Moot or not, they should drive the case to it's conclusion in court. I find this yielding to be dis-heartening news. Everything needs to go on official record.

It's just another cave-in --- forgetting that the immediate challenge is to get the election fraud on record . . . again and again and again, until it is rotting the present administration. The goal, now, is not to cancel the election, which cannot be done (as we all knew), but to get the administration under the gun of ILLEGALITY, TREASON, WAR CRIMES, and ultimately IMPEACHMENT. This president has got to be LEGALLY taken out! And it is not going to be done by a pack of fading, fearful Democrats.

Hi, DAS and Irvthom - I agree, it is disappointing. I guess people become exhausted, discouraged, and run out of money. But, it is always darkest before the dawn - and there are many ways to skin a Bushy rat.

I believe the entire system should be given only so much time to right its course...weeks/months...not years. I'm all for doing the right thing and trying to get it back into a position of legitimacy, but there's only so much corruption, delay, and fascism that should be tolerated.

Election reform is a worthy and noble effort, but when the right-wing opposition controls the vehicles with which to legally and politically investigate, prosecute, and/or legislate that system in order to reform it, I just don't see them doing so to benefit free and fair elections, or to bring White House criminals to justice, or take any other action that threatens their continued control and exploitation.

A Velvet Revolution is great! But we should also plan for an alternative reality that may require more than simply working within a system that has become so corrupt, it is no longer worth keeping. Just as the Founding Fathers concluded in taking a course that required them to "DECLARE" that at times the governed must "alter or abolish" that which governs them.

There HAS to be an honest, principled judge out there somewhere. Let's hope Arnebeck lucks onto one soon.

It's kind of a major deal, Freebird, instituting an entire new system.
We've got to be logical. We have major invasive, possibly fatal disease in our society and government. Do we administer medicines, do surgery, try a gentle alternative method, get out our voo doo dolls, or take it out to the pasture and shoot it?
The answer should come, but I agree. I don't want to wait too long.

PEG C comment #5

They will probably file in the Federal District Court for the Southern District of Ohio.

The chief judge there, to the extent she has the authority to assign cases, appears far better than the state supreme court justice, who is impartiality challenged, and who handled (took over) the initial state challenge case.

The judge who ruled against Blackwell in Spencer v Blackwell, Case No. C-1-04-738 on various issues, before the election, is quite good.

Lets wait to see where the case is filed and who the case is assigned to.

If you guys want I will research the procedure for assigning a case. Either the chief judge or a clerk procedure assigns a case.

The litigants have the right to challenge the assignment of a particular judge, but it is limited.

The Cleveland Plain Dealer's story gives a bit more hope and detail~~~

Cleveland.com
The Plain Dealer
Activists drop a challenge to Bush's Ohio victory
Wednesday, January 12, 2005
T.C. Brown
Plain Dealer Bureau

Columbus- A coalition of activists dropped its legal challenge Tuesday in the Ohio Supreme Court over the president's re-election, but the group is not giving up.

In a paragraph-long request, the group of 40 grass-roots plaintiffs asked justices to dismiss their case, in which they had alleged that numerous voting machine errors, irregularities and intentional fraud by the George W. Bush campaign skewed the results in favor of the president.

The court is expected to grant the motion soon to dismiss the matter.

Coalition attorney Cliff Arnebeck said the effort had been derailed by the refusal of members of the Bush-Cheney campaign and Republican Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell to submit to sworn depositions.

"It is not a fruitful forum or endeavor at this point in time, given the fact that the other parties refused to cooperate," Arnebeck said. "There are other productive avenues which we can continue to pursue."

Arnebeck also faulted the Supreme Court for not acting more quickly on its legal challenge.

"The court should have knocked heads and said, 'Let's get to the merits at the earliest possible time because of the importance of the matter and the shortness of time,' " Arnebeck said.

Congress certified the vote of the Electoral College last week.

The group is considering filing a lawsuit in federal court alleging civil rights violations or seeking to intervene in a federal suit filed by the Green and Libertarian parties.

"It's not over," Arnebeck said.

Carlo LoParo, Blackwell's spokesman, said the group never presented a shred of clear evidence to prove that voting irregularities would have altered the election results.

"Mr. Arnebeck and his colleagues have saved themselves from further discredit by withdrawing this filing from the Ohio Supreme Court," LoParo said. "That document was frivolous and not based in reality and now will take its place on the dustbin of history."

Besides presenting accusations of fraud and irregularities, plaintiffs said that significant deviations from exit polling done by an international expert should have been enough evidence for the Supreme Court to accept the challenge and revisit the vote.

A recount showed that Bush topped Sen. John Kerry in Ohio by 118,599 votes.

The group also asked the high court to dismiss its challenge of the re-election of Republican Chief Justice Thomas Moyer over his Democratic challenger, C. Ellen Connally, a retired Cleveland Municipal Court judge.

To reach this Plain Dealer reporter:

tcbrown@plaind.com, 1-800-228-8272

Copyright 2005 cleveland.com
Read it here

~~~~

Isn't Carlo LoParo a delight? Does he have any identity other than Blackwell's mouthpiece? If a federal suit is filed and somehow won, could not gross election fraud and obstruction provide occasion for a court injunction removing Bush from office? Or would it not be grounds for impeachment?

Jazzlog comment #8

If a federal suit is filed and somehow won, could not gross election fraud and obstruction provide occasion for a court injunction removing Bush from office? Or would it not be grounds for impeachment?
>>

A link would have to be made to Bush for such to happen.

Do not expect this republican controlled congress to do that.

What can happen is light shed on the activities could have political consequences in two years.

If that set up a democratic majority again, then there would be more of a chance of that.

Could there not be impeachment, not because Bush was directly involved in fraud, but because he was elected illegally? Or it turns out, as in 2000, that he actually wasn't elected at all?

Anything can happen, but NOTHING will happen if the Dems drop the ball.
Our job is to keep reminding them that we want investigations into voting fraud, that we are watching and they they can all be replaced if they don't stand up for democracy. This is no time to get complacient.

Jazzlog comment #10 asks

Could there not be impeachment, not because Bush was directly involved in fraud, but because he was elected illegally? Or it turns out, as in 2000, that he actually wasn't elected at all?
>>

Remember Clinton and that "impeachment" is one of those buzz words.

The house "impeached" him but the senate did not get 2/3 majority because republicans did not vote as mindless automotons and so he was not thrown out. He was saved by republicans too.

Do not waste your time dreaming. It is not likely that the house would impeach Bush and the senate throw him out NO MATTER WHAT ... the worst that could happen, which in all probability won't, is that he would resign.

But they still control the voting machines.

And with the republicans in charge, I do not expect any major voting rights changes and certainly not a constitutional amendment to guarantee the individual the right to vote for president in this congress. Not in two years.

But to keep ALL HELL from breaking loose, we must keep up the pressure. We must reach the sane republicans. They are our only hope.

Remember Judge Sirica, a great american first, a remarkable republican second.

Stop alienating them by putting them down. Begin to interface with them thru non-partisan ideologies and dialogue.

But DO NOT back off from humanitarian, honest, and good-for-us-all dialogue.

There is no other hope. They will come around in due time if we do this.

Why? Just like us they are americans first, politicians second.

Except for the mad men like Delay and some of "our" folk who spoke for us at times but against us at the republican convention.

Good advice, Dredd. I think there are many, many reasonable people out there, and I agree wholeheartedly about not putting them down when trying to open a dialogue. It's to our best advantage to offer the peace pipe. The country seems to be under a spell but it will lift. Survival and self preservation will prevail.
These people are pushing too far, too fast, and there will be a backlash. They will get to the point where no one trusts anyone in the clique, and double crossing will do them in. No sane Republican will want to get in the crossfire.

Maybe the best thing we can do is get the voting problem fixed at the state level with a massive grass roots effort.

Just catching up - listenin' and lernin'. Thank you, all. Great stuff.

Yes, there are good Republicans & we need to talk with them. Brad posted a link to one of them (Eldritch?), I don't remember where; I read the Eldritch piece, but scrolling down I discovered Chuck Herrin and was blown away. He writes:

..."I wish my Republican leadership could see themselves from here. They don't get that when an elected official dismisses and ridicules credible evidence given by credible experts, they destroy their OWN credibility. PhDs, mathematicians, statisticians, accountants, auditors, retired judges, computer security experts, Congresspeople, and Senators all stood up and pointed to a mountain of questionable results and evidence, and we were told "the flesh is stripped off this dead horse"....

....."They told me to "get over" an untrustworthy electoral system - as if to say "it's been 2 months, haven't you forgotten about this yet?" I'll be blunt - failure to address credible evidence of fraud brought to you by credible experts indicates either a) condoning of the fraud or b) complicity in the fraud."

THIS is a guy I'd like to talk to.

Ha--forgot to post the link-

http://www.chuckherrin.com/main.htm

Thanks, Joan!

Thanks, Chuck Herrin!

Hey, Peggy!!

Whadda you know.

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