Will the Democrats in the US Senate capitulate? Will they choose to live in denial? Will they opt for comfort over conscience and luxury over liberty? Or will they rise in solidarity with the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC)? It will be the end for them if they fail to face this moment of truth with courage. Unless the Democratic Party leadership comes to grips with reality (i.e. with a thoroughly compromised electoral process and a wholly complicit news media) and start talking about the REAL issues (i.e., election reform, media reform, real national security and renewable energy), they will become nothing more than a ceremonial faux opposition…
Theft of the 2004 Election
DALE EMCH, Toledo Blade: The Marines will take over parts of downtown Toledo as sounds of gunfire will echo off buildings when training exercises are conducted next weekend.
A Marine Corps unit based in Perrysburg will stage the exercises from 9 p.m. Jan. 7 to about noon Jan. 9, Maj. Gregory Cramer said…
Major Cramer said Marines will be dressed in green and will be carrying rifles through the streets, but the exercises should have a minimal impact on the downtown area. He said the Marines will be firing blanks and conducting operations throughout the area.
"The only request we would have of folks, if they happen to be near where an exercise is taking place, is to stay away as much as possible," Major Cramer
Bob Fertik, www.democrats.com: We've made a New Year's Resolution: to use every legal method available to remove Dictator Bush and his neo-fascist regime from power. We hope you'll join us in this resolution!
Better than eggnog! We're still high from John Conyers' declaration that he would lead the challenge to Ohio Electors and his letter to every Senator asking their support.
This morning Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. (D-IL) said he and Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones (D-OH) would join Conyers “to object to the counting of the Ohio Electoral votes due to the numerous unexplained irregularities in the Ohio presidential vote when the Congress meets in a joint session on January 6 to certify each states' Electoral College votes. In the spirit of Senator John Kerry's commitment to stand with the people until every vote is fully and fairly counted, Representatives Jackson, Conyers and Tubbs Jones - and many grassroots people around the country - are urging members of the U.S. Senate - including Senator Kerry, who should stand up for all Americans who voted believing their vote would count for the candidate of their choice - to join with these House members and sign a letter to object to the counting of the Ohio Electoral votes on January 6.
”The result of at least one U.S. Senator and one member of the U.S. House stating their objections in writing would be a stoppage of the counting of Electoral Votes and a two hour debate in each chamber of Congress until the objection is finally disposed of. It would enable members of Congress to debate and highlight the problems in Ohio - which are very prevalent virtually everywhere else in the country as well - that disenfranchised innumerable Ohio voters.
"A more detailed list of the voting problems in Ohio will be released shortly, but Ohio did not follow its own procedures and meet its obligation to conduct a free and fair election.
"If Dino Rossi, Republican candidate for Governor of Washington can say to Democratic candidate Christine Gregoire - 'Our next governor should enter office without any doubt about the legitimacy of his or her office. The people of Washington deserve to know that their governor was elected fair and square. Unfortunately, the events of the past few weeks now make it impossible for you or me to take office on January 12 without being shrouded in suspicion.' - then we can say the same thing about the President of the United States. This is especially true after the debacle of 2000 when a partisan Supreme Court selected our President, " Jackson concluded.
William Rivers Pitt, www.truthout.org: Representative John Conyers, ranking minority member of the House Judiciary Committee, will object to the counting of the Ohio Electors from the 2004 Presidential election when Congress convenes to ratify those votes on January 6th. In a letter dispatched to every Senator, which will be officially published by his office shortly, Conyers declares that he will be joined in this by several other members of the House. Rep. Conyers is taking this dramatic step because he believes the allegations and evidence of election tampering and fraud render the current slate of Ohio Electors illegitimate.
"As you know," writes Rep. Conyers in his letter, "on January 6, 2005, at 1:00 P.M, the electoral votes for the election of the president are to be opened and counted in a joint session of Congress. I and a number of House Members are planning to object to the counting of the Ohio votes, due to numerous unexplained irregularities in the Ohio presidential vote, many of which appear to violate both federal and state law."
The letter goes on to ask the Senators who receive this letter to join Conyers in objecting to the Ohio Electors. "I am hoping that you will consider joining us in this important effort," writes Conyers, "to debate and highlight the problems in Ohio which disenfranchised innumerable voters. I will shortly forward you a draft report itemizing and analyzing the many irregularities we have come across as part of our hearings and investigation into the Ohio presidential election."
Susannah Meadows, Newsweek: What’s the matter with Ohio?
Rev. Jesse Jackson: In Columbus, Cincinnati, Akron, Youngstown, Cleveland, where I was, you had blacks standing in line for six hours in the rain. That’s a form of voter suppression.
Ohio Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell says that machines were allotted based on turnout in past years, and that he didn’t realize they’d need more machines until it was too late.
He had to know it because registration was up. Blackwell may have had to deliver for Bush and [Vice President Dick] Cheney and he got a lighter rap than [former Florida Secretary of State Katherine] Harris got. But Ohio may have been more stacked than Florida was.
So you think Blackwell stole the election for Bush?
It was under his domain to have enough machines; the machine calibration, tabulation issue. You could rig the machines. We have reason to believe it was rigged.
What is your evidence?
Based on distrusting the system, lack of paper trails, the anomaly of the exit polls. In Ukraine, there’s an exit poll gap, they say, "Let’s have another election."
Bob Fitrakis, Steve Rosenfeld and Harvey Wasserman, Columbus Free Press: Meanwhile, a new precinct-by-precinct analysis in many Ohio counties indicates that Bush's margin here was likely obtained by fraud. That is the main claim of the election challenge suit now at the Ohio Supreme Court, where Ohio's GOP Supreme Court Chief Justice, Thomas Moyer, has refused to recuse himself, even though allegations of vote switching – where votes cast for one candidate are assigned to another in the computerized tabulation stage – involve his own re-election campaign.
Fintan Dunne, www.BreakForNews.com: Ongoing developments in Ohio legal cases have the potential to severely affect George Bush's claim on Ohio's electoral college votes; to blow the lid off corrupt practices in Ohio's political and judicial spheres; and to land a sticky mess of election fraud
and judicial bias before the US Supreme Court and/or legislators
convening to roll-call the presidential electoral college votes
on January 6th, 2005.
In an Ohio voters legal suit with potential to alter the outcome of
the 2004 U.S. presidential election, the chief justice of the Supreme
Court of Ohio has denied having personal knowledge of a plot to steal
votes; has refused an emergency motion to recuse himself from the case and has declined a request to secure election evidence in the voters' legal contest of the Ohio presidential election result.
Chief Justice Thomas Moyer made the rulings Wednesday in the 'Moss v.
Bush' case taken by thirty-seven Ohio voters to reverse the awarding
of Ohio's electoral college votes to George Bush.
The voters suit is led by Columbus, OH attorneys Cliff Arnebeck and
Bob Fitrakis. Moyer had been assigned to the case automatically by
virtue of being the senior judge of the Ohio Supreme Court.
In court documents, the voters had sought have another judge hear the
case. One of the reasons they cited was that Moyer had "wittingly or
unwittingly acquired knowledge of deliberate national and statewide
election fraud."
Moyer ruled that their assertion was "wholly without foundation and
totally lacks any degree of veracity." The voters have yet to detail
the basis of their claim.
Jay Cohen, Associated Press: Two third-party presidential candidates asked a federal court Thursday to force a second recount of the Ohio vote, alleging county election boards altered votes and didn't follow proper procedures in the recount that ended this week. Lawyers for Green Party candidate David Cobb and the Libertarian Party's Michael Badnarik made their request in federal court in Columbus.
"We've documented in this filing how this recount was not conducted in accordance with uniform standards throughout Ohio" as required by the U.S. Constitution, said John Bonifaz, a lawyer from the National Voting Right Institute representing the candidates.
Bush Abomination’s #1 Failure: National Security:
Sidney Blumenthal, Guardian: The transition to President Bush's second term, filled with backstage betrayals, plots and pathologies, would make for an excellent chapter of I, Claudius. To begin with, Bush has unceremoniously and without public acknowledgement dumped Brent Scowcroft, his father's closest associate and friend, as chairman of the foreign intelligence advisory board. The elder Bush's national security adviser was the last remnant of traditional Republican realism permitted to exist within the administration…
"Words like 'incoherent' come to mind," one top state department official told me about Rice's effort to organise her office. She is unable to assert herself against Cheney, her wobbliness a sign that the state department will mostly be sidelined as a power centre for the next four years…
Meanwhile, key senior state department professionals, such as Marc Grossman, assistant secretary of state for European affairs, have abruptly resigned. According to colleagues who have chosen to remain (at least for now), they foresee the damage that will be done as Rice is charged with whipping the state department into line with the White House and Pentagon neocons. Rice has pleaded with Armitage to stay on, but "he colourfully said he would not", a state department official told me. Rice's radio silence when her former mentor, Scowcroft, was defenestrated was taken by the state department professionals as a sign of things to come. Bush has long resented his father's alter ego. Scowcroft privately rebuked him for his Iraq follies more than a year ago - an incident that has not previously been reported. Bush "did not receive it well", said a friend of Scowcroft.
Jamie Lyons, Scotsman: United States President George Bush was tonight accused of trying to undermine the United Nations by setting up a rival coalition to coordinate relief following the Asian tsunami disaster.
The president has announced that the US, Japan, India and Australia would coordinate the world’s response.
But former International Development Secretary Clare Short said that role should be left to the UN.
“I think this initiative from America to set up four countries claiming to coordinate sounds like yet another attempt to undermine the UN when it is the best system we have got and the one that needs building up,” she said.
“Only really the UN can do that job,” she told BBC Radio Four’s PM programme.
“It is the only body that has the moral authority. But it can only do it well if it is backed up by the authority of the great powers.”
Complicity of the Corporatist News Media
www.newshounds.us: The amount of money the Bush administration initially pledged to the relief effort in Southeast Asia seems to change by the day on Fox News as well as on other "news" outlets. By changing the amount, the press is not only lying to the public, but giving the Bush administration a very, very BIG break as has been so frighteningly common over the last few years.
Today (December 31, 2004) on Your World w/Neil Cavuto, substitute host Stuart Varney opened a segment this way:
"As we told you earlier, the United States has upped its tsunami relief aid to $350 million. That is ten times the initial amount, but is it enough to shut those stingy comments up?"
COMMENT: So to be accurate, the initial amount was a pitiful, paltry, sickening $400,000. The $400,000 increased to $15 million and then to $35 million yesterday. However, the press, Fox included, seems to have wiped the history of this story from the books. The "initial" amount is now being reported as $35 million while the true "initial" amount was $400,000. Inaccurate reporting like this shields the administration from the shame of not only its sinful original offer of $400,000, but the pitiful offer of $15 million as well, and it doesn't paint an accurate picture of what this administration has done. Is it any wonder people in this country have no idea what Bush is about?
Illegitimate, Incompetent & Corrupt
Robbie Sherwood and Chip Scutari, Arizona Republic: We're dreaming of a White (House) Christmas . . . Several of Arizona's leading GOP muckety-mucks secured treasured invitations to Bush's swanky Christmas party Thursday. Actually, Bush holds at least three of these parties to glad-hand with delegations of big donors and politicos from all the states, or at least the red ones.
Spotted munching on the primo layout of beef, shrimp and pasta were Secretary of State Jan Brewer, Senate President Ken Bennett and soon-to-be-ex- House Speaker Jake Flake. Alberto Gutier and his son Mickey, who usually drives in Bush's motorcade when he comes to town, also made the guest list.
"It was an incredibly rewarding experience after 40 years in politics," said Gutier, who, alas, was not rewarded with a victory in his recent run for the House.
Also spotted, petition gatherer to the stars Nathan Sproul. Bush, it seems, doesn't have much of a problem with the allegations in several states that Sproul's employees misrepresented themselves as nonpartisan during a Republican National Committee voter registration drive and were accused of tossing out registrations from Democrats.
www.guerrillanews.com: Top Ten War-Profiteers -- At the beginning of the Iraq war, Andrew Natsios, head of the U.S. Agency for International Development (AID), proclaimed that the reconstruction of Iraq would look like a modern-day Marshall Plan. But a year and a half later, a combination of bureaucratic ineptitude, corporate corruption and the growing Iraqi resistance threaten to undermine the Bush administration’s grand designs.
In mid-July, U.S. officials admitted that fewer than 140 of the 2,300 reconstruction projects funded by the U.S. were underway. Although AID says “dirt has been turned” on 1,167 projects including schools and hospitals, with at least 70 new ones staring each week, it’s unlikely that the big picture has changed much. The kidnapping and execution of contract personnel and the ongoing sabotage of key projects—power plants, electricity lines and oil pipelines—has slowed work in many areas of the country to a crawl, jacking up the cost of security, insurance and other ancillary expenditures, which in most cases amount to half of the contractors’ budgets.
By August, Ambassador John Negroponte had to announce that more than $3 billion of $18 billion in U.S. aid earmarked by Congress for engineering and reconstruction work would be used for security and counterinsurgency operations.
John P. O’Neill Wall of Heroes
Martha Stewart’s Christmas Message, The Nation: When one is incarcerated with 1,200 other inmates, it is hard to be selfish at Christmas--hard to think of Christmases past and Christmases future--that I know will be as they always were for me--beautiful! So many of the women here in Alderson will never have the joy and well-being that you and I experience. Many of them have been here for years--devoid of care, devoid of love, devoid of family.
I beseech you all to think about these women--to encourage the American people to ask for reforms, both in sentencing guidelines, in length of incarceration for nonviolent first-time offenders, and for those involved in drug-taking. They would be much better served in a true rehabilitation center than in prison where there is no real help, no real programs to rehabilitate, no programs to educate, no way to be prepared for life "out there" where each person will ultimately find herself, many with no skills and no preparation for living.
Associated Press: A career FBI agent who rocked official Washington with a blistering memo to the boss alleging bureau bungling before the Sept. 11 attacks retired from the agency Friday.
Coleen Rowley, who was named one of Time magazine's Persons of the Year for 2002 for her whistleblowing efforts, retired 11 days after turning 50, when she became eligible for a full pension, the Star Tribune reported. Rowley, who worked for the FBI for 24 years, said she has no immediate plans, but wants to be considered for appointment to a new federal board that will ensure counterterrorism investigations and arrests do not infringe on people's rights. The law overhauling the nation's intelligence apparatus directs the Department of Homeland Security to create the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board…
Rowley was hailed by colleagues in Minneapolis in 2002 when she wrote a letter to FBI Director Robert Mueller accusing bureau headquarters of blowing a chance to unravel the Sept. 11, 2001, hijacking plot.
Restore the Sanctity of the Vote! Restore an Aggressive, Indepdendent Free Press! Restore the Republic!
http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2004412290352
Marines will stay close to home for urban training
Unit to use downtown Toledo
By DALE EMCH
BLADE STAFF WRITER
The Marines will take over parts of downtown Toledo as sounds of gunfire will echo off buildings when training exercises are conducted next weekend.
A Marine Corps unit based in Perrysburg will stage the exercises from 9 p.m. Jan. 7 to about noon Jan. 9, Maj. Gregory Cramer said.
Major Cramer said most of the 130-member unit - Weapons Company, 1st Battalion, 24th Marines - will take part in the exercises.
"We're looking for an urban environment to do our training," he said. "Urban training is one of the proficiencies we're required to maintain."
Major Cramer said Marines will be dressed in green and will be carrying rifles through the streets, but the exercises should have a minimal impact on the downtown area. He said the Marines will be firing blanks and conducting operations throughout the area.
"The only request we would have of folks, if they happen to be near where an exercise is taking place, is to stay away as much as possible," Major Cramer said.
The exercise area roughly will be north of Monroe Street, west of the Maumee River, south and west of Cherry Street, south of Woodruff Ave., and east of Collingwood Boulevard.
Toledo Police Chief Mike Navarre said military exercises have been conducted before in the downtown area with a minimal impact on city residents. He said city and police officials have been working with the Marines to help the exercises go smoothly.
"Training is extremely important, not just in our profession, but in the military too," Chief Navarre said. "We're not going to place any obstacles in their way."
Jean Atkin, administrator for the Lucas County Common Pleas Court, said the unit was granted permission to use the courthouse grounds. The unit, though, won't use the interior of the courthouse.
"We used to do this when we were kids - you know, running around the woods," Ms. Atkin said. "They're just going to use the downtown."
http://blog.democrats.com/node/2269
Stolen Election 2004: New Year's Update
by Bob Fertik on 01/01/2005 5:29am. - revised 01/01/2005 11:56pm
Happy New Year!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
We've made a New Year's Resolution: to use every legal method available to remove Dictator Bush and his neo-fascist regime from power.
We hope you'll join us in this resolution!
Better than eggnog! We're still high from John Conyers' declaration that he would lead the challenge to Ohio Electors and his letter to every Senator asking their support.
This morning Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. (D-IL) said he and Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones (D-OH) would join Conyers
to object to the counting of the Ohio Electoral votes due to the numerous unexplained irregularities in the Ohio presidential vote when the Congress meets in a joint session on January 6 to certify each states' Electoral College votes. In the spirit of Senator John Kerry's commitment to stand with the people until every vote is fully and fairly counted, Representatives Jackson, Conyers and Tubbs Jones - and many grassroots people around the country - are urging members of the U.S. Senate - including Senator Kerry, who should stand up for all Americans who voted believing their vote would count for the candidate of their choice - to join with these House members and sign a letter to object to the counting of the Ohio Electoral votes on January 6.
"The result of at least one U.S. Senator and one member of the U.S. House stating their objections in writing would be a stoppage of the counting of Electoral Votes and a two hour debate in each chamber of Congress until the objection is finally disposed of. It would enable members of Congress to debate and highlight the problems in Ohio - which are very prevalent virtually everywhere else in the country as well - that disenfranchised innumerable Ohio voters.
"A more detailed list of the voting problems in Ohio will be released shortly, but Ohio did not follow its own procedures and meet its obligation to conduct a free and fair election.
"If Dino Rossi, Republican candidate for Governor of Washington can say to Democratic candidate Christine Gregoire - 'Our next governor should enter office without any doubt about the legitimacy of his or her office. The people of Washington deserve to know that their governor was elected fair and square. Unfortunately, the events of the past few weeks now make it impossible for you or me to take office on January 12 without being shrouded in suspicion.' - then we can say the same thing about the President of the United States. This is especially true after the debacle of 2000 when a partisan Supreme Court selected our President, " Jackson concluded.
Grassroots lobbying campaigns are moving into high gear - see our permanent Protest page.
In San Francisco, activists are pushing Sen. Barbara Boxer to be the first Senator to stand up against Stolen Election 2004. They will rally outside Boxer's office on Monday (Jan 3) at noon.
Detailing evidence and testimonials of voter suppression and intimidation at the press conference will be the following civic and political leaders: DOLORES HUERTA, United Farm Workers co-founder and civil rights leader; WALTER RILEY, labor/civil rights attorney, East Bay Votes; MARGOT SMITH, Gray Panthers; MICHAEL EISENSCHER, U. S. Labor Against the War; MAX ANDERSON, Berkeley City Council, 1st Municipal Voting Rights Resolution; TIM PAULSON, Executive Director, San Francisco Labor Council, AFL-CIO; and MICHAEL GOLDSTEIN, Harvey Milk LGBT Democratic Club.
David Lytel of ReDefeatBush.com enlisted outgoing Rep. Peter Deutsch (D-FL) to highlight the election fraud issues in Florida as well as Ohio.
Preparations are underway for a public forum on Wednesday afternoon at the Capitol at which Deutch will publicly question some of the key witnesses to activities that may have surpassed the boundaries of normal partisanship and crossed over into illegal activity in Florida. In his preparation Deutsch has the assistance of Wayne Madsen, an experienced analyst and investigator who previously worked for the National Security Agency. For the benefit of Members of Congress considering supporting the challenge, Deutsch will be publicly questioning Bev Harris of Black Box Voting, who witnessed the unlawful disposal of original voter registreys that are required to be archived under Florida law. He will also question Clint Curtis, the Florida whistleblower who has testified that he was asked by Congressman Tom Feeney's to create the software necessary to modify the results of electronic voting machines.
In Ohio, Green Party presidential candidate David Cobb called on Congress to challenge the legitimacy of Ohio's Electors.
"The recount of Ohio's presidential vote was conducted in clear violation of both the spirit and the letter of the law. We can have no faith in the results when both the initial election and the recount were conducted in a haphazard and clearly illegitimate manner. Ohio's presidential electors are tainted by unresolved allegations of voter suppression and the lack of a meaningful recount. Congress must reject and challenge their votes," said Cobb.
Cobb's lawyers also went back to Federal court demanding that the recount of Ohio's presidential vote be done again, this time in conformance with state and federal law.
One of the most significant problems with the recount was that few of Ohio's 88 counties randomly selected sample precincts for the recount as is required by Ohio law. Other problems with the recount included a lack of security for the ballots and voting machines — including allegations of interference with voting machines by representatives of the Diebold and Triad corporations — and the refusal of some counties to do a full hand recount when required by law to do so.
Bob Fitrakis, Steve Rosenfeld and Harvey Wasserman added more reasons to dispute the official count.
Diebold also manufactured many of the tabulators used to count punch card ballots. In the vast majority of Ohio precincts, those tabulations were not rechecked or recounted. In at least two counties, technicians from Diebold and from Triad dismantled all or part of such tabulating machines prior to the recount. In Shelby County, election officials admitted that they discarded crucial tabulator records, rendering a meaningful recount impossible. In many cases, the recounts were conducted not by public election officials, but by private corporations, many of them with Republican ties.
In other precincts, impossibly high voter turnout figures -- nearly all of them adding to Bush's official margin -- remain unexplained. In the heavily Republican southern county of Perry, Blackwell certified one precinct with 221 more votes than registered voters. Two precincts -- Reading S and W. Lexington G -- were let stand in the officially certified final vote count with voter turnouts of roughly 124% each.
In Miami County's Concord South West precinct, Blackwell certified a voter turnout of 98.55 percent, requiring that all but 10 voters in the precinct cast ballots. But a freepress.org canvas easily found 25 voters who said they did not vote. In the nearby Concord South precinct, Blackwell certified an apparently impossible voter turnout of 94.27 percent. Both Concord precincts went heavily for Bush.
By contrast, in heavily Democratic Cuyahoga County, amidst record turnouts, a predominantly African-American precinct, Cleveland 6C, was certified with just a 07.85 percent turnout. The official count was 45 votes for Kerry versus one for Bush, in a precinct where the day's overall voter turnout would have indicated eight or nine times as many voters.
Independent statistical studies of Cuyahoga County indicate that if the prevailing statewide voter turnout was really 60 percent of the registered voters, as seems likely based on turnout in other major cities in Ohio, Kerry’s margin of victory in Cleveland alone was wrongly reduced in the certified returns by 20,000 or more votes.
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/123104W.shtml
Article published Wednesday, December 29, 2004
Conyers to Object to Ohio Electors, Requests Senate Allies
By William Rivers Pitt
t r u t h o u t | Report
Thursday 30 December 2004
Representative John Conyers, ranking minority member of the House Judiciary Committee, will object to the counting of the Ohio Electors from the 2004 Presidential election when Congress convenes to ratify those votes on January 6th. In a letter dispatched to every Senator, which will be officially published by his office shortly, Conyers declares that he will be joined in this by several other members of the House. Rep. Conyers is taking this dramatic step because he believes the allegations and evidence of election tampering and fraud render the current slate of Ohio Electors illegitimate.
"As you know," writes Rep. Conyers in his letter, "on January 6, 2005, at 1:00 P.M, the electoral votes for the election of the president are to be opened and counted in a joint session of Congress. I and a number of House Members are planning to object to the counting of the Ohio votes, due to numerous unexplained irregularities in the Ohio presidential vote, many of which appear to violate both federal and state law."
The letter goes on to ask the Senators who receive this letter to join Conyers in objecting to the Ohio Electors. "I am hoping that you will consider joining us in this important effort," writes Conyers, "to debate and highlight the problems in Ohio which disenfranchised innumerable voters. I will shortly forward you a draft report itemizing and analyzing the many irregularities we have come across as part of our hearings and investigation into the Ohio presidential election."
There are expected to be high level meetings with high ranking Democratic officials next week to coordinate a concerted lobbying effort to convince Senators to challenge the vote. The Green Party and David Cobb, as has been true all along, will be centrally involved in this process, as will Rev. Jesse Jackson.
The remainder of the Conyers letter reads:
3 U.S.C. §15 provides when the results from each of the states are announced, that "the President of the Senate shall call for objections, if any." Any objection must be presented in writing and "signed by at least one Senator and one Member of the House of Representatives before the same shall be received." The objection must "state clearly and concisely, and without argument, the ground thereof." When an objection has been properly made in writing and endorsed by a member of each body the Senate withdraws from the House chamber, and each body meets separately to consider the objection. "No votes...from any other State shall be acted upon until the (pending) objection...(is) finally disposed of." 3 U.S.C. §17 limits debate on the objections in each body to two hours, during which time no member may speak more than once and not for more than five minutes. Both the Senate and the House must separately agree to the objection; otherwise, the challenged vote or votes are counted.
Historically, there appears to be three general grounds for objecting to the counting of electoral votes. The language of 3 U.S.C. §15 suggests that objection may be made on the grounds that (1) a vote was not "regularly given" by the challenged elector(s); and/or (2) the elector(s) was not "lawfully certified" under state law; or (3) two slates of electors have been presented to Congress from the same State.
Since the Electoral Count Act of 1887, no objection meeting the requirements of the Act have been made against an entire slate of state electors. In the 2000 election several Members of the House of Representatives attempted to challenge the electoral votes from the State of Florida. However, no Senator joined in the objection, and therefore, the objection was not "received." In addition, there was no determination whether the objection constituted an appropriate basis under the 1887 Act. However, if a State - in this case Ohio - has not followed its own procedures and met its obligation to conduct a free and fair election, a valid objection -if endorsed by at least one Senator and a Member of the House of Representatives- should be debated by each body separately until "disposed of".
A key legal aspect of this is the second clause referenced in the letter. Rep. Conyers and the other House members involved do not believe the electors have been lawfully certified. They believe that there has been too much illegal activity on the part of Blackwell, other election officials, and Republican operatives on the ground and therefore, as stated in the letter, the electors were not "lawfully certified" under state law. Next week, the House Judiciary Committee Democratic staff will release the report referenced in the letter, which is now still in draft form, and which led Mr. Conyers to this decision.
The Senators who shall receive the greatest focus from Conyers in this matter are Biden, Bingaman, Boxer, Byrd, Clinton, Conrad, Corzine, Dodd, Dorgan, Durbin, Feingold, Harkin, Inyoue, Jeffords, Kennedy, Kerry, Lautenberg, Leahy, Levin, Lieberman, Mikulski, Nelson (FL), Jack Reed, Harry Reid, Rockefeller, Sarbanes, Stabenow, Wyden and Obama.
________________________________________
William Rivers Pitt is a New York Times and international bestseller of two books - 'War on Iraq: What Team Bush Doesn't Want You to Know' and 'The Greatest Sedition is Silence.'
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/123104V.shtml
Editor's Note | TO reported earlier today that Rep. John Conyers, ranking minority member of the House Judiciary Committee, will officially object to the Ohio Electoral votes being counted when Congress convenes to certify the election on January 6th. Rev. Jesse Jackson will be centrally involved in the effort to convince a Senator to join Conyers in this effort. TO will be reporting on the 6th from Washington D.C. on the hearings. - wrp
Go to Original
'We Will Not Faint'
By Susannah Meadows
Newsweek
Thursday 30 December 2004
Jesse Jackson on why he thinks John Kerry really won the election.
Ohio officials concluded their recount of the presidential vote last Tuesday-reaffirming President George W. Bush’s victory. But the state’s election woes aren’t over yet. As bloggers continue to spin conspiracy theories about a victory stolen from Democratic candidate John Kerry, the Rev. Jesse Jackson plans to lead a Monday rally in Columbus to protest alleged voting irregularities. He warmed up with Newsweek’s Susannah Meadows.
The Democratic candidate and Jackson at Sunday services before the November vote.
(Photo: Gerald Herbert / AP)
Newsweek: What’s the matter with Ohio?
Rev. Jesse Jackson: In Columbus, Cincinnati, Akron, Youngstown, Cleveland, where I was, you had blacks standing in line for six hours in the rain. That’s a form of voter suppression.
Ohio Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell says that machines were allotted based on turnout in past years, and that he didn’t realize they’d need more machines until it was too late.
He had to know it because registration was up. Blackwell may have had to deliver for Bush and [Vice President Dick] Cheney and he got a lighter rap than [former Florida Secretary of State Katherine] Harris got. But Ohio may have been more stacked than Florida was.
So you think Blackwell stole the election for Bush?
It was under his domain to have enough machines; the machine calibration, tabulation issue. You could rig the machines. We have reason to believe it was rigged.
What is your evidence?
Based on distrusting the system, lack of paper trails, the anomaly of the exit polls. In Ukraine, there’s an exit poll gap, they say, "Let’s have another election."
Have you been in touch with John Kerry about the issue? Does he share your concerns?
His lawyers are now involved in a minimal way. We are appealing to him to get involved. We think it should be certified provisionally, until there can be a forensic investigation of these machines, and until there’s a random recount. In only two of the counties did they do any hand recounting.
What can be done now?
Thursday is when Congress is scheduled to certify the vote. Kerry should take the floor and ask for a debate on the subject. Kerry pulled out too early. The scrutiny pulled out with him.
If the election were held again with these alleged problems solved, would Kerry win?
Of course I think that. If we deal with the anomalies, a fair random count, the urban-suppressed vote, Kerry would get at least 60,000 more votes. At least! I believe that. I don’t know that.
Is it possible that election will be overturned?
I don’t know. All we want is a fair count and a transparent election. We can live with the result. We’re fighting the odds but we will not faint in the face of the odds.
-------
Jump to TO Features for Friday December 31, 2004
http://www.commondreams.org/views04/1231-02.htm
Published on Friday, December 31, 2004 by the Columbus Free Press
Ohio's Official Non-Recount Ends Amidst New Evidence of Fraud, Theft and Judicial Contempt Mirrored in New Mexico
by Bob Fitrakis, Steve Rosenfeld and Harvey Wasserman
COLUMBUS -- The Ohio presidential recount was officially terminated Tuesday, December 28.
But the end comes amidst bitter dispute over official certification of impossible voter turnout numbers, over the refusal of Ohio's Republican Supreme Court Chief Justice to recuse himself from crucial court challenges involving his own re-election campaign, over the Republican Secretary of State's refusal to testify under subpoena, over apparent tampering with tabulation machines, over more than 100,000 provisional and machine-rejected ballots left uncounted, over major discrepancies in certified vote counts and turnout ratios, and over a wide range of unresolved disputes that continue to leave the true outcome of Ohio's presidential vote in serious doubt.
Officially, Republican Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell has confirmed substantial errors in the vote count, with a shift of some 1,200 votes based on statewide recounts of about 3% of the vote. But additional new evidence of massive vote-counting fraud across the state continues to be unearthed, calling into question George W. Bush’s alleged victory in Ohio and pending re-election in the Electoral College.
Blackwell, who was co-chair of the Bush-Cheney campaign, announced that his recount awarded 734 additional votes to Kerry and 449 additional votes to Bush. Meanwhile, more than 92,672 machine-rejected ballots remain unchecked and uncounted, as do at least 14,000 provisional ballots. Conservative estimates of Kerry’s net gain among those ballots are another 36,000 to 40,000 votes. No accounting in the count or recount has been made for voters turned away at the polls due to insufficient voting machines, computer malfunction, tampering with registration data, mishandling of absentee ballots, misinformation and intimidation, or a wide range of other problems.
Blackwell's certified statewide returns now give Bush a margin of 118,775 votes. Ohio's electoral votes would give Bush the presidency if they are certified by Congress on January 6. A challenge by members of the House of Representatives is expected under an 1887 law passed in response to the disputed election of 1876, during which Republican Rutherford B. Hayes took the presidency in the Electoral College despite losing the popular vote. The challenge must be joined by at least one Senator.
Meanwhile, a new precinct-by-precinct analysis in many Ohio counties indicates that Bush's margin here was likely obtained by fraud. That is the main claim of the election challenge suit now at the Ohio Supreme Court, where Ohio's GOP Supreme Court Chief Justice, Thomas Moyer, has refused to recuse himself, even though allegations of vote switching – where votes cast for one candidate are assigned to another in the computerized tabulation stage – involve his own re-election campaign.
Ohio's official recount was conducted by GOP Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell, despite widespread protests that his role as co-chair of the state's Bush-Cheney campaign constituted an serious conflict of interest. Blackwell has refused to testify in the election challenge lawsuit alleging massive voter fraud, as have a number of GOP county election supervisors. Blackwell also refuses to explain why he has left more than 106,000 machine-rejected and provisional ballots entirely uncounted.
The final recount tested roughly 3% of the roughly 5.7 million votes cast in the state. But contrary to the law governing the recount, many precincts tested were selected not at random, but by Blackwell's personal designation. Experts with the election challenge suit have noted many of the precincts selected were mostly free of the irregularities they are seeking to investigate, while many contested precincts were left unrecounted.
The official overall shifting of nearly 1200 votes was deemed "absolutely unacceptable" by Colby Hamilton of the Green Party, which joined the Libertarian Party in paying $113,600 to have the recount done. The Greens and Libertarians are now asking for another recount, charging that the first one was woefully incomplete and unreliable.
The Kerry campaign, which raised millions of dollars to guarantee "every vote will be counted" in the 2004 election, has challenged the results in just one county, where a technician dismantled at least one voting machine prior to the recount. Daniel J. Hoffheimer, an attorney hired by the Kerry campaign has emphasized his belief that despite that challenge, "this presidential election is over. The Bush-Cheney ticket has won."
Hoffheimer is affiliated with Taft, Stettinius and Hollister, a Cincinnati firm with deep Republican ties to Ohio's current GOP governor, Bob Taft. Hoffheimer said "the Kerry-Edwards campaign has found no conspiracy and no fraud in Ohio," but more serious researchers continue to uncover plenty. While struggling to find the financial resources necessary for the legal challenge, the Election Protection team has continued to uncover deeply disturbing evidence of manipulation, theft and fraud that went unaudited by the official recount.
Some 14.6% of Ohio votes were cast on electronic machines with no paper trail, rendering them unauditable. But on election night, electronic machines and computer software were used throughout the state to tabulate paper ballots. The contrasts are striking. Officially, Bush built a narrow margin of roughly 51% versus 48% for Kerry based on votes counted on election night. But among the 147,400 provisional and absentee ballots that were counted AFTER election night, Kerry received 54.46 percent of the vote. These later totals came from counts done by hand, as opposed to counts done by computer tabulators, many of which came from Diebold.
Many of the electronic voting machines with no paper trail also came from Republican-dominated companies, including some from Diebold, whose owner, Wally O'Dell, infamously guaranteed in 2003 that he would deliver Ohio's electoral votes to Bush.
Diebold also manufactured many of the tabulators used to count punch card ballots. In the vast majority of Ohio precincts, those tabulations were not rechecked or recounted. In at least two counties, technicians from Diebold and from Triad dismantled all or part of such tabulating machines prior to the recount. In Shelby County, election officials admitted that they discarded crucial tabulator records, rendering a meaningful recount impossible. In many cases, the recounts were conducted not by public election officials, but by private corporations, many of them with Republican ties.
In other precincts, impossibly high voter turnout figures -- nearly all of them adding to Bush's official margin -- remain unexplained. In the heavily Republican southern county of Perry, Blackwell certified one precinct with 221 more votes than registered voters. Two precincts -- Reading S and W. Lexington G -- were let stand in the officially certified final vote count with voter turnouts of roughly 124% each.
In Miami County's Concord South West precinct, Blackwell certified a voter turnout of 98.55 percent, requiring that all but 10 voters in the precinct cast ballots. But a freepress.org canvas easily found 25 voters who said they did not vote. In the nearby Concord South precinct, Blackwell certified an apparently impossible voter turnout of 94.27 percent. Both Concord precincts went heavily for Bush.
By contrast, in heavily Democratic Cuyahoga County, amidst record turnouts, a predominantly African-American precinct, Cleveland 6C, was certified with just a 07.85 percent turnout. The official count was 45 votes for Kerry versus one for Bush, in a precinct where the day's overall voter turnout would have indicated eight or nine times as many voters.
Independent statistical studies of Cuyahoga County indicate that if the prevailing statewide voter turnout was really 60 percent of the registered voters, as seems likely based on turnout in other major cities in Ohio, Kerry’s margin of victory in Cleveland alone was wrongly reduced in the certified returns by 20,000 or more votes.
New research has added confirmation to apparent widespread fraud -– most likely in the computer tabulation stage -- in at least three heavily Republican southern Ohio counties. Mathematical researcher Richard Hayes Phillips, PhD., has shown that Clermont, Butler and Warren Counties, surrounding Cincinnati, netted Bush votes on par with his margin of victory in the state. But for Bush to have built up his margins in these three counties, 13,500 Democrats would have had to have split their tickets by voting for Supreme Court Chief Justice candidate Ellen Connally while simultaneously voting for Bush, by all accounts a virtually impossible event.
The numbers are startling. In Butler Country, Bush officially was given 109,866 votes. But conservative GOP Chief Justice Moyer was given only 68,407, a negative discrepancy of more than 40,000 votes. Meanwhile, Moyer's opponent, a pro-gay, pro-abortion African-American liberal from Cleveland, was officially credited with 61,559 votes to John Kerry's 56,234.
The Blackwell-approved tally would mean that more than 5,000 Butler County voters ignored Kerry's name near the top of the ballot, but jumped to the bottom of the ballot to vote for Connally. And this was to have happened in an area where some 40,000 Republicans did exactly the opposite, voting for the President while skipping the race for Chief Justice. Few who are familiar with Butler County politics believe such an outcome to be even remotely credible.
In Warren County, Bush was credited with 68,035 votes to Kerry’s 26,043 votes. But just as the county's votes were about to be counted after the polls closed on November 2, the Board of Elections claimed a Homeland Security alert authorized them to throw out all Democratic and independent observers, including the media. The vote count was thus conducted entirely by Republicans.
Here Blackwell's certified tally says the slightly funded Connally somehow outpolled Kerry by more than 2,400 votes, nearly 10 percent of his county wide total.
Phillips’ latest analysis was conducted at the precinct-by-precinct level. When looking at returns before they have been blended into countywide figures, Phillips says the suspect nature of the outcome in these three counties is heightened by the fact that precincts within them yield wildly inconsistent data. A few municipalities show Republicans and Democrats voting along party lines – as one would expect. But throughout most of these three counties are precincts with massive margins for Bush that are inconsistent with the rest of the counties and impossible to conceive except by some sort of manipulation. This is an almost certain indicator of fraud, says Phillips.
The statistical analysis of these results show Blackwell’s certified vote is deeply flawed. It does not, however, identify how the fraud was perpetrated. Based in part on these inconsistencies, the Election Protection legal team has filed suit with the state Supreme Court, asking it to overturn Ohio's presidential election.
But despite the fact that the contention rests in large part on Moyer's own re-election campaign, the Chief Justice refuses to recuse himself from this and related cases. He has helped write decisions denying a further public investigation into the count and recount processes, and has voted to protect Blackwell from providing public testimony under legal subpoena.
Parallel problems have now surfaced in New Mexico, where a bitter recount battle is also being waged. At a public hearing in Columbus convened by Rep. John Conyers (D-MI), senior Democrat on the US House Judiciary Committee, Rev. Jesse Jackson testified that Sen. Kerry was informed in a phone conversation that optical scan machines were being used in New Mexico to steal votes. New Mexico allegedly went to Bush by some 7,000 votes in an election with widespread charges of manipulation and fraud, especially in heavily Hispanic precincts. According to Jackson, Kerry said he know that every single New Mexico precinct fitted with optical scan machines went for Bush, demographically a virtual impossibility.
But New Mexico's Democratic Gov. Bill Richardson has refused to cooperate with Green Party and Audit the Vote activists demanding a recount, acceding to decisions that could raise the price for a recount to well over a million dollars. Despite its huge leftover war chest, the Democratic Party has not come forward to help push New Mexico's recount, which many believe could give the state to Kerry. As of now, no recount has even begun, with the issue still mired in the courts over the question of finances.
On Monday, January 3, Rev. Jackson will lead a rally in Columbus demanding, among other things, an Ohio revote. Ironically, the apparently defeated Republican gubernatorial candidate in Washington is now demanding the same thing. Moreover, unlike Ohio, in Washington state the Democrat emerged victorious after that state’s Supreme Court ordered all ballots counted and certified totals adjusted.
If anything, Blackwell's refusal to testify, Moyer's refusal to recuse, and the staggering flood of new evidence from a non-credible non-recount have helped further spread the belief that the Ohio vote -- and thus the presidency -- has been stolen. The findings from New Mexico confirm that Ohio was not the only state where fraud and vote theft may have provided Bush with a margin of victory. Challenges in Florida have also reached the court system.
The alleged Bush victory could be challenged in the much-anticipated January 6 reporting of the Electoral College to Congress. But given the mounting indications of manipulation, fraud and theft, it is virtually certain the debate over who really won Ohio -– as well as New Mexico and Florida -- and the presidency will be bitterly disputed for many years to come.
Bob Fitrakis, Steve Rosenfeld and Harvey Wasserman are co-authors of OHIO'S STOLEN ELECTION: VOICES OF THE DISENFRANCHISED, 2004, to be published by http://freepress.org. Tax-deductible contributions to this book/film project are gladly accepted at http://freepress.org/store.php#don_pub or by check to the Columbus Institute for Contemporary Journalism at 1240 Bryden Road, Columbus, OH 43205.
Copyright © 1970-2004 The Columbus Free Press
###
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=203&topic_id=212098&mesg_id=212098
212098, OHIO JUDGE DENIES KNOWING OF PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION FRAUD PLOT
Posted by BreakForNews on Thu Dec-30-04 04:28 PM
Ohio Judge Denies Knowing Of
Presidential Election Fraud Plot
Ohio Judge Denies Knowing Of Presidential Election Fraud Plot
http://www.breakfornews.com/articles/MoyerDeniesKnowing...
Ongoing developments in Ohio legal cases have the potential to
severely affect George Bush's claim on Ohio's electoral college
votes; to blow the lid off corrupt practices in Ohio's political
and judicial spheres; and to land a sticky mess of election fraud
and judicial bias before the US Supreme Court and/or legislators
convening to roll-call the presidential electoral college votes
on January 6th, 2005.
BreakForNews.com, 30th Dec, 2004 15:00ET
by Fintan Dunne, Editor EXCLUSIVE
In an Ohio voters legal suit with potential to alter the outcome of
the 2004 U.S. presidential election, the chief justice of the Supreme
Court of Ohio has denied having personal knowledge of a plot to steal
votes; has refused an emergency motion to recuse himself from the case
and has declined a request to secure election evidence in the voters'
legal contest of the Ohio presidential election result.
Chief Justice Thomas Moyer made the rulings Wednesday in the 'Moss v.
Bush' case taken by thirty-seven Ohio voters to reverse the awarding
of Ohio's electoral college votes to George Bush.
The voters suit is led by Columbus, OH attorneys Cliff Arnebeck and
Bob Fitrakis. Moyer had been assigned to the case automatically by
virtue of being the senior judge of the Ohio Supreme Court.
In court documents, the voters had sought have another judge hear the
case. One of the reasons they cited was that Moyer had "wittingly or
unwittingly acquired knowledge of deliberate national and statewide
election fraud."
Moyer ruled that their assertion was "wholly without foundation and
totally lacks any degree of veracity." The voters have yet to detail
the basis of their claim.
"Its speculative and ungrounded nature does not constitute grounds for
disqualification," Moyer decided. He also thanked the voters for not
claiming that he had any actual criminal involvement in such a plot.
The suit claims that patterns of irregularities in the Ohio
presidential and judicial elections on November 2, 2004 show there was
an orchestrated election fraud plot which involved tampering with
electronic vote tabulators and deliberately creating shortages of
voting machines --predominantly in minority neighborhoods and college
campuses likely to back John Kerry.
The suit continues, but Judge Moyer also rejected a request to
expedite a hearing and declined to grant discovery orders or ensure
that elections boards preserve evidence from the election.
Responding to the decision, Cliff Arnebeck, attorney for the
Massachusetts-based Alliance for Democracy, which brought the cases
said "the important thing about the judicial process is the concept
that you have a neutral judge."
"It's disappointing that doesn't seem to be the priority here,"
Arnebeck said.
MOYER'S ELECTION CHALLENGED
As well as contesting the result of the November 2nd. Ohio
presidential election, the same voters are also disputing the election
of Moyer himself on similar grounds --in the judicial elections held
on the same day.
Both cases were originally one suit, but an earlier ruling by Moyer
ordered them filed again as separate cases. The presidential challenge
case is no longer joined to that contesting his own election. As a
result, Moyer says there is now no reason for him to remove himself,
for he has nothing to gain by a change in the presidential result.
Moyer's earlier move procedurally landed the case against his own
election on the desk of Gov. Bob Taft. He assigned another Supreme
Court judge ---who has also refused an emergency motion to immediately
secure evidence, and has threatened to dismiss the suit.
Joining the club is Ohio's newest Supreme Court justice, Judith Ann
Lanzinger.
At 3 p.m. on Tuesday, Chief Justice Moyer swore in Lanzinger, in a
private meeting in chambers. She replaces retiring Democratic Justice
Francis Sweeney, and her election increases the Republican political
bias of the court's composition.
Lanzinger will attend a public swearing-in ceremony on Jan. 7 that
will be attended by Gov. Bob Taft.
SECRET JUDICIAL SMEAR FUND
Earlier this year, Moyer did recuse himself in a long-running related
suit to force the Ohio Chamber of Commerce to disclose who bankrolled
television ads it ran implying that Justice Alice Robie Resnick, a
Democrat, was being influenced by campaign contributions from wealthy
trial lawyers. That suit had its genesis in another case also by Cliff
Arnebeck.
Moyer was among four of the Supreme Court's seven justices who recused
themselves in the case. Moyer and Justices Resnick and Terrence
O'Donnell, had benefited from the television smear campaigns of an
Ohio Chamber group called "Citizens for a Strong Ohio." Judge Evelyn
Lundberg Stratton, who was a target of the ads, also recused herself.
Coincidentally, just this week the remaining Supreme Court judges
--augmented by four appeals court judges temporarily assigned to the
case, turned down an appeal against a lower court decree which imposed
a potential $25,000-a-day fine for every day the Ohio Chamber group
remains in contempt by refusing to reveal who funded the campaign.
Arnebeck says the decision ends the appeals by the Ohio Chamber which
have delayed imposition of the $25,000-a-day fine --absent an unlikely
intervention by the US Supreme Court.
"They're in contempt as of right now," said Arnebeck.
The list of donors to the Strong Ohio campaign, if revealed could
result in executives of twenty-five Ohio corporations facing legal
charges, says Arnebeck.
Corporate officers could get jail terms for making illegal biannual
declarations regarding use of corporate funds for partisan political
purposes. Arnebeck says that the ongoing failure to launch criminal
investigations in the matter is an indictment of Ohio policing,
prosecutorial and judicial systems.
OHIO ELECTION MELTDOWN
Ongoing developments in these issues have the potential to severely
affect George Bush's claim on Ohio's electoral college votes; to blow
the lid off corrupt practices in Ohio's political and judicial
spheres; and to land a sticky mess of election fraud and judicial bias
before the US Supreme Court and/or legislators convening to roll-call
the presidential electoral college votes on January 6th, 2005.
Just seven day away.
A week, they say, is a long time in politics. In law also, perhaps.
The 'Moss v. Bush' voters election contest is relentlessly exhausting
it's legal remedies before the Ohio Supreme Court -a necessary
prerequisite to any US Supreme Court appeal. Though grounds for the
higher court review of Ohio's decisions are the subject of legal
debate centering around the "safe harbor" provisions of Ohio's
peculiar election laws.
Chief Justice Thomas Moyer may find his refusal to recuse hard to
defend, if reviewed by more exalted justices. The benchmark of
judicial probity in all this was the rightful recusal by four Ohio
Supreme Court justices --Moyer included-- in the "say or pay," $25,000
a day fines case over the 2000 judicial election smear campaigns.
That earlier recusal, should have set the benchmark.
This week's ruling on that case by the specially constituted Ohio
Supreme Court --sans Moyer, came just two days before Moyer determined
that the new Arnebeck/Fitrakis 2004 election suit was suitably
tailored for him.
Solomon-like he reached for their baby case and carved it in two.
This decision despite the fact that the judicial and presidential
voting cases concerned the same voters, on the same day, in the same
state, using the same voting equipment, overseen by the same election
officials, operating under the same procedures; tainted with the same
undercurrents of political bias; and against the backdrop of possible
illegal funding swaying judicial elections.
Solomon could not carve such a baby. Neither should have Moyer.
THE PRICE OF LEGITIMACY
Even a Supreme Court predisposed to repeat the 2000 debacle and
install its "favorite son" again, may balk of doing so if it means
rubber-stamping a partisan hijack of the Ohio Supreme Court.
Especially if that hijack proves to be illegally funded.
Which is where the Ohio Chamber of Commerce and a raft of potential
criminals among Ohio corporations come in.
How much is it worth to the Ohio Chamber to grin and bear the
potential $9 million a year cost of not disclosing their donors?
Once the donors are known to be corporate entities, proof of
malfeasance will not be needed. Their false declarations are already
in the public record, to also taint the election of Ohio Supreme Court
judges.
By it's silence, the Ohio Chamber is protecting the judges. The
decisions of those judges are serving to protect Bush. Is $9 million
a small price to pay for keeping the lid on? Probably.
After all, the mystery donors have already plowed $12 million into
campaigns aimed at getting their choice of judges to administer
justice in Ohio. A extra $9 million could keep the lid on things for
another year. But only if the fine remains at $25,000 a day.
Now that the specially constituted Ohio Court decision has started the
clock ticking on the fine, perhaps the lower court will soon be
amenable to a new application to increase the fine to ensure prompt
vacation of the contempt. Such a move could be a show-stopper.
The legitimacy of the reelection of George Bush, in the end may come
down to a question of just how much Ohio hush money it is going to
take to keep him looking legitimate.
Full article with source hyperlinks:
http://www.breakfornews.com/articles/MoyerDeniesKnowing...
See Also:
Teflon Kerry: More Slick Moves On Election Fraud by Fintan Dunne
http://www.breakfornews.com/articles/TeflonKerry.htm
Kerry Preparing Grounds to Unconcede
http://www.breakfornews.com/articles/KerryPreparingGrou...
Kerry to Enter Ohio Recount Fray By William Rivers Pitt
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/122404Y.shtml
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=694&u=/ap/ohio_vote&printer=1
Candidates Want Second Ohio Recount
Fri Dec 31,12:07 AM ET
By JAY COHEN, Associated Press Writer
COLUMBUS, Ohio - Two third-party presidential candidates asked a federal court Thursday to force a second recount of the Ohio vote, alleging county election boards altered votes and didn't follow proper procedures in the recount that ended this week.
Lawyers for Green Party candidate David Cobb and the Libertarian Party's Michael Badnarik made their request in federal court in Columbus.
The two candidates, who received less than 0.3 percent of the Ohio vote, paid $113,600 for a statewide recount after the vote was certified earlier this month by the secretary of state. They have said they don't expect to change the election results, but want to make sure that every vote is proply counted.
Ohio and its 20 electoral votes tipped the race to President Bush (news - web sites) when Sen. John Kerry (news - web sites) conceded the morning after the Nov. 2 election.
Counties finished the recount Tuesday. Bush won the state by 118,457 votes over Kerry, according to unofficial results provided to The Associated Press by the 88 counties.
"We've documented in this filing how this recount was not conducted in accordance with uniform standards throughout Ohio" as required by the U.S. Constitution, said John Bonifaz, a lawyer from the National Voting Right Institute representing the candidates.
Ohio law requires an elections board to manually recount a randomly selected 3 percent of ballots. If the totals match certified results for those precincts, all the county's votes are then machine-counted. If the hand count is off, a county must manually recount all its ballots.
The filing, part of an ongoing lawsuit originally brought by a county board of elections to stop the recount, alleges counties did not randomly select precincts for the manual recount and some workers altered votes to prevent a full hand count.
Bonifaz said the filing is based on the experiences of Green Party representatives who observed the recount.
Carlo LoParo, a spokesman for Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell, called the contentions "baseless accusations."
"The ballots were counted in Ohio, they were counted again, they were recounted. The election is over," LoParo said.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,3604,1380713,00.html
A state of chaos
George Bush has purged the last of his father's senior advisers, handing over control to his neocon allies
Sidney Blumenthal
Thursday December 30, 2004
The Guardian
The transition to President Bush's second term, filled with backstage betrayals, plots and pathologies, would make for an excellent chapter of I, Claudius. To begin with, Bush has unceremoniously and without public acknowledgement dumped Brent Scowcroft, his father's closest associate and friend, as chairman of the foreign intelligence advisory board. The elder Bush's national security adviser was the last remnant of traditional Republican realism permitted to exist within the administration.
At the same time the vice president, Dick Cheney, has imposed his authority over secretary of state designate Condoleezza Rice, in order to blackball Arnold Kanter, former under secretary of state to James Baker and partner in the Scowcroft Group, as a candidate for deputy secretary of state.
"Words like 'incoherent' come to mind," one top state department official told me about Rice's effort to organise her office. She is unable to assert herself against Cheney, her wobbliness a sign that the state department will mostly be sidelined as a power centre for the next four years.
Rice may have wanted to appoint as a deputy her old friend Robert Blackwill, whom she had put in charge of Iraq at the NSC. But Blackwill, a mercurial personality, allegedly assaulted a female US foreign service officer in Kuwait, and was forced to resign in November. Secretary of state Colin Powell and his deputy, Richard Armitage, presented the evidence against Blackwill to Rice. "Condi only dismissed him after Powell and Armitage threatened to go public," a state department source said.
Meanwhile, key senior state department professionals, such as Marc Grossman, assistant secretary of state for European affairs, have abruptly resigned. According to colleagues who have chosen to remain (at least for now), they foresee the damage that will be done as Rice is charged with whipping the state department into line with the White House and Pentagon neocons. Rice has pleaded with Armitage to stay on, but "he colourfully said he would not", a state department official told me. Rice's radio silence when her former mentor, Scowcroft, was defenestrated was taken by the state department professionals as a sign of things to come.
Bush has long resented his father's alter ego. Scowcroft privately rebuked him for his Iraq follies more than a year ago - an incident that has not previously been reported. Bush "did not receive it well", said a friend of Scowcroft.
In A World Transformed, the elder Bush's 1998 memoir, co-authored with Scowcroft, they explained why Baghdad was not seized in the first Gulf war: "Had we gone the invasion route, the US could conceivably still be an occupying power in a bitterly hostile land." In the run-up to the Iraq war, Scowcroft again warned of the danger. Bush's conservative biographers Peter and Rachel Schweizer, quoted the president as responding: "Scowcroft has become a pain in the ass in his old age." And they wrote: "Although he never went public with them, the president's own father shared many of Scowcroft's concerns."
The rejection of Kanter is a compound rejection of Scowcroft and of James Baker - the tough, results-oriented operator who as White House chief of staff saved the Reagan presidency from its ideologues, managed the elder Bush's campaign in 1988, and was summoned in 2000 to rescue Junior in Florida. In his 1995 memoir, Baker observed that the administration's "overriding strategic concern in the [first] Gulf war was to avoid what we often referred to as the Lebanonisation of Iraq, which we believed would create a geopolitical nightmare."
In private, Baker is scathing about the current occupant of the White House. Now the one indispensable creator of the Bush family political fortunes is repudiated.
Republican elders who warned of endless war are purged. Those who advised Bush that Saddam was building nuclear weapons, that with a light military force the operation would be a "cakewalk", and that capturing Baghdad was "mission accomplished", are rewarded.
The outgoing secretary of state, fighting his last battle, is leaking stories to the Washington Post about how his advice went unheeded. Secretary of defence Donald Rumsfeld, whose heart beats with the compassion of a crocodile, clings to his job by staging Florence Nightingale-like tableaux of hand-holding of the wounded while declaiming into the desert wind about "victory". Since the election, 203 US soldiers have been killed and 1,674 wounded.
• Sidney Blumenthal, a former senior adviser to President Clinton, is Washington bureau chief of salon.com
sidney_blumenthal@yahoo.com
http://news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=3944374
5:45pm (UK)
Bush 'Undermining UN with Aid Coalition'
By Jamie Lyons, PA Political Correspondent
United States President George Bush was tonight accused of trying to undermine the United Nations by setting up a rival coalition to coordinate relief following the Asian tsunami disaster.
The president has announced that the US, Japan, India and Australia would coordinate the world’s response.
But former International Development Secretary Clare Short said that role should be left to the UN.
“I think this initiative from America to set up four countries claiming to coordinate sounds like yet another attempt to undermine the UN when it is the best system we have got and the one that needs building up,” she said.
“Only really the UN can do that job,” she told BBC Radio Four’s PM programme.
“It is the only body that has the moral authority. But it can only do it well if it is backed up by the authority of the great powers.”
Ms Short said the coalition countries did not have good records on responding to international disasters.
She said the US was “very bad at coordinating with anyone” and India had its own problems to deal with.
“I don’t know what that is about but it sounds very much, I am afraid, like the US trying to have a separate operation and not work with the rest of the world through the UN system,” she added.
http://www.newshounds.us/2004/12/31/media_lies_about_initial_bush_tsunami_aid_package.php
News Hounds
We watch FOX so you don't have to.
December 31, 2004
Media Lies About "Initial" Bush Tsunami Aid Package
The amount of money the Bush administration initially pledged to the relief effort in Southeast Asia seems to change by the day on Fox News as well as on other "news" outlets. By changing the amount, the press is not only lying to the public, but giving the Bush administration a very, very BIG break as has been so frighteningly common over the last few years.
Today (December 31, 2004) on Your World w/Neil Cavuto, substitute host Stuart Varney opened a segment this way:
"As we told you earlier, the United States has upped its tsunami relief aid to $350 million. That is ten times the initial amount, but is it enough to shut those stingy comments up?"
(By the way, there was a picture of George Bush in the upper lefthand corner of the screen with the words "Stop the Bush Bashing" underneath it as Varney spoke.)
COMMENT: On the Monday, December 27, 2004 edition of this program:
Fox reporter Megyn Kendall delivered a report today (December 27, 2004) during Your World w/Neil Cavuto on the horrible tsunami in Asia. Kendall reported that the United States gave $400,000 in immediate aid today and expects to give an additional $4 million in the near future. In the end, Kendall reported, we would likely give a total of $15 million.
Here is my post from that day.
COMMENT: So to be accurate, the initial amount was a pitiful, paltry, sickening $400,000. The $400,000 increased to $15 million and then to $35 million yesterday. However, the press, Fox included, seems to have wiped the history of this story from the books. The "initial" amount is now being reported as $35 million while the true "initial" amount was $400,000. Inaccurate reporting like this shields the administration from the shame of not only its sinful original offer of $400,000, but the pitiful offer of $15 million as well, and it doesn't paint an accurate picture of what this administration has done. Is it any wonder people in this country have no idea what Bush is about?
Reported by Melanie at December 31, 2004 06:05 PM | TrackBack
Categories: Cavuto/& Your World, Hypocrisy, Melanie's
2 peas sure not from same pod
Dec. 5, 2004 12:00 AM
Political Insider is a tongue-in-cheek look at the past week in Arizona politics.
Secret Republican plot to annoy Democrats revealed! . . . Senate President Ken Bennett released the new floor seating chart Thursday and we immediately spied two new neighbors who will fit together like peas and carrots . . . moralistic and disapproving Republican peas and smart-alecky openly gay Democrat carrots, that is.
It should be a tasty session for Sen. Ken Cheuvront, D-Phoenix, who will sit next to House refugee Karen Johnson, R-Mesa.
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We envision Johnson providing hours of entertainment for Cheuvront as she explains to him her well publicized theories on how "homosexuality is at the lower end of the behavioral spectrum." And how "sexually promiscuous sex threatens to undermine the very values and institutions, especially the family, upon which a stable and vital society is built."
And Cheuvront can invite his neighbor up to his office where he keeps a Mike Ritter political cartoon on his wall making fun of Johnson's five marriages.
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Speaking of gays, from the desk of Matt Salmon . . . The soon-to-be chairman of the Arizona Republican Party is lending his name to raise big bucks to ban gay marriage in America. Salmon, a former congressman, sent out a fund-raising letter in late November for the Gilbert-based United Families International. The group wants to change the U.S. Constitution to define marriage as a union between a man and a woman. Salmon's letter quotes political theorist Edmund Burke: "The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing."
Hoo! We've seen a lot of pejoratives thrown around in this particular debate, but not too many uses of the "E" word.
"I read into it that the existence of gays are evil," said Sen. Ken Cheuvront, an openly gay Democrat from Phoenix (in case you missed the first item). "He's saying that gay relationships are so bad we need to call God's army. It's highly offensive."
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References available upon request . . . In a relatively slow news week, Gov. Janet Napolitano did pressroom hacks a favor by helping manufacture some news. Of course, her statements had nothing to do with aiding her political prospects (wink, wink). A radio dude asked the Guv if Arizona Sen. Jon Kyl would make a good replacement for Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge.
Napolitano, who has her eyes on a U.S. Senate seat sometime in the future, took the ball and gushed with it.
"I think Secretary Ridge understood some of the logistical issues you have to deal with, as a former governor, but he was not familiar with the border," Napolitano said. "Senator Kyl would start up, of course, being very, very familiar with the border and very familiar with the fact that the Arizona border, of all the borders, has the most increase in illegal trafficking. To have the secretary of homeland security who is that familiar would be a good thing for Arizona."
Nice. The Capitol press corps, always sharp as a tack, asked Napolitano the obvious follow-up query. What Republican would you name to replace Kyl? (Under state law, the replacement would have to be from Kyl's party: Republican.) Napolitano chuckled and said: "Moving right along . . . "
Someone chimed in: How about Kris Mayes? (Napolitano's one-time press secretary whom she picked to be on the Corporation Commission.) Another Napolitano laugh followed by: "Moving right along."
In reality, Kyl had less of a chance of getting the homeland security gig than the Arizona Cardinals do of making the playoffs. On Friday, President Bush picked former New York police Commissioner Bernard Kerik to fill the job. But there is a chance that Kyl, who votes almost in lockstep with the whims of the White House, could get named to another post in the Bush administration or be picked for the Supreme Court.
Just in case that happens, some names are being bandied about to fill Kyl's seat until the 2006 general election (think moderates or old-timers who would not pose a huge challenge for Democrats): Congressman Jim Kolbe; Betsey Bayless, director of the Arizona Department of Administration; state Sen. Linda Binder; and Arizona Republican Party Chairman Bob Fannin.
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We're dreaming of a White (House) Christmas . . . Several of Arizona's leading GOP muckety-mucks secured treasured invitations to Bush's swanky Christmas party Thursday. Actually, Bush holds at least three of these parties to glad-hand with delegations of big donors and politicos from all the states, or at least the red ones.
Spotted munching on the primo layout of beef, shrimp and pasta were Secretary of State Jan Brewer, Senate President Ken Bennett and soon-to-be-ex- House Speaker Jake Flake. Alberto Gutier and his son Mickey, who usually drives in Bush's motorcade when he comes to town, also made the guest list.
"It was an incredibly rewarding experience after 40 years in politics," said Gutier, who, alas, was not rewarded with a victory in his recent run for the House.
Also spotted, petition gatherer to the stars Nathan Sproul. Bush, it seems, doesn't have much of a problem with the allegations in several states that Sproul's employees misrepresented themselves as nonpartisan during a Republican National Committee voter registration drive and were accused of tossing out registrations from Democrats.
Compiled by Republic political reporters Robbie Sherwood and Chip Scutari.
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Top Ten War Profiteers of 2004
Fri, 31 Dec 2004 06:54:47 -0800
Contractors: Above the law
By Center for Corporate Responsibility
You know it's bad when Halliburton is #7
Introduction
At the beginning of the Iraq war, Andrew Natsios, head of the U.S. Agency for International Development (AID), proclaimed that the reconstruction of Iraq would look like a modern-day Marshall Plan. But a year and a half later, a combination of bureaucratic ineptitude, corporate corruption and the growing Iraqi resistance threaten to undermine the Bush administration’s grand designs.
In mid-July, U.S. officials admitted that fewer than 140 of the 2,300 reconstruction projects funded by the U.S. were underway. Although AID says “dirt has been turned” on 1,167 projects including schools and hospitals, with at least 70 new ones staring each week, it’s unlikely that the big picture has changed much. The kidnapping and execution of contract personnel and the ongoing sabotage of key projects—power plants, electricity lines and oil pipelines—has slowed work in many areas of the country to a crawl, jacking up the cost of security, insurance and other ancillary expenditures, which in most cases amount to half of the contractors’ budgets.
By August, Ambassador John Negroponte had to announce that more than $3 billion of $18 billion in U.S. aid earmarked by Congress for engineering and reconstruction work would be used for security and counterinsurgency operations.
The announcement was tacit recognition that a kind of vicious cycle is at work. The aggravation caused by the lack of electricity and other basic services is certain to be blamed on the CPA and the contractors, which could result in further support for the resistance. Exactly how much the resistance has gained from the festering resentments caused by the stalled reconstruction process is difficult to say. But an increase in attacks on construction sites – more than one a day according to the Army – indicates that they are a clear target of the resistance.
In late December, Contrack International, the lead partner on a $320 million transportation systems contract, announced that it was withdrawing from Iraq because of “prohibitive” security costs.
By the fall, news that just 7 percent of the $18 billion originally allocated for reconstruction set off fireworks in Congress. Senator Richard Lugar, R-Indiana, blasted the Bush administration as “incompetent” for failing to devote adequate on-the-ground personnel to contract administration, management, and oversight.
“It’s beyond pitiful, it’s beyond embarrassing, it’s now in the zone of dangerous,” added Chuck Hagel, R-Nebraska.
Searching for Root Causes
The Professional Services Council, a trade association representing some of the Iraq contractors, says much of the blame can be placed upon “a growing politicization of government procurement,” as well as the distance between the procurement planners sitting in Washington and contractors in the field.
They have a point. The lack of accountability, reports the Project on Government Oversight in a recent report, can be attributed to the gutting of acquisition workforce and oversight personnel, mandated by Congress starting in the mid-1990s, at a time when the Pentagon began to hand out large open-ended (Indefinite-Delivery/Indefinite-Quantity) contracts to well-connected firms including Bechtel and Halliburton. The result is layer upon layer of subcontracts, with little transparency and reduced government oversight.
Ironically, the contracting agencies’ solution has been to outsource much of the oversight process itself. While the CPA’s audit staff was cut by nearly half during 2004, for example, AID and other agencies were hiring contractors to oversee other contractors with whom they already had ongoing contractual relationships, according to this report released by Henry Waxman, D-California, and Senate Democrats.
U.S. firms are not the only ones to complain about how difficult it has been to get in on the action. (Rep. James P. Moran Jr., D-Virginia, told to a Washington Post reporter that a company in his district was told by Pentagon officials that “if they want the money they really have to go though Halliburton.”) Even the administration’s closest Iraqi allies have been critical.
Last February, for example, Rend Rahim Francke, the U.S.-appointed Iraq Governing Council’s representative in Washington, openly criticized the CPA for passing over Iraqi firms when awarding billions of dollars in reconstruction contracts. Iraqi firms, she said, could easi