BBC Blows The Whistle: African-American Voters Scrubbed by Secret GOP Hit

[kpete]

The Cincinnati Beacon



BBC Blows The Whistle: African-American Voters Scrubbed by Secret GOP Hit List
Friday, June 16, 2006

Posted by The Dean of Cincinnati


The BBC got its hands on secret memos from the Republican National Committee on the exclusion of black voters. We saw this going on here in Ohio in 2004, but had no evidence that it was the result of a DELIBERATE, NATIONAL STRATEGY.

We do now.

Where, you might ask, was the vaunted “liberal” media that has rescued the Bush presidency repeatedly with a non-coverage worthy of the old Soviet media? Where, you might also ask, was the so-called opposition, the Democratic Party?

Good questions.

For the present, let’s again be grateful to “our cousins” for not being
asleep at the switch....

Mark Lause
more at:
http://www.cincinnatibeacon.com/index.php/news/comments/bbc_blows_the_whistle_african_american_voters_scrubbed_by_secret_gop_hit_li/
and
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2006/6/17/23539/2916
and
http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_greg_pal_060616_african_american_vot.htm

[Digit]

1. My blood pressure shot up as I began reading this...will finish later

Words fail me right now.

[Catherine Vincent]

2. Why am I always reading reports how republicans scrub the black

vote every which way they can? :-(

[benburch]

3. Because the GOP is the modern incarnation of the Ku Klux Klan. nt

[Thickasabrick]

43. Well said...and why they have black people in the republican

party will forever boggle my mind.

[kath]

44. Yep - as JC Watts's dad said, "A black man voting for the Republicans

makes about as much sense as a chicken voting for Colonel Sanders".

[itzamirakul]

49. Some reasons that there are black Republicans...

1. Some black families have voted Republican since emancipation...loyalty to Lincoln

2. There are so few blacks in the Republican Party that most blacks in that group know that they can hold some kind of position if they so desire just so they can be used for photo ops.

3. Money, money, money.....$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
Again, there are so few, that those who do work for the Party are pretty well paid. Armstrong Williams anybody? Black churches are also being bought out with the faith-based money.

[Poiuyt]

4. It's a shame that it takes the BBC to uncover this instead of American

media. I'm guessing it will be tossed aside here as the rantings of the lunatic left wing fringe.

[enid602]

6. scary

That is perhaps even more scary than the abuse of voters' rights.

[Clark2008]

31. It's even more scary that the American media, allegedly

the governmental watchdog for our citizenry, isn't reporting this.

[AndyTiedye]

14. Our Media, Like Our Voting Machinez Are Own3d

[itzamirakul]

51. The American msm has known that the elections were stolen

since the time the polls closed in both 2000 and 2006. They knew it because the exit polls did not match the numbers they were being fed from the voting machines.

They knew from the minute that Bush's cousin at Fox News announced Bush the winner while the votes were still coming in. Instead of sticking to their own results, the other media outlets jumped on the Fox bandwagon and gave Bush a coronation.

Why? Because the Democrats are afraid of being known as the African American party so they downplay the participation and importance of the black vote that is needed for victory.

[robbedvoter]

5. Support the troops! Don't let them bother their little heads with

voting.....
http://www.boston.com/news/politics/president/articles/2004/11/04/
kerry_forces_planned_for_a_battle_that_never_was/
And
while a team of lawyers pressed to go to court on Ohio at 8 a.m. to
challenge the state's vote-counting procedures, Cahill said, Kerry did
not see the point.
''He immediately just decided that in order to go forward in a time of
war, was not something that he wanted to put the
country through," Cahill said.
article now here

http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/My-stuff/message/2034?l=1

[RagingInMiami]

7. Where is the BBC article?

[lindisfarne]

8. Go to the link in the OP and read it and you'll understand ... it was

originally published in 2004 by Greg Palast for BBC Television Newsnight (UK) and Democracy Now! (USA)

[cascadiance]

9. Isn't this ironic...

That at one time we fought hard against this other country to gain our independence and form this great new concept of democracy in our government, and now this very nation is providing us a service in trying to recover it from our own criminal actions and neglect! Thomas Jefferson would be ASHAMED at what we have in as our government and our "free" press today!

[pnorman]

19. Close to 400,000 US servicemen gave their lives in WW2

The official enemy then, espoused a "TOMORROW THE WORLD!" doctrine. Dare we draw the obvious conclusion?

pnorman

[Kurovski]

10. K&R.(nt)

[lindisfarne]

11. The link in the OP is from a "commentary" which links to a 2004 article

by Greg Palast. Not that the issue of vote suppression isn't still relevant.

[kpete]

12. I believe it is about this...

June 16, 2006


African-American Voters Scrubbed by Secret GOP Hit List

by Greg Palast


http://www.opednews.com

The Republican National Committee has a special offer for African-American soldiers: Go to Baghdad, lose your vote.

A confidential campaign directed by GOP party chiefs in October 2004 sought to challenge the ballots of tens of thousands of voters in the last presidential election, virtually all of them cast by residents of Black-majority precincts.

Files from the secret vote-blocking campaign were obtained by BBC Television Newsnight, London. They were attached to emails accidentally sent by Republican operatives to a non-party website.

One group of voters wrongly identified by the Republicans as registering to vote from false addresses: servicemen and women sent overseas.

more at:
http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_greg_pal_060616_african_american_vot.htm

[pnorman]

13. Here's a textlink I located on this:

http://www.gregpalast.com/massacre-of-the-buffalo-soldiers#more-1418

I bought and downloaded the Audible.com spoken word version of his book, "Armed Madhouse", but haven't yet got very deep into it. I imagine this issue is dealt with there also.

My indignation knows no bounds.

pnorman

[Wilms]

15. k(pete) &R n/t

[Pierzin]

16. i saw Greg Palast last week!!!! (:

wooooohooooo!!!!
I get paid this week so maybe I can afford to get his book, I can't get Democracy now cause some software-bug, RealNetworks is messing with my security settings!

[Vidar]

17. Cheering the BBC. The Brithish have a free press in spite of Blair.

[Maraya1969]

18. Maybe we should ask the BBC for their recommendations about what

we need to do to stop the election fraud this country. I am sure the people in Britain are just disgusted with America and may have some ideas about how we can stop this.

We NEED TO STOP THIS OR WE WILL NEVER GET OUR POWER BACK,.

I feel like I am living in a dictatorship. I feel kid of hopeless and I want a concrete plan!!!




:scared:

[oasis]

20. The Brits have a love affair with the truth.(n/t)

[malaise]

21. Certainly not true

with regard to David Kelly and more than a few other issues but the Beebs does come good on matters foreign.

Nothing surprising about the 2004 elections here.
Edit - add.

[oasis]

34. I'd say the average educated Brit has a thirst for the truth. Compare that

to the average American who accepts whatever b.s. the corporate media shoves down their throat.

[rucky]

22. I've always wondered how Cinci could have such a large

black population, have a black mayor, and elect the wingiest, lily-white wingnuts into higher office time and time again.

:shrug:

OK no more being coy. I am DELIGHTED that this memo was found. It is so hard to prove defacto racism AND election fraud, and it looks like we have a smoking memo.

[babsbunny]

23. This MUST be sent to The Black Caucus, The Rainbow Coalition,

etc! Keith Olbermann!

[Pastiche423]

45. Does anyone have an email address for the Black Caucus?

I've been to their website:

http://www.congressionalblackcaucus.net/


and there is no contact information.

[originalpckelly]

24. This, I believe is what they call a smoking gun:

What the hell? Where the hell was this? Why didn't it make the news here in America? Uh, duh, a memo with at least a part of the 2004 election fraud contained in it? WTF? This makes me mad! Where were these people?

[originalpckelly]

25. This is the first hard evidence proving this...

everything else had a dual possibility. This now explains how so many people could be involved, and no one said anything. The only clue people participated in such an action was the "Do not forward," common sense asks, "Why the hell would someone be worried about forwarding political advertisements?"

[Roland99]

26. The only "caging" that should be done is putting these bastards in a cage

in a Federal prison!

[long_green]

39. I wouldn't put any of them in jail

I would sentence all of them to register every single non-registered or excluded African-American of voting age in the country. After that was done, they would be able to avoid jail by seeing that every registered African-American got to the polls on election day.

[datasuspect]

27. waiting for the "rationalization" posts

to flare up.

damn, is there anyone out there who thinks these fuckers will voluntarily give up the control they currently have?

[originalpckelly]

28. I am usually...

a skeptic. I usually question conspiracy theories, but this is some evidence, some hard evidence. I think the case can definitely be made now that the election was stolen. Now we need to interview people who volunteered for the RNC to send out the mail. Maybe one of them will remember sending out envelops with "Do not forward" on them.

[Marr]

29. I can't believe they actually named the files things like "Caging.xls".

That's what this process is called- caging. It's not new. This is absolutely disgusting.

[lonestarnot]

30. OMG maybe this is why all the vets got letters from the irs!

[Canuckistanian]

32. One obvious question here

Why couldn't ANY of these people on the the 'caged' list challenge their being thrown off the voting lists?

Is there no appeal process for for the original GOP challenge?

And if not, then why has no one ever brought a suit challenging this power as uncontitutional?

Is no one even concerned that one of their basic rights of citizenship has been taken away?

[banana republican]

46. Chris Vance tried this is Seattle

last year.

The appeal was to go before a board and explain the situiation. Kind of hard to do when you a being shot at in a foxhole...

[Canuckistanian]

52. Thanks, I'll look it up.

But I have problems believing that he's the only one.

No civil suits? Class action suits? ACLU? NAACP? A brave, well-off benefactor bankrolling a very important cause?

And where the Hell is George Soros if he's supposed to be funding all of us?

[BlooInBloo]

33. It's not about race, it's about class.

[Judi Lynn]

35. Such an unpleasant ending to the article, as well:

While the party insisted the lists were not created for the purpose to challenge Black voters, the GOP ultimately offered no other explanation for the mailings. However, Tucker Fletcher asserted Republicans could still employ the list to deny ballots to those they considered suspect voters. When asked if Republicans would use the list to block voters, Tucker Fletcher replied, ‘Where it’s stated in the law, yeah.’

It is not possible at this time to determine how many on the potential blacklist were ultimately challenged and lost their vote. Soldiers sending in their ballot from abroad would not know their vote was lost because of a challenge.
(snip/)

We need help against these monsters. In a hurry.

[WiseButAngrySara]

36. I read Palast's original article at DU. What is new here? The evidence

of e-mail intent? Or is it just being re-aired because of RFK Jr's Rolling Stones article? This so needs exposure! (Even though it is utterly revolting...) My Dad told me that he finished most of the Rolling Stones article I had sent him, when I called today to wish him a Happy Father's Day, but he said that is the past; we need to look forward. I responded that as long as Diebold, ES&S and Sequoia voting machine companies endorsed the RNC, we were in deep trouble for future elections. That's the primary reason this needs to be discussed, in addition to educating the public on the immoral and amoral practices of the RNC. I just e-mailed this article to my Dad, who is from Cleveland Ohio suburbs. I hope he gets the message this time! He and my mother both worked very hard in the Civil Rights movement, in opposition to co-workers, neighbors, friends and even some church members. I hope my dad finds this as appalling as it is.

KPete and R!

[dogday]

37. And what will come of this?

Will this information ever get to our public?

[icymist]

38. The GOP are criminals.

<snip>
Setting up such a challenge list would be a crime under federal law. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 outlaws mass challenges of voters where race is a factor in choosing the targeted group.

No more needs to be said.

[NJCher]

40. here's Tucker Fletcher

Mentioned or quoted in so many of the articles:



And here is some bio info she's offered up:

When Bush launched his presidential bid, Fletcher joined the campaign as national press secretary, managing day-to-day operations of a 50-person communications division during the 2000 campaign and serving as chief spokesperson for the Florida recount. Following the election, she returned to Washington as one of several press secretaries for the presidential transition team. Soon after, she was appointed director of public affairs for the U.S. Department of Justice, the first woman to hold that position. In 2002, Fletcher became communications director of the Republican National Committee, responsible for national media relations operations. She moved from national to regional focus last year as counselor to the California Republican Party and adviser to the Bush-Cheney '04 campaign in California.




Cher

[faithnotgreed]

41. kick

[Blue_Tires]

42. ttt n/t

[me b zola]

47. k&r

[banana republican]

48. LINK TO BBC ARTICLE

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/newsnight/3956129.stm

A secret document obtained from inside Bush campaign headquarters in Florida suggests a plan - possibly in violation of US law - to disrupt voting in the state's African-American voting districts, a BBC Newsnight investigation reveals.

Election supervisor Ion Sancho believes some voters are being intimidated
Two e-mails, prepared for the executive director of the Bush campaign in Florida and the campaign's national research director in Washington DC, contain a 15-page so-called "caging list".

It lists 1,886 names and addresses of voters in predominantly black and traditionally Democrat areas of Jacksonville, Florida.


Too Bad its from 2004.....

[ray of light]

50. we need to get dems elected and enact the VRA!!