings, who hasn’t conceded to Republican Vern Buchanan despite two state-mandated recounts that upheld his 369-vote lead, says the audit isn’t truly independent. Jennings, who has filed a lawsuit seeking a new election, says she’ll conduct some kind of audit on her own.


“It’s like having Ford employees doing all the test driving of the Taurus to see what went wrong,” said Jennings’ attorney, Kendall Coffey, of the state’s plans to have its employees conduct the mock voting.

http://www.sptimes.com/2006/11/27/State/An_audit_to_nowhere.shtml

[Melissa G]

6. Kissell Campaign presses for manual recount

Kissell Campaign presses for manual recount
By TIM WHITMIRE / Associated Press

A manual recount in the disputed U.S. House race between Rep. Robin Hayes and Larry Kissell will take place Wednesday and Thursday, the State Board of Elections said Monday.

Details of the hand recount, requested last week by Democratic challenger Kissell, came one day before the state board was to meet to officially certify results in other Nov. 7 races and discuss problems with the tally from the state House district represented by Speaker Jim Black.

State board officials said the race in the 8th Congressional District was the only one in which a manual recount had been requested.

After last week's machine recount, Kissell trailed Hayes by just 329 votes out of 121,523 cast in the election -- a lead of 50.1 percent for Hayes to 49.9 percent for Kissell.

http://www.wcnc.com/news/local/stories/wcnc-112706-al-kissell.2f740e62.html

[Melissa G]

7. Georgia: 2006 Election Candidates Join E-Voting Rights Suit

Thanks to Wilms for the post and the DU discussion here...
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x460498

Original message
GA: 2006 Election Candidates Join E-Voting Rights Suit

Georgia: 2006 Election Candidates Join E-Voting Rights Suit
By VoterGA Press Release

November 26, 2006

VoterGa, a diverse non-partisan coalition that organized an E-Voting rights lawsuit filed in Georgia during July of this year, announced today its intent to enjoin three 2006 election candidates as plaintiffs to the suit. Included are a Democrat, Republican and an independent write-in candidate who are questioning the 2006 primaries, run-off and general election, respectively.

Mary Wilhite, a Republican who took first in a House District 22 primary but was edged in a run-off by 35 votes, stated she was offered a recount that could not truly be performed. “Our Cherokee County Elections Director agreed to a recount because the victory margin was only 1% but state procedures simply re-accumulate previous totals. No ballots were ever recounted because no ballots actually exist. The process was completed in about a half hour with no change in results.”

snip

Woody Holmes, independent write-in candidate for Georgia House District 65, stated that on the day his election was certified, Fulton County reported he had only two votes. After he questioned the results, the next day the county changed the total to 217 but Holmes believes he got that many votes in a single precinct. He explained: "Our campaign went door-to-door and collected signatures of support from over 800 voters, we distributed 250 yard signs, mailed 4000 campaign pieces to homes in the district, operated a phone bank to get out the vote as well as using automated phone calling to reach out to voters. My message was grounded on issues important to the voters in the district, noting the differences between me and my opponent who was the only named candidate on the ballot."

snip

The landmark lawsuit challenges the legality and constitutionality of Georgia’s current voting method including the audit trail pilot. It charges that recounts are not currently possible, ballots and people were unconstitutionally removed from elections, electronic voters are not afforded the equal protection given absentee voters and that machine accuracy cannot be determined on Election Day with or without the pilot.

snip

http://www.votetrustusa.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2076&Itemid=113

[texpatriot2004]

8. K & R for Transparent Democracy nm

[Melissa G]

9. Mexico: on the volcano

Mexico: on the volcano
A triangle formed by three Mexican presidents - outgoing, impending, and presumptive - is creating a dangerous political moment, says Sergio Aguayo Quezada.


Those of us who live in Mexico have had the feeling, for quite some time, of walking on a volcano of political and social conflict that might become active at any moment. The causes of this atmosphere are personified in the three presidents who will share the stage until 1 December 2006 (afterwards, only two will remain).

Andrés Manuel, the agitator, López Obrador was sworn in as "legitimate president" on 20 November in Mexico City’s main square (Zócalo). The enthusiasm of his followers is counteracted by the passion of those who disbar him through resounding and hurtful criticisms, some of which are justified, some a mere expression of atavistic fears.

Andrés Manuel irritates because he voices scathing and harsh phrases from the square: the election? "fraudulent"; Fox? "a traitor to democracy"; Calderón? a "puppet" of the true powers that exploit Mexicans. It is jagged language, but representative of that part of Mexico which is resentful of extreme economic disparity and the election’s terrible quality.



The language scares because it summons Juan Rulfo’s immortal El llano en llamas (The Burning Plain, 1953) to the collective memory; in urban Mexico there are fears that the agitator will burn a street that belongs only to a few. In Mexico public spaces are not suitable even for citizens to take a walk; they are owned by criminals, informal vendors and those who protest in a country with an absent state. But if one wishes to understand the origin and the future of leftist anger, one must carry out a dialectical exercise and think too of the right.

http://www.agoravox.com/article.php3?id_article=5355

[EFerrari]

14. Please don't look away from Oaxaca.

As my mother reminded me today, there is a cultural element here that precludes protest.

In other words, if the people of Oaxaca are protesting, we need to know their situation is dire.

Please support the protesters in Oaxaca.

Contact your local Mexican consulate and let them know you are watching.

Continue to contact your local media -- let them know you are watching.

Continue to contact Amy Goodman at Democracy Now! She has been airing this story.

Thank you, everyone who has spent time supporting the protesters in Oaxaca. It's time to just say no to criminals in government.

That's "globalization" too.

Go, DU! Go forth and kick @ss.

[Melissa G]

17. Mexican protestors in Oaxaca call for national strike Friday

For sfexpat2000...

Mexican protestors in Oaxaca call for national strike Friday



The Oaxaca People's Popular Assembly (APPO), a group calling for the resignation of Ulises Ruiz, governor of Mexico's southern state Oaxaca, on Monday called for a national strike on Friday.

A national strike would show that it is the people who make the country move, but not interest groups, APPO official Joel Gomez said at a meeting at Mexico National Autonomous University (UNAM).

The embattled Oaxaca city had been caught with protests and clashes since June as people protested against Ruiz's rough handling of a teacher strike.

Ruiz had so far refused to step down despite pressure from Mexico's Congress.

Protestors had seized and paralyzed much of the Oaxaca city, the poor state's capital, after the original teachers' strike mushroomed into a broad protest demanding the resignation of Ruiz.

http://english.people.com.cn/200611/28/eng20061128_325942.html

[Melissa G]

18. Attacks continue in Oaxaca: Radio Universidad may be next

Attacks continue in Oaxaca: Radio Universidad may be next
by danielsan
Monday Nov 27th, 2006 3:28 PM
Radio Universidad, 1400 AM and http://radio.indymedia.org:8000/appo.mp3.m3u, has announced once again that it is expecting an attack (as of 4:45 PM).
The 4:45 transmission said that Ministerial Police have a warrant to enter the campus and search the station backed up by the PFP. The signal was then blocked yet again by la canción that has been overriding the AM broadcast for more than three weeks. The song is audible in the webcast as well, in addition to the sound of low-flying helicopters.

snip

The station has continued to broadcast from the campus of the UABJO despite the occupation of Oaxaca City by federal police, and students and APPO adherents won a significant street battle shortly after the arrival of the troops in order to maintain both the campus and the signal.

They are calling for water, vinegar, gasoline, glass bottles, fireworks, and cola (to counter the effects of tear gas) in order to defend 'the voice of truth.' The webstream and the AM broadcast are both unstable due to interference.

They are also advising (all) women to avoid the city center and the PFP lines because of escalating male violence against women. See earlier post http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2006/11/20/18331444.php with information about a sexual assault perpetrated by the PFP last week (2.7 MB MP3 file called 'gender war').

http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2006/11/27/18333679.php

[Melissa G]

19. Update on Oaxaca

Update on Oaxaca
by Narco News (reposted)
Tuesday Nov 28th, 2006 8:14 AM
Government Launches New Aggression Against the Popular Assembly Movement
By Nancy Davies
Commentary from Oaxaca

November 27, 2006

On Monday, November 27 “Citizen” Radio, operated allegedly without a license by the PRI in support of Governor Ulises Ruiz, called on PRI supporters to invade and burn the offices of EDUCA, one of the signatory non-governmental organizations which have allied with the Popular Assembly of the Peoples’ of Oaxaca (APPO). The call to destroy the offices also named the current director of EDUCA, Marcos Leyva, as an APPO activist. EDUCA is accused by Citizen Radio of manufacturing Molotov cocktails, and otherwise creating illegal and explosive artifacts. EDUCA is a civil organization based in Oaxaca City which works in various local communities in three regions of the state: the Central Valley, the Southern Sierra and the (Pacific) Coast. It seeks to promote local development and to strengthen local organizational initiatives in Oaxacan communities, while educating people about their civil and legal rights.

Ciudadana Radio is the same broadcast station which on November 25 called for people to drop acid or boiling water on the APPO marchers.

Also this morning, the Policia Federal Preventiva are reported to have detained 150 people, who have been shipped out of the state of Oaxaca, to the state of Nayarit. According to El Universal of November 27, 107 men and 34 women -141 persons detained for “violent acts” the past weekend in Oaxaca – were transported to the federal prison of San José del Rincón, in Nayarit.

Read More
http://narconews.com/Issue43/article2393.html
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2006/11/28/18333796.php

[Melissa G]

20. UPDATE 2-Mexico's Calderon picks hard-line interior minister

UPDATE 2-Mexico's Calderon picks hard-line interior minister

By Adriana Barrera

MEXICO CITY, Nov 28 (Reuters) - Mexican President-elect Felipe Calderon chose a hard-line conservative as his interior minister on Tuesday, widening a rift with a leftist opposition that says it was robbed of victory in a bitter July election.

Francisco Ramirez Acuna will lead Calderon's response to political unrest, which has surged in recent months with a violent crisis in the southern state of Oaxaca, and leftist protests and a spate of bombings in the capital.


snip
Calderon, who takes office on Friday, said his interior minister's record as governor of the conservative western state of Jalisco showed he was open to dialogue but also had "an irrevocable responsibility to uphold the law".

Ramirez Acuna is expected to take a hard line in Oaxaca. Six months of protests against the state's governor have left the picturesque state capital of Oaxaca city in chaos. Around 15 people have been killed, mostly shot dead by what protesters say are off-duty policemen.

http://today.reuters.com/news/articleinvesting.aspx?type=bondsNews&storyID=2006-11-28T151539Z_01_N28232478_RTRIDST_0_MEXICO-CALDERON-UPDATE-2-PICTURE.XML

[Melissa G]

10. Systemic Corruption & Elections In The "New Style"

Systemic Corruption & Elections In The "New Style"
Monday, 27 November 2006, 5:24 pm
Opinion: Tortilla con Sal

Systemic Corruption And Elections In The "New Style"

by René Báez
from ALAI , November 13th 2006
Translation by Toni Solo for Tortilla con Sal
The recent electoral processes in Latin America and specifically in Ecuador cannot be understood in isolation from external determining factors, like those stemming from the invisible instances of international financial capital, the so called Washington Consensus or the hemispheric policy of the White House, by means of which governments are rendered inadmissible that fail to cooperate with coporate globalization ("radical populism" if one wants ot use the new terminology of the Pentagon). The attitude in question includes a variant of the imperial discourse rooted in the fight aganst communism that reigned during the Cold War. What are we talking about?

Preventive war, preventive fraud.

In an interview published under the title "Washington: the world's principal terrorist government" (1998), Noam Chomsky explains the change in the following terms : "It does not matter to the United States whether a country has a formal democracy or some other regime. What it cares about is that it subordinates itself to its system of world domination. The fundamental principle is: Will a country allow itself to be robbed? Will it permit foreign corporations to invest and exploit at will? If it does so, it can have any political system it pleases : be it fascist, communist, whatever it wants...But if a country begins to use its resouces for its own population, then it must be destroyed."

After 9-11 and confronted by the resurgence of Latin American nationalism with the consolidation of the Bolivarian Revolution in Venezuela, the emergence of anti-neoliberal governments, especially in the Southern Cone, the defeat of the Free Trade Area of the Americas and the energy of alternative forms of integration like the Bolivarian Alternative for America (ALBA) and the People's Trade Treaties (TPP), the global establishment has decided to introduce a theoretical/practical corollary to the Bush Jr. doctrine on "the international crusade against terrorism". That corollary is none other than preventive fraud, operated out in favour of clientelist politicians.

http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0611/S00444.htm

[Melissa G]

11. Lawsuit Blames E-voting Glitches For Florida Election Undercount

Lawsuit Blames E-voting Glitches For Florida Election Undercount
Marc L. Songini


November 27, 2006 (Computerworld) --

The losing candidate in a disputed Florida congressional election has filed a lawsuit contending that glitches in electronic voting machines in Sarasota County were the main reason for most of the 18,000 so-called undervotes there in the Nov. 7 election.

Christine Jennings last week filed suit in Leon County’s Second Circuit Court in Tallahassee contending that the glitches in machines used in Sarasota County affected the outcome of her race because 18,000 voters taking part in the election apparently did not cast a ballot in that contest. The candidate asked that a county judge order a new election.

snip
Undervotes, or ballots that have been cast but are missing votes for individual races, represented 15% of the votes cast in Sarasota. That rate was abnormally high, Jennings maintains in her lawsuit. The rates in other counties were far lower, according to the suit.

snip

“The vote totals in the certification are wrong because they do not include thousands of legal votes that were cast in Sarasota County but not counted due to the pervasive malfunctioning of electronic voting machines,” stated the complaint.
http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=274781&taxonomyId=14&intsrc=kc_top

[Melissa G]

12. Steve Freeman: 2006 Election Verification Exit Poll Operations report

Thanks to sfexpat2000 for the post..
There is more discussion on the Election Integrity website for those who are interested in details..
http://groups.google.com/group/ElectionIntegrity?hl=en

Steve Freeman: 2006 Election Verification Exit Poll Operations report


2006 Election Verification Exit Poll Operations report Submitted by Joan Brunwasser

Steven Freeman: I am posting the Operations (Phase One) report from the Inaugural Election Integrity Election Verification Exit Poll both on the electionintegrity website. The poll went well. We collected 6,000 questionnaires from 28 precincts, polling Gubernatorial, Senate, and U.S. House of Representative races in two Pennsylvania Congressional Districts.

http://www.opednews.com/maxwrite/link.html?id=26768

[Melissa G]

13. Gingrich calls for elimination of McCain-Feingold reforms

Gingrich calls for elimination of McCain-Feingold reforms
November 27, 2006

MANCHESTER, N.H. --Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich said Monday that First Amendment rights need to be expanded and cited the elimination of McCain-Feingold campaign finance reforms as one solution.


"Just as tax lawyers always succeed in out-thinking the (Internal Revenue Service) because they stay after five and the IRS goes home, the private-sector lawyers will always out-think the (Federal Election Commission) because they stay after five and the FEC goes home," Gingrich told about 400 people at the Nackey Scripps Loeb First Amendment Awards Honors dinner.

Passed in 2002, the campaign finance law known as McCain-Feingold banned unrestricted donations from labor, corporations and the wealthy to the political parties. Gingrich said the reforms have failed and only led to more negative campaign ads via e-mail, television, direct mail and phone calls.

His attack on campaign finance reforms comes as he and one of the bills author's, Arizona Sen. John McCain, are eyed as potential 2008 GOP presidential candidates.

McCain has already formed a presidential exploratory committee while Gingrich says he will not make a decision until September.

http://www.boston.com/news/local/new_hampshire/articles/2006/11/27/gingrich_calls_for_elimination_of_mccain_feingold_reforms/

[Melissa G]

15. TX Ethics Panel; Officials don't need to detail cash gifts

editorial note...Under the current regime Can Texas and Ethics be used in the same phase and not be considered an oxymoron? I want my State back!!!


Thanks to elehhhhna for the post and the DU discussion here...
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x2815975

Original message
TX Ethics Panel; Officials don't need to detail cash gifts
Edited on Tue Nov-28-06 07:37 AM by elehhhhna
Officials don't need to detail cash gifts
Ethics panel is criticized for ruling any sum can simply be called 'currency'


By LISA SANDBERG
Copyright 2006 Houston Chronicle Austin Bureau

AUSTIN — A Texas official who receives any sum of cash as a gift can satisfy state disclosure laws by reporting the money simply as "currency," without specifying the amount, the Texas Ethics Commission reiterated Monday.

The 5-3 decision outraged watchdog groups and some officials who unabashedly accused the commission of failing to enforce state campaign finance laws.

"What the Ethics Commission has done is legalize bribery in the state of Texas. We call on the commission to resign en masse," said Tom "Smitty" Smith, who heads Texas Citizen, an Austin-based group that advocates for campaign finance reform.

Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle, a Democrat, said the "currency" interpretation would render it "perfectly legal to report the gift of 'a wheelbarrow' without reporting that the wheelbarrow was filled with cash."

This was the second time the commission ruled on the issue of cash gift disclosures. Last March, it ruled that a gift of two checks for $100,000 could be listed simply as "checks."

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/4363846.html

[Melissa G]

16. Online phonebanking for Ciro is live!

Here is an action you can take from anywhere in the US to help kick a particularly odious Hispanic republican Bonilla, aka Henry Vanilla, to the curb. He consistently votes AGAINST Hispanic interests. Please help a good Dem reclaim this minority seat and undo some of Delay's political gerrymandering while you are at it!


Thanks to sonias for the post and the DU discussion here...
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=180x40351
Original message
Online phonebanking for Ciro is live!
I'm crossposting this for Mario to help get the word out. Anyone and I mean anyone who wants to help around the state can get involved. Use your free minutes on your cell phone if that's cheaper. You can even use Skype http://skype.com if you want to make the calls using Internet service.



Hello, I am calling to help Texans elect another Democrat to Congress..."

TrueBlueAction.com announces http://ciro.onlinephonebanking.com is up and running!

OnlinePhoneBanking the most efficient and effective way for folks anywhere in the state (or country) to help Democrat Ciro Rodriguez defeat Republican Henry Bonilla. The netroots worked hard for Ciro last time, and with this new tool, we can turn netroots passion into grassroots action!


Make simple calls to voters in any precinct in TX-23 to identify Democrats for GOTV, from the comfort of your home, right now, using OnlinePhoneBanking's tools. Choose any precinct, and if you want, choose any demographic in that precinct - women, men, seniors, youth, anyone, and more. TrueBlueAction provides tools, scripts and data, you provide the volunteer effort and the data that helps Democrats!


Click here to make calls at http://Ciro.OnlinePhoneBanking.com