Wednesday 2/23 Election Fraud, Reform, & Updates Thread

[MelissaB]

In order to organize and document I thought it would be a good idea to have a daily thread to place items related to reform, fraud, protests, and other items. This also make it easier to "catch up" when we are away from the computer for a while.

Please help us. If you see something that isn't here post it with a link to the thread and a thanks to the author. Thanks to everyone who is helping with this project.


Link to the thread from yesterday: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x331919

[MelissaB]

1. "Who Got Glitched: An Election Reform Teach-In" Santa Monica, CA 2/27

"Who Got Glitched: An Election Reform Teach-In"
Sunday, Feb 27th, 2:00 - 5:00 pm
The Church at Ocean Park
(2nd and Hill, Santa Monica)

Presenting:
Bev Harris, Black Box Voting, Investigator
Bob Fitrakis, Columbus Free Press,(Attorney, Moss vs. Bush/Cheney/Blackwell)
The Jonas/Quinn/ Ritt legal team for Ohio
Blair Bobier, Green Party, ‘The Ohio Recount' Great Film Clips & ‘Building a Civil Rights /Voter Rights Coaliton’
Moderated by Ian Masters, KPFK
with Butch Wing, Rainbow Push
Medea Benjamin, Global Exchange & Codepink
Brad Freidman, Velvet Revolution
Kevin Spidel, Progressive Democrats
Blair Bobier, Green party
Susan Clark, Pro-Democracy Advocate
Mandeep Gill, Citizen Lobbyist ..and YOU!

Tickets $10 - No one turned away for lack of funds
Ticket orders & info: [e-mail]
Seating limited. Reservations recommended.

http://www.citizensact.org/pages/2/index.htm

edit: subject changed to add date

Thanks to emlev here: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x329512

[MelissaB]

2. Gannongate: It's worse than you think - Salon.com 2/23/05

Gannongate: It's worse than you think
Bush's press office gave Jim Guckert access, even knowing his only credentials were from the blatantly partisan group GOPUSA.

- - - - - - - - - - - -
By Eric Boehlert



Feb. 23, 2005 | When the press first raised questions about why Jim Guckert had been awarded access to the White House press room for two years running while he worked for Talon News, critics charged that Talon, with its amateurish standards and close working ties to Republican activists, did not qualify as a legitimate news organization. It turns out the truth is even stranger: Guckert was waved into the White House while working for an even more blatantly partisan organization, GOPUSA.

White House press secretary Scott McClellan originally told reporters that Guckert was properly allowed into press briefings because he worked for an outlet that "published regularly." But that's when the questions were about Talon. More recently McClellan offered up a new rationale. Asked by Editor and Publisher magazine how the decision was made to allow a GOPUSA correspondent in, McClellan said, "The staff assistant went to verify that the news organization existed." (Emphasis added.)

That, apparently, was the lone criterion the press office used when Guckert (aka Jeff Gannon) approached it in February 2003 seeking a pass for White House briefings. Not yet working for Republican-friendly Talon News, which came into existence in April 2003, Guckert, using an alias and with no journalism experience whatsoever, was writing on a voluntary basis for a Web site dedicated to promoting Republican issues. To determine whether Guckert would gain entrance to the press room, normally reserved for professional journalists working for legitimate, recognized and independent news organizations, the press office simply logged on to the Internet and confirmed that GOPUSA "existed," and then quickly approved Guckert's access. In a White House obsessed, at least publicly, with security and where journalists cannot even move between the White House and the nearby Old Executive Building without a personal escort, Guckert's lenient treatment was likely unprecedented.

Yet, if there's one other person who did manage to receive the same type of kid-glove treatment from the White House press office, it was Guckert's boss at GOPUSA and later at Talon News, Bobby Eberle. A Texas-based Republican activist and a delegate to the Republican National Convention in 2000, Eberle founded Talon News after he became concerned that the name GOPUSA might appear to have a "built-in bias." With no journalism background, he too was able to secure a White House press pass, in early 2003, on the strength of representing GOPUSA, dedicated to "spreading the conservative message throughout America."

-----

To obtain a day pass during the Clinton administration, a reporter "had to make the case as to why that day was unique and why had to cover the White House from inside the gates instead of outside," Lockhart says.

So the mystery remains: How did Guckert, with absolutely no journalism background and working for a phony news organization, manage to adopt the day-pass system as his own while sidestepping a thorough background check that might have detected his sordid past? That's the central question the White House refuses to address. And like its initial explanation that Guckert received his press pass the same way other journalists do, the notion first put out by White House officials that they knew little or nothing about GOPUSA/Talon News, its correspondent Guckert or its founder Eberle has also melted away. Instead, we now know, former White House press secretary Ari Fleischer personally spoke with Eberle about GOPUSA, so concerned was Fleischer that it was not an independent organization. (Eberle convinced Fleischer that it was.) Additionally, Guckert attended the invitation-only White House press Christmas parties in 2003 and 2004, and last holiday season, in a personal posting on GOPUSA, Eberle thanked Karl Rove for his "assistance, guidance, and friendship."

More: http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2005/02/23/more_gannon/index_np.html?x

Thanks to Al-CIAda here: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x1259294

[MelissaB]

3. The Nashua Advocate: Former Daschle Campaign Spokesman Tells All on Gannon

Former Daschle Campaign Spokesman Says Media Was Aware Jeff Gannon Had Told Lies About His Identity As Far Back as the Summer of 2003

By ADVOCATE STAFF

You might have thought the strange saga of Jeff Gannon was a recent development, a story whose genesis is not so deep in the murky annals of Washington political history, but, in fact, only about four weeks old, when John Aravosis of America Blog discovered that Gannon has moonlighted as a male escort.

Well, you'd be wrong.

According to Dan Pfeiffer, former spokesman for Tom Daschle--the U.S. Senate Minority Leader until his defeat in the 2004 general election--Jeff Gannon's use of assumed identities was information available to the media as far back as the summer of 2003.

It was then, more than a year and a half ago, that Pfeiffer received an e-mail from someone claiming to be a citizen of South Dakota, wanting to know the Daschle campaign's reaction to a story by "Jeff Gannon."

The concerned "citizen of South Dakota" turned out to be Gannon himself, as the Daschle campaign quickly uncovered by tracking the e-mail account from which the query had been sent, "[e-mail]." That e-mail address led Daschle campaign staffers to Gannon's AOL website, at which point the entire campaign became instantly aware that Gannon, then a White House correspondent for "Talon News," had attempted to deceive them. This incident, combined with Gannon's "reporting" of the 2004 general election in South Dakota and the sheer oddity of his website, prompted the Daschle campaign to conclude Gannon was not a legitimate reporter.

More: http://nashuaadvocate.blogspot.com/

Thanks to nashuaadvocate here: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x3162112

[MelissaB]

4. Voting legitimacy relies on HAVA

Opinion - My View

Voting legitimacy relies on HAVA

By Guy Cosentino

While New Yorkers read and hear about the lack of budget and legislative reform in Albany, another reform issue is getting lost in the mix - implementing the 2001 Help America Vote Act. New York is on the verge of not only non-compliance with the 2002 Federal legislation, but also losing $219 million in aid from Washington.

HAVA was the result of the punch card debacle in Florida with counted and uncounted chads. Washington, seeing the mishmash of various voting systems, from paper ballots and lever machines to punch cards, set aside more than $2 billion to create a uniform system to reduce the chances of a Florida-like problem and fraud. The goal is to have every state on the same page by 2006.

As usual, New York is bringing up the rear when it comes to meeting mandates for compliance. Unlike most delays in Albany about doing what the federal government is asking, this is not an "unfunded mandate." Washington is willing to pay for the costs of new voter technology - in this case $219 million. Cayuga County would get $800,000 to help replace its 100 machines.

But as usual, the ability to accomplish the most basic of tasks in the state capitol has gotten bogged down in the minutia of politics. While there is a national debate over what type of machines to use, in Albany one of the great debates has been over the standards for who can vote.


For months, a joint legislative conference committee of Assembly and Senate members had been meeting to agree on legislation to implement HAVA, without success. They have been bogged down on a number of fronts, but the key seems to be who gets to vote. Republicans, out-registered five to three in the state, want tighter identification requirements. Requiring drivers licenses, for example, is believed to aid the GOP, since large Democratic blocs of voters from New York City, who rely on pubic transportation, don't have such identification. Conversely, Democrats want as easy a system as possible to get people out.

More: http://www.auburnpub.com/articles/2005/02/23/opinion/my_view/myview01.txt

[MelissaB]

5. Peter Schrag: Redistricting reform: Big noise for small potatoes

Peter Schrag: Redistricting reform: Big noise for small potatoes

By Peter Schrag -- Bee Columnist
Published 2:15 am PST Wednesday, February 23, 2005

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, the state's proudest pitchman, seems confident that with enough money he can get any ballot measure passed. Given his popularity and ability to dominate the airwaves, he may be right. It's a scary thought.

>>>snip

Because of the state's political geography, the requirements of the federal Voting Rights Act and the imperative to respect the integrity of communities as much as possible, no reasonable plan can create more than perhaps 20 competitive Assembly seats (out of 80) and 10 competitive Senate seats (out of 40).

>>>snip

If the governor calls a special election for November this year, as many people expect, and the redistricting proposal passes, which is less certain, it will be nearly impossible to create the judges' panel, hold the hearings that ACA 3X requires, draw a draft plan, have another set of hearings and get it past judicial challenge in time to allow candidates to file in their new districts and for the voters to know what (and whose) district they would live in for the June 2006 primary.

In an analysis released last week by the Los Angeles-based Center for Governmental Studies and Demos, a New York-based government reform advocacy group, none of the half-dozen or so redistricting reform proposals fares very well.

The report concludes that other nonpartisan redistricting plans - in Arizona, Washington and New Jersey - have created more competitive districts, narrowing the gaps between the partisan margins in the respective legislatures and the percentages each party got in the average legislative district.

More: http://www.sacbee.com/content/opinion/story/12433672p-13289971c.html

[MelissaB]

6. US: marriage bans creep forward in two states

US: marriage bans creep forward in two states

Christopher Curtis, Gay.com/PlanetOut.com Network
Wednesday 23 February, 2005 11:18

Bills to add constitutional amendments banning same-sex marriage are moving forward in the US states of Indiana and Wisconsin, but not as fast as conservatives would like.

On Monday the Indiana Senate voted 42-8 supporting the same-sex marriage ban. It now goes to the state House of Representatives, where it is expected to be approved.

But the bill will not go before voters soon. Indiana's state Constitution requires a second vote by a separately elected legislature. That will not happen until 2007. If everything goes as conservatives hope, voters will get the bill in November 2008.

State Senator Anita Bowser held up a copy of the state constitution and berated her colleagues for supporting the ban.

"I cry because I think you are abusing it. I cry because you don't seem to understand that this is bigger than you are, bigger than your seats," she said in a quote published by the Indianapolis Star.

Taking a swipe at some senators who are worried about losing their jobs, Bowser said, "What are you doing? Does not your conscience bother you about that? I would gladly give up my seat if I thought we could do the right thing."

Bowser called the ongoing debate "ridiculous, ludicrous pandering to the masses".

>>>snip

Democrats believe Republicans are stalling so that voters will consider the anti-gay measure in November 2006 when Democrats such as Governor Jim Doyle, US Senator Herb Kohl and Attorney General Peg Lautenschlager run for re-election.


More: http://uk.gay.com/headlines/7545

[MelissaB]

7. more

"For them to sit on their hands right now is disingenuous."

"This is typical," said John Marble, the communications director for the Stonewall Democrats.

"That's what Republicans have done in most states. These amendments don't have anything to do with marriage. They are just a means to turn out the vote for Republicans. We saw this in 2004," Marble said, referring to the 11 states that approved marriage amendments.

"That's why we won't see debate on the federal marriage amendment until 2006, when there are congressional and gubernatorial elections."

[MelissaB]

8. Panel to Study the Impact of Provisional Voting

Panel to Study the Impact of Provisional Voting

Feb 23, 2005, 05:40 AM CST

COLUMBUS (AP) -- Ohio Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell and League of Women Voters President Kay Maxwell are scheduled to testify Wednesday at a hearing in Columbus by the US Election Assistance Commission. The panel is studying the impact of provisional voting on the 2004 election.

Provisional ballots are cast at the polls and counted days after the election if officials verify the voters were registered in the correct precinct. Officials say 21% of provisional ballots cast in Ohio were invalid. That's compared with 13% in the 2000 presidential election. Election officials tossed out 32% of provisional ballots nationally.

5.7 million Ohioans voted in last year's election. President Bush won Ohio by 118,000 votes to win a second term in office. Maxwell said yesterday that heavy turnout and poll-worker confusion contributed to invalidated provisional ballots in the November second election. She said elections officials were overwhelmed trying to keep up with new registrations.

Ohio was not alone in having crowded polling places or confused poll workers, Maxwell said. Nationwide turnout was 61 percent, the highest since 1968. "We got up to two weeks before the election, a week before the election, and lack of clarity in many states in terms of what the standards were going to be for provisional ballots and therefore no time to train poll workers," Maxwell said. "Then you end up with them not giving out incorrect information - not deliberately - but we need to be able to educate all concerned on how things are supposed to work."

More: http://www.wtol.com/Global/story.asp?S=2985994

[MelissaB]

9. From France: OHIO’S ODD NUMBERS

Wednesday 23rd February 2005

OHIO’S ODD NUMBERS

No conspiracy theorist, and no fan of John Kerry’s, the author nevertheless found the Ohio polling results impossible to swallow: Given what happened in that key state on Election Day 2004, both democracy and common sense cry out for a court-ordered inspection of its new voting machines

If it were not for Kenyon College, I might have missed, or skipped, the whole controversy. The place is a visiting lecturer’s dream, or the ideal of a campus-movie director in search of a setting. It is situated in wooded Ohio hills, in the small town of Gambier, about an hour’s drive from Columbus. its literary magazine, The Kenyon Review, was founded by John Crowe Ransom in 1939. Its alumni include Paul Newman, E. L. Doctorow, Jonathan Winters; Robert Lowell, Chief Justice William Rehnquist, and President Rutherford B. Hayes. The college’s origins are Episcopalian, its students well mannered and well off and predominantly white, but it is by no means Bush-Cheney territory. Arriving to speak there a few days after the presidential election, I found that the place was still buzzing. Here’s what happened in Gambier, Ohio, on decision day 2004.

>>>snip

I would myself tend to discount most of the above, since an oligarchy bent on stealing an election would probably not announce itself so brashly as to fit into a Michael Moore script. Then, all state secretaries of state are partisan, after all, while in Ohio each of the 88 county election boards contains two Democrats and two Republicans. The chairman of Diebold is entitled to his political opinion just as much as any other citizen.


More: http://bellaciao.org/en/article.php3?id_article=5359

[MelissaB]

10. Ballot Invalidations in Ohio Tied to Turnout, Confusion

Ballot Invalidations in Ohio Tied to Turnout, Confusion

From Associated Press

COLUMBUS, Ohio — A large voter turnout and poll workers' confusion contributed to the invalidation of many provisional ballots cast in the Nov. 2 election, the president of the League of Women Voters said Tuesday.

In Ohio, 21% of provisional ballots were found to be invalid, compared with 13% statewide in the 2000 presidential election.

Nationally, 32% of provisional ballots cast in last year's election were thrown out. Most states were using them for the first time.

Last year, 5.7 million Ohioans voted, compared with 4.8 million in 2000. Ohio was pivotal in the 2004 election. President Bush won the state by 118,000 votes, giving him the 270 electoral votes needed for reelection.


More: http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-votes23feb23,1,5343182.story?coll=la-headlines-nation
Regristration Required

[MelissaB]

11. Proposed legislation secures voting rights for disenfranchised

Proposed legislation secures voting rights for disenfranchised

Politicians from both parties often bemoan low voter turnout and the increase of contested elections in the United States. Their stance on the voting reform legislation recently introduced in the House and Senate will be a perfect barometer of their integrity.

Though irregularities did not mar the 2004 election, it nevertheless highlighted some of the problems and inequities in our current system.

Many urban voters had to wait for hours to vote, while those in the suburbs barely saw lines. Standards for counting provisional ballots were hazy, and ballots were thrown out on minor technicalities.

Voters in some states simply had to trust that what they entered into touch-screen machines would be counted, even if there was no paper trail. And it's hard to muster up such faith when the CEO of Diebold, a company that makes voting machines, said he was "committed to helping Ohio deliver its electoral votes to the president." Or when the co-chair of the Bush-Cheney campaign there also happens to be the person in charge of certifying the vote - Ohio secretary of state Ken Blackwell.

More: http://www.kykernel.com/news/2005/02/22/Opinions/Proposed.Legislation.Secures.Voting.Rights.For.Disenfranchised-872326.shtml

Regristration Required

[dzika]

12. ACTION ITEM - Stop to 'USA Next' from using attack ads on AARP

ACTION ITEM - Stop to 'USA Next' from using attack ads on AARP

Authors of the Swift Boat Ads are falsely saying that the AARP doesn't support the Military. They also are attacking the AARP for not supporting anti-gay legislation with this very bigoted ad.


STOP DISHONEST, BIGOTED ATTACKS:

SIGN THE PETITION


The right-wing fringe has declared war on Social Security -- and this week they launched their newest attack. This ridiculous ad is the latest from USA Next, a front group for radical conservatives who want to dismantle Social Security.

You won't be surprised to hear who they hired to publicize their efforts: the same team of hatchet men that ran the swift boat smear campaign against John Kerry. Now they are targeting the AARP, a group that millions of seniors rely on to defend their interests.

We must stop these people … now.

This petition will be delivered to every TV station that aired the false claims of the swift boat crew -- and any station that tries to air ads like these now.

Sign the petition to stop the Swift Vet attack on the AARP


See the Countdown video where Olbermann reports on this new attack ad:
http://www.edwardsdavid.com/BushVideos/olbermann_swift_vet_ss_attack_050221-01.rm

[dzika]

13. Early voting, runoffs among election laws in need of streamlining

February 21, 2005

Early voting, runoffs among election laws in need of streamlining

Associated Press



TALLAHASSEE -- Alex Jefferson wanted to vote early last fall, but he was turned away by the hours-long wait outside the Leon County Courthouse.

"I couldn't believe how many people were up there," said the 26-year-old car salesman. "These people are standing in line, talking and having a good time (but) I just didn't have the hours to stand out there so I left."

Early voting was so popular across Florida last year that lawmakers now want to make it more convenient for people like Jefferson.

When the legislative session begins March 8, some lawmakers want to standardize the early voting period leading into Election Day and create additional precincts to cut down on long lines and waits.

And under the shadow of a high-profile governor's race in 2006, the Republican-led Legislature must also decide whether to permanently repeal the state's runoff election, which has been set aside the past two election cycles.


more: http://www.news-journalonline.com/NewsJournalOnline/News/Politics/Leg/03PoliticsLEG03022105.htm

[dzika]

14. Late-night move stalls voter ID measure

Feb. 22, 2005

Late-night move stalls voter ID measure

Democrats block final vote, but bill expected to pass Thursday

By STACY FORSTER


Madison - The state Assembly late Tuesday moved closer to approving a bill that would require residents to show a photo ID at the polls, but Democrats who oppose the measure blocked a final vote with a last-minute maneuver.

The bill is expected to pass easily when the Assembly meets again Thursday, meaning that the delay was merely a formality by Democrats, who are in the minority.
...
Assembly Republican leaders said asking for a photo ID is a reasonable request that would help restore integrity to the elections process, even if it tightens Wisconsin's traditionally open system. "We know we have a problem in Wisconsin," said Rep. Jeff Stone (R-Greendale), a sponsor of the measure. "It requires effort to vote. That's one of the things about democracy, it requires a little bit from all of us."
...
Although there haven't been any reports of fraud in the state's urban center, problems that have surfaced include 1,200 votes cast from invalid addresses; 1,300 same-day voter registration cards that can't be processed; and 17 wards where 100 or more votes were recorded than people who city records show voted there.

But Democrats, who largely oppose the bill, said the Assembly was acting too quickly to pass a measure that will likely take away many people's ability to vote. They argued the Legislature should wait until investigations into problems connected to the Nov. 2 presidential election have been completed.


More: http://www.jsonline.com/news/state/feb05/304034.asp

[dzika]

15. WA Legislature may wait on many election changes

From The Olympian:
Wednesday, February 23, 2005

WA Legislature may wait on many election changes

BY BRAD SHANNON


Many bills dealing with changing the way elections are run in the state might not clear the Legislature this year and might instead be given to a task force or study committee to work on during the summer, Rep. Kathy Haigh, D-Shelton, said Tuesday.

The Senate, however, is poised for floor votes next week on 11 bills that deal with everything from moving the date of the state's primary election to August to having the state pick up the cost of elections in even years, said Sen. Jim Kastama, D-Puyallup, chairman of the Senate Government Operations and Elections Committee.
Haigh, chairwoman of the House State Government Operations and Accountability Committee, said she also hopes to pass a bill that would move the state's mid-September primary election to August or earlier in September, giving elections officials more time between elections. That also would give military and other overseas voters more time to get and return ballots.

She also wants to mandate a statewide vote-by-mail system in 2008 or make it easier for counties to switch to all-mail systems.

But other issues -- everything from rules governing felon voters to better distinguishing between provisional ballots and other ballots -- might have to wait for the task force, she said.


more: http://www.theolympian.com/home/news/20050223/topstories/93348.shtml

[dzika]

16. Ohio Board of Elections director will miss punch cards

Ohio Board of Elections director will miss punch cards

When Board of Elections Director Linda Rosicka votes, she knows how she’d like to do it: with punch cards.

But Rosicka didn’t have a vote in the decision to direct all counties in the state to use optical scan machines instead, she told about 50 members of the Kiwanis Club on Tuesday.

“If it was up to our staff, we’d keep our punch cards,” she said.

Voters in the November election will make their selection by filling in ovals on a piece of paper about 9-inches wide and up to 19-inches long, she said. The ballots will then be inserted into a machine that will count the votes.


more: http://www.springfieldnewssun.com/news/content/news/stories/2005/02/23/sns0223kiwanis.html

[dzika]

17. Auditor reports Shelley follow-up

Published 2:15 am PST Wednesday, February 23, 2005

Auditor reports Shelley follow-up

She tells legislators his office is 'heading in the right direction' to fix problems.

By Clea Benson -- Bee Capitol Bureau



The secretary of state's office hasn't done much yet to fix problems with its handling of $180.5 million in federal voting funds, but is "heading in the right direction," state Auditor Elaine Howle told a legislative panel Tuesday at a hearing that was originally supposed to be a grilling of former Secretary of State Kevin Shelley.
Because Shelley, a Democrat, resigned Feb. 4, members of the Joint Legislative Audit Committee dropped their request that he appear to answer questions about his use of Help America Vote Act funds.

Following up on news reports, a state audit found in December that Shelley's office had spent some of the money to support Democratic activities, bypassed financial controls, did not quickly provide funds to counties, and failed to document spending. The money was supposed to be used for new voting machines and nonpartisan voter outreach.

Democrats on Tuesday tried to focus on whether the secretary of state's office was fixing its accounting problems, but Republicans made it clear they weren't finished asking questions about whether the funds were used to support Democratic election work.
...
The secretary of state's office last year released staff activity reports that showed consultants paid from federal Help America Vote Act funds attended Democratic rallies, a fund-raiser for 2004 presidential challenger John Kerry and a community event for Democratic Assembly Speaker Fabian Núñez.



more: http://www.sacbee.com/content/politics/story/12433626p-13289935c.html

[dzika]

18. ACTION - Track your senators' and representative's votes by e-mail!

ACTION - Track your senators' and representative's votes by e-mail!

Each week (that Congress is in session) you will receive:

• Key votes by your two Senators and U.S. Representative.
  
  
• Links to send e-mail to your members of Congress using pre-addressed forms.
  
  
• Upcoming votes for your review and links to offer e-mail input before they vote.

Sign Up Here: http://capwiz.com/pdamerica/megavote/

[Wilms]

35. Corrected Link for PDA

http://capwiz.com/pdamerica/megavote/

[dzika]

19. Novak called Swift Vets' ads "honest" and "exactly correct"

Wednesday February 23, 2005 at 11:26 AM EST

Novak called Swift Vets' ads "honest" and "exactly correct"

Syndicated columnist and CNN host Robert D. Novak found yet another opportunity to heap praise on the discredited anti-Kerry group Swift Boat Veterans for Truth (now called Swift Vets and POWs for Truth): a February 20 New York Times report that conservative lobbying organization USA Next has hired consultants who previously worked with Swift Boat Veterans for Truth to "orchestrate attacks" on one of the chief opponents of President Bush's plan to privatize Social Security, AARP.

On the February 21 edition of CNN's Crossfire, Novak announced: "USA Next has hired the same consultant who mobilized the brilliantly effective and honest Swift Boat Veterans for Truth ads." Novak also referred to the group's ads as "exactly correct" and called the book Unfit for Command: Swift Boat Veterans Speak Out Against John Kerry (Regnery, August 2004), by Jerome R. Corsi and Swift Boat Veterans for Truth co-founder John E. O'Neill, "accurate" and "meticulously researched."

But official Navy records and other evidence refute the discredited group's accusations, as Media Matters for America repeatedly documented (see here and here for examples), and the Navy's chief investigator concluded that all of the decorations Kerry received for his service in Vietnam were "properly approved."

Novak's praise of the group continues, despite his multiple conflicts of interest (which Media Matters has previously noted here and here) in writing and speaking about Unfit for Command. His son, Alex Novak, is director of marketing for the book's publisher, Regnery Publishing, Inc.; in addition, Robert Novak is a trustee of the conservative Phillips Foundation, along with Thomas L. Phillips and Alfred S. Regnery. Phillips is chairman of Eagle Publishing, Inc., of which Regnery is a subsidiary. Alfred Regnery is a director of Eagle Publishing and, according to Eagle's website, is "president of Regnery Publishing, Inc." Eagle publishes the Evans-Novak Political Report, which Robert Novak edits.

Novak disclosed that his son works for Regnery in his September 6, 2004, syndicated column, but also noted: "I plan to continue to pursue this story as developments warrant." Novak has made no such disclosure in his TV appearances.


Watch this video clip:

• Quicktime
  
  
• Windows Media

Contacts:

Robert Novak
[e-mail]

Crossfire
http://www.cnn.com/feedback/forms/form5.html?7

CNN
http://www.cnn.com/feedback/cnntv/
One CNN Center, Box 105366, Atlanta, GA 30303-5366
Phone: [phone]
Fax: [phone]


source: http://mediamatters.org/items/200502230005

[dzika]

20. Is There a Karl Rove, Jeff Gannon Connection

From The Opinion Gazette:
Tuesday, February 22, 2005

Is There a Karl Rove, Jeff Gannon Connection

Dotty Lynch at at CBS.Com writes that "Tired and timid are two adjectives never applied" to White House Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove. She notes:

The architect of the Bush victories in 2000 and 2004 came through the ranks of college Republicans with the late Lee Atwater, and their admitted and alleged dirty tricks are the legends many young political operatives dream of pulling off. So when Jeff Gannon, White House "reporter" for Talon "News," was unmasked last week, the leap to a possible Rove connection was unavoidable. Gannon says that he met Rove only once, at a White House Christmas party, and Gannon is kind of small potatoes for Rove at this point in his career.

Ms. Lynch said "But Rove's dominance of White House and Republican politics, Gannon's aggressively partisan work and the ease with which he got day passes for the White House press room the past two years make it hard to believe that he wasn't at least implicitly sanctioned by the "boy genius." Rove, who rarely gave on-the-record interviews to the MSM (mainstream media), had time to talk to GOPUSA, which owns Talon."

If the two had a connection, it wouldn't surprise me. In fact, I've come to expect political operatives to engage in dirty tricks. Here's more.


source: http://etdt.typepad.com/the_opinion_gazette/2005/02/is_there_a_karl.html

[dzika]

21. Who won illegal votes of felons?

Wednesday, February 23, 2005

Who won illegal votes of felons?
Republicans' challenge to Gregoire win raises question

By NEIL MODIE
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER



Democratic Gov. Christine Gregoire won more votes from urbanites in the 2004 election while Dino Rossi, her Republican opponent, got more rural votes. Gregoire had probably more women's votes and Rossi more from men.

OK, but which candidate captured the hearts of the convicted felons who broke the law by voting?

Republicans said in court papers yesterday that at least 1,108 felons voted illegally, as did at least 55 other voters -- a total more than eight times as large as Gregoire's 129-vote margin of victory over Rossi in a hand recount.

But Democratic Party lawyers argue that for the Republicans to win their lawsuit to overturn Gregoire's election, they must prove that those voters substantially favored the Democratic governor -- which might require dragging individual felons into court to say for whom they voted.

That's ridiculous, replied Mary Lane, Rossi's spokeswoman. "Are they seriously talking about bringing in a bunch of criminals and putting them on the stand? I mean, that's absurd. They're criminals!"


more: http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/213202_governor23.html?source=rss

[dzika]

22. Video - Olbermann has even-handed report on assassination charges

Video - Olbermann has even-handed report on assassination charges - 2/22

This isn't about the election.

If you missed Countdown last night then you might be interested in Olbermann's report on the US Citizen that was kept in a Saudi prison for 2 years at the behest of the US Government. After a federal court ordered that the US must prosecute or release the student, the US charged the student with planning to assassinate Bush. The lawyer says that this information was obtained while the defendant was being tortured in the Saudi prison.



Video in Real Media format (4 minutes):
http://www.edwardsdavid.com/BushVideos/olbermann_assassination_charges_050222-01.rm

[dzika]

23. Video - DemocracyNow! reports on assassination charges and outsourcing tor

Video - DemocracyNow! reports on assassination charges and outsourcing torture - 2/23



Video in Real Media format (3 minutes):
http://www.edwardsdavid.com/BushVideos/dn_assassination_charges_050223-01.rm

[dzika]

24. Congresswoman who challenged Ohio votes explains ‘Count Every Vote Act’

2/23/2005

Exclusive: Congresswoman who challenged Ohio votes explains ‘Count Every Vote Act’

Tubbs-Jones outlines Count Every Vote Act

By Matthew Cardinale | RAW STORY Contributor


In an exclusive interview with RAW STORY, the House Democrat who signed the challenge to Ohio’s electoral votes spoke passionately about her new Count Every Vote Act, a bill aimed at enhancing federal election standards to address problems which arose in recent elections.

The bill, said Rep. Stephanie Tubbs-Jones (D-OH), seeks to ensure guidelines regarding provisional ballots and paper records for electronic voting. It would also create a federal voting holiday and allow ex-felons to vote.

Tubbs-Jones, a former judge, relished the opportunity to flesh out the bill, saying Tuesday that the mainstream press had focused largely on specific provisions.

“I was on a radio show recently and the guy kept wanting to focus on the provision to make Election Day a national holiday,” Rep. Tubbs-Jones said.

The 65-page Senate version of the bill was introduced by Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY) on behalf of Sens. Boxer (D-CA), Kerry (D-MA), Lautenberg (D-NJ), and Milkulski (D-MD). Comparable legislation was introduced by Tubbs-Jones (D-OH) in the House.


more: http://rawstory.com/news/2005/index.php?p=118

[dzika]

25. Senators pressed to sign Durbin letter calling for investigation into Gann

2/23/2005

Senators pressed to sign Durbin letter calling for investigation into Gannon affair

Sen. Lautenberg will sign call for Gannon inquiry

RAW STORY


Democratic staffers are aggressively seeking senators to sign onto Sen. Richard Durbin’s (D-IL) letter to President Bush calling for an inquiry into Jeff Gannon before it is released to the press, RAW STORY has learned.

Senate aides, who spoke only on condition of anonymity, said they expected the letter would be released to the mainstream press today. They said a flurry of activity was taking place as the Democratic leadership sought support from senators, many of whom are back in their home districts during this week’s congressional recess.

Sen. Durbin, as the Democratic whip, is in a unique position to solicit member support. As whip, he is responsible for ensuring the Democrats vote as a block on issues the leadership agrees mandates broad support from the caucus.

Only one senator has formally agreed to sign, Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ), who has already called on President Bush to turn over all records relating to Gannon’s credentialing as a White House reporter.

“Senator Lautenberg will sign on,” Lautenberg’s spokesman Alex Formuzis said.


more: http://rawstory.com/news/2005/index.php?p=119

[MelissaB]

26. dupe! sorry!!

self delete

[dzika]

27. Video - CNN reports on Polls for 2008 Presidential Race - 2/23

Video - CNN reports on Polls for 2008 Presidential Race - 2/23


In this report:

• New Zogby Poll on Dem Pres. contenders
  
• Dean is trying for grassroots appeal
  
• Mass. Gov. no longer supports gay marriage or civil unions.
  
• 2006 Race could be a problem for 2008 Pres. campaigns

Video in Real Media format (4 minutes):
http://www.edwardsdavid.com/BushVideos/cnn_ip_race06_dean_050223-01.rm

[dzika]

28. Video - CNN reports Schwarzenegger's star is fading - 2/23

Video - CNN reports Schwarzenegger's star is fading - 2/23


Arnold's ratings among Dems has dropped from 55 to 43%.




Video in Real Media format (3 minutes):
http://www.edwardsdavid.com/BushVideos/cnn_ip_arnold_fading_star_050223-01.rm

[MelissaB]

29. Myth Breakers: Facts About Electronic Elections

Today, the new, updated version of "Myth Breakers" is complete and available at VotersUnite.org

"Myth Breakers for Elections Officials" is a widely distributed document that was written to give elections officials the correct information about voting systems. "Myth Breakers" was delivered, by hand by local voters, to over 800 local elections officials across the country.

"Myth Breakers: Facts About Electronic Elections" is an up-to-date version of the original. We encourage voters to download a copy, print it off, bind it or put it in a folder and deliver it to your local or state elections officials.

http://www.votersunite.org/takeaction/mythbreakerssecondedition.pdf

Thanks to JohnGideon here: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x292271

[dzika]

30. Video - CNN interviews USA Next CEO about using attack ads on AARP - 2/23

Video - CNN interviews USA Next CEO about using attack ads on AARP - 2/23


The CEO of USA Next, the company responsible for the Swift Boat Vet ads during the campaign, have started a new ad to attack AARP. USA Next admits that their opposition is due to AARP stand against the Bush Social Security plan, the ad uses bigotry to link gay marriage to the AARP.

USA Next claims that they were also using the ad to "test" liberal bloggers.

Additionally, some bloggers are wondering if Karl Rove is behind USA Next their Swift Vet tactics.




Video in Real Media format (7 minutes)
http://www.edwardsdavid.com/BushVideos/cnn_ip_usanext_050223-01.rm

[dzika]

31. WaPo - Online chat with White House briefing columnist Dan Froomkin

Wednesday, February 23, 2005; 1:00 PM

White House Talk

Dan Froomkin
White House Briefing Columnist


What's going on inside the White House? Ask Dan Froomkin, who writes the White House Briefing column for washingtonpost.com. He'll answer your questions, take your comments and links, and point you to coverage around the Web.

Dan is also deputy editor of www.Niemanwatchdog.org . You can e-mail him at [e-mail].

Albuquerque, N.M.: The abuse of background-only briefings by White House staff constitutes yet another way for this administration to manipulate the media.

I suggest a simple solution: give each of the handful of regular background-briefers his own anonymous designation. Karl Rove, the chief abuser of this technique by all accounts, could be always called "highly placed White House source," while Andrew Card could always be "unnamed West Wing figure." If all of the White House press used this system (a big "if", yeah) we would at least know who's floating the trial balloons and cranking on the rumor mill. Whadya say, Dan?

Dan Froomkin: Having waited a long time for the press corps to overtly revolt against this vile tradition, allow me to suggest another possibilty: What if White House reporters just started anonymously outing the anonymous briefers to bloggers? Just an idea.

_______________________

Dan Froomkin: Incidentally, I don't understand why the White House is no longer routinely publishing the transcripts of the various briefings (background or on the record) that it conducts, transcribes, and sends out to the press mailing list.

I publish them when I have time. Here, for instance is the latest one, from just a few hours ago, quite remarkably on the record, from national security adviser Stephen Hadley.



_______________________

Rockville, Md.: Apparently James Guckert (aka Jeff Gannon) was in the White House press room before Talon News was an organization. Scott McClellan was quoted, I believe, as saying that he got the pass those days through GOPUSA. Now with a name like that, why did they assume that was a news organization? I think there are still a lot of questions as to what the threshold is for getting into the White House press room. Any additional insights on what constitutes a "media organization"?

Dan Froomkin: Eric Boehlert has a story today in Salon that talks more about this, and about how Joe Lockhart, from the Clinton White House, thinks political organizations don't belong in the press room.

Boehlert also describes the credentialing standards set by the Standing Committee of Correspondents on Capitol Hill -- which seem pretty reasonable. Meeting their standards is a prerequisite for getting a White House "hard" pass.

But of course Guckert did a clever end-run around the hard pass, simply asking for permission to visit each day.

Barring that kind of abuse may be one thing the White House will consider now.

_______________________

New York City, N.Y.: For me, it's all about the hypocrisy. As you often point out, the administration builds a bubble around the president allowing virtually no dissent, yet those same bubble creators allow a gay-porn star (aka Gannon -- okay, I am being harsh by the gay porn star comment) to walk freely around the White House. And I don't have a problem with Gannon either -- anyone, should have access to the President and that is my point. Is enough being done and what can we do to pressure this administration to stop creating these bubbles on his official trips. These are tax-payer financed trips -- shouldn't we all be allowed to attend and voice our dissent and/or praise? Many thanks.

Dan Froomkin: I first wrote at length about the bubble in my Feb. 8 column, and have since then chronicled several more examples of people being turned away, or even ejected, based on what appears to be their lack of overt support for the president.

I thought it was an interesting story, and still do. I'm not sure why it hasn't gotten more attention, to be honest.

more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A36003-2005Feb18.html

[dzika]

32. FOX News doctors AP reports to mimic White House terminology

Wednesday February 23, 2005

FOX News doctors AP reports to mimic White House terminology

Since April 2002, FOX News has consistently doctored Associated Press articles featured on the FOX News website concerning terrorist attacks in the Middle East to conform to Bush administration terminology. Without any editorial notation disclosing that words in the AP articles have been changed, FOX News replaces the terms "suicide bomber" and "suicide bombing" with "homicide bomber" and "homicide bombing" to describe attackers who kill themselves and others with explosives. In at least one case, FOX News actually altered an AP quote from Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY) to fit this naming convention, and then revised it to restore the quote without noting either the original alteration or its correction.

The Associated Press noted in April 2002 that FOX News first began using the term "homicide bombing" in its own reports immediately after Bush administration officials -- such as then-White House press secretary Ari Fleischer -- adopted the term. While other news organizations continued to use the term "suicide bomber," the AP reported, "Dennis Murray, executive producer of 'FOX News' daytime programming, said executives there had heard the phrase "homicide bombing" being used by administration officials in recent days and thought it was a good idea."

But Media Matters for America has found that FOX has applied the "homicide" terminology not only in its own original reports, but also in the AP reports that it publishes on its website. Readers are led to believe that the AP itself uses the "homicide" terminology, when in fact it does not. According to a Media Matters search, the AP has used the terms "homicide bomber" or "homicide bombing" when referring to terrorist attacks in only one article, published on May 7, 2004. These terms have otherwise appeared in AP articles only in quotations.


specific examples and FOX contact info here:
http://mediamatters.org/items/200502230006

[dzika]

33. Election Official: Provisional Ballot Counting Law Needs Clarified

February 23, 2005

Election Official: Provisional Ballot Counting Law Needs Clarified
State Told Poll Workers To Refuse Some Ballots

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- The law on how to count provisional ballots needs clarification to avoid the confusion experienced in Ohio during the presidential election, a county election official testified Wednesday at a federal hearing on voting.

A state-issued directive that poll workers refuse provisional ballots for people who try to vote in a precinct where they don't live seemed to conflict with federal law, said Michael Vu, director of the Cuyahoga County elections board.

Vu told the U.S. Election Assistance Commission that the apparent conflict led him to defy the state order and have poll workers give voters provisional ballots even if they couldn't prove their addresses.

"Ohio's provisional balloting was not a model for the nation to follow," Vu said.
...
"Our job is to make it as easy as possible to have access to a ballot," Blackwell said. "We also have a responsibility to prevent voter fraud."

Florida Secretary of State Glenda Hood told the commission that Florida's relatively high rate of invalid provisional ballots -- nearly two of three were thrown out, compared with about one in three nationally -- was due in part to voter registration groups such as America Coming Together.


more: http://www.nbc4i.com/politics/4225710/detail.html

[dzika]

34. Congressperson Stephanie Tubbs Jones to Receive National Backbone Award

Congressperson Stephanie Tubbs Jones to Receive National Backbone Award Wednesday For Historic Challenge to Electors

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
FEBRUARY 23, 2005
2:51 AM

CONTACT: Backbone Campaign
Bill Moyer, Backbone Campaign, 206-356-9980
Cecil Hickman, Hickman Media, 440-343-1701



CLEVELAND, OH -- February 23 -- Community leaders in Cleveland will honor Congressperson Stephanie Tubbs Jones (D-OH) Wednesday afternoon at 4:00 at Laborer’s Local 310 Hall, 3250 Euclid Avenue. The Honorable Tubbs Jones will receive the Backbone Award for her courageous challenge to force a highly unusual House and Senate debate in January on the certification of Ohio’s presidential electors. The event prompted national live news coverage for being only the second such challenge in U.S. history.

Tubbs Jones is currently sponsoring the common-sense “Count Every Vote Act” (co-sponsored in the Senate by Barbara Boxer and Hillary Rodham Clinton), which addresses the current crisis of confidence in our electoral system through comprehensive election reform such as: requiring a voter verified paper ballot, requiring the Federal Election Assistance Commission to issue standards that ensure uniform access to voting machines, designating Election Day a federal holiday, and much more.

"Stephanie Tubbs Jones represents a group of Congresspeople who have recognized that our elections do not belong to the candidates - they belong to the people,” says The Backbone Campaign’s Executive Director, Bill Moyer. “Premature concessions, unequal access to an non-verifiable ballot, and political operatives supervising elections and vote counting have severely damaged public confidence in this most basic ritual of our democracy."

Tubbs Jones joins such previous Backbone Award recipients as former presidential hopefuls Howard Dean and Congressperson Dennis Kucinich.

The Greater Cleveland Voter Coalition, the Cleveland AFL-CIO Federation of Labor and the NAACP National Voter Fund are sponsoring the award ceremony, during which film footage will be shown of the hearings held in Columbus called by the ranking minority member of the House Judiciary Committee, John Conyers, Congresswoman Tubbs Jones and Reverend. Jesse Jackson.

The Backbone Campaign is a citizens organization that provides creative tools to the progressive movement. Its “spank and thank” strategy incorporates everything from awards to citations. What one receives depends on their commitment to progressive values.

The Backbone Campaign has become nationally known for its use of political theater to advance a progressive agenda. In addition to its awards, citations and thank yous, the campaign website hosts a platform creation and framing tool, and a “Backbone Cabinet” progressive shadow government roster. The last adventure of this creative campaign was a trip to Washington D.C. with a 70-foot giant spine, which it delivered to the Democratic National Headquarters the day after inauguration. To learn more about the Backbone Campaign or to request an appearance of the 70 foot Backbone puppet, go to: http://www.backbonecampaign.org

source: http://www.commondreams.org/news2005/0223-03.htm

[Wilms]

36. A Vote Of No Confidence For New Election Equipment (CT)

A Vote Of No Confidence For New Election Equipment

by Michele Jacklin
The Hartford Courant
February 16th, 2005

-snip-

Connecticut's top elections official, Secretary of the State Susan Bysiewicz, says a 2002 federal law, co-authored by U.S. Sen. Christopher Dodd, won't allow the state to buy the most trustworthy voting technology available.

That's news to Dodd, who coincidentally happened to be at the state Capitol Monday. Dodd told reporters that the law, known as the Help America Vote Act, or HAVA, does allow for fail-safe voting technology.

-snip-

The Yale experts say she's wrong. Optical scanning devices can be adapted so that the disabled can indeed verify their votes. Also, there's no reason to believe that Direct Recording Electronic voting systems, often described as ATM-style machines, couldn't be similarly adapted.

But therein lies the rub. The RFP issued by Bysiewicz's office doesn't list optical scanning devices as an option; it specifically calls for DRE voting systems.

What's more, there's no requirement in the RFP for a voter-verified paper ballot.

-snip/more-

<http://www.verifiedvoting.org/article.php?id=5585>