In an editorial today, the New York Times picks up on the phony ‘voter fraud’ scam at the heart of the U.S. Attorney purge that we discussed in detail yesterday…
In its fumbling attempts to explain the purge of United States attorneys, the Bush administration has argued that the fired prosecutors were not aggressive enough about addressing voter fraud. It is a phony argument; there is no evidence that any of them ignored real instances of voter fraud. But more than that, it is a window on what may be a major reason for some of the firings.
In partisan Republican circles, the pursuit of voter fraud is code for suppressing the votes of minorities and poor people. By resisting pressure to crack down on “fraud,” the fired United States attorneys actually appear to have been standing up for the integrity of the election system.
John McKay, one of the fired attorneys, says he was pressured by Republicans to bring voter fraud charges after the 2004 Washington governor’s race, which a Democrat, Christine Gregoire, won after two recounts. Republicans were trying to overturn an election result they did not like, but Mr. McKay refused to go along. “There was no evidence,” he said, “and I am not going to drag innocent people in front of a grand jury.”
It’s becoming clearer and clearer that the Bush Administration used their Dept. of Justice for little more than a blunt political bludgeon. If all of this isn’t grounds for Impeachment, we don’t know what is. But we’ve felt that way at least a dozen times over the past four years.
If that’s how this bunch abused their power at the DoJ, one can only imagine the abuses they continue to wreak under the absurdly over-reaching powers of the PATRIOT Act.
One other point of note from the recommended Times editorial today, which leads, in turn, to a much larger point that everyone — particularly Congress — ought to be made aware of…
Please note that the claims of “voter fraud” emanating from St. Louis come directly from the assiduous efforts of the democracy-hating top-level GOP operative/slime-ball, Mark F. “Thor” Hearne, of the now-disappeared “American Center for Voting Rights” (ACVR). He still resides in our old home town and works the state, city, and county Republicans big time to push his “voter fraud” and disenfranchising Photo ID garbage on an unsuspecting citizenry who deserve far better.
In a notable corollary to this, it should be pointed out that his St. Louis colleague, Paul DeGregorio, was appointed by George W. Bush to head the U.S. Elections Assistance Commission (EAC). During his tenure there, he oversaw the operation with the very same despicable partisan “standards”, and propagandistic tactics employed by his buddy Thor.
Thankfully, DeGregorio is no longer on the commission. Whether the currently appointed crew is any better, however, is still an open question…and only because we’re in a generous mood at the moment. By the time we find out, of course, it’ll likely be too late. The Democratic Senate recently swore in the newest Bush-appointed commissioners just last month, by unanimous consent and without bothering to hold oversight hearings.
One of those two new commissioners, former White House employee Caroline Hunter — in direct violation of the Help American Vote Act (HAVA), which mandates that commissioners “shall have experience with or expertise in election administration or the study of elections” — has no experience whatsoever in election administration or study thereof. Unless you count helping to purge voters from voter rolls to be “election administration” experience.
As pointed out by VoteTrustUSA, Hunter had more than just WH experience on her resume before being appointed to the commission which now oversees all federal voting system certification and standards in United States…
23,000 voter challenges in Ohio. That’s the exact same issue that occurred in the phony “voter fraud” cases in both New Mexico and Washington state which led to the purges of the U.S. Attorneys by the White House, as we reported yesterday and as again mentioned in today’s New York Times editorial.
Heckuva job, Democrats.
OUTSTANDING INVESTIGATIVE AND INFORMATIVE REPORTING!
Until Democrats get a spine in Congress, the American public will be at the mercy of the menacing, murdering, manipulating party that put itself in place in both 2000 and 2004.
Stand up and say “NO MORE”.
Good job Brad, keep up the good work and the pressure.
“If all of this isn’t grounds for Impeachment, we don’t know what is. But we’ve felt that way at least a dozen times over the past four years.”
I feel this way every time I read the news…
What I want to know is… Are we getting rid of the “go along to get along” dead enders?? Impeachment is only
halfa tenth of the solution. I can only speak for my Rep. Jim Matheson Democrap–>COWARD…this man does about as much for progress in general as a hot turd.For your pleasure and edification, here are some exceedingly laudatory remarks by Eric Alterman regarding the performance of the liberal blogosphere in getting the story of the fired U.S. attorneys out in the open. (If you’ve seen it, forgive me. If you haven’t, it’s definitely worth a read.)
Okay. The emphasis on “voter fraud” would not be a persuasive reason to launch an investigation in the Rossi-Gregoire race, in my opinion. But this brings up a more disturbing point. The Democrat-led King County machine kept finding more ballots. That’s how Gregoire, the Democrat, won.
So let’s take off the partisan glasses altogether. What we really have here is Republicans apparently trying to flog a nonstarter of a case, when they HAD a good case to investigate. You have Democrats finding new ballots, four times.
Then we have an apparent abuse of power based on the bogus issues.
What should disturb all of us at least as much as the abuse of power is the fact that both parties are turning away from the real issues.
Bev Harris
Black Box Voting
What can we do about the Caroline Hunter thing?
Is “voter fraud”, “legal”, “under the law”, or is “voting fraud”, “legal”, “under the law?”
That, is the question!
Good work, Brad!
Is the
DemocratDemocratic party going to do a FUCKING thing about this?Matheson?
In defense of Matheson, he has, (after the election), made a great deal. (new deal?), of good votes!
However, he has not yet rallied against the unjust maiming of millions of innocent and defenseless Muslim peoples or stood up for verified, (democratIC), voting.
And, I am not saying that the American people are not benefiting from the despicable disenfranchisement of the shoe-making children of the world, however, Al Gore may be a better alternative…
Don’t you think?
Matheson? Blue dog.
Phone home.
Matheson:
Quit supporting Bush,
Start supporting, (Carter), tough change.
It is important to remember that electronic voting machine (EVM) issues are not partisan in the abstract. That has been said here on this blog for years and years.
Any party in power should take care to work out bi-partisan EVM legislation. However, that should not be a code word for incompetent EVM legislation.
The lack of trust between competing parties is a reason it is difficult to get those involed to look closely at the issues and really know what is being said and what is not being said.
And the EVM activists need to work together to weed out the chaff from the wheat.
The bottom line is that good EVM legislation is good for all parties concerned.
Take a look at The Economist (a weekly newspaper that is generally well-regarded here in the UK). On page 56 of this week’s UK edition, in an article about Bush, Congress and the law titled ‘Three clashing branches’ it comments:
[S]ome of the administration’s complaints about the soon-to-be-sacked attorneys sound substantial. One was apparently loth to pursue illegal-immigration cases. Another refused to toe the line on the death penalty. And the voting-fraud cases involved credible evidence.”
Sorry…been out of town.
Matheson, Gore, Bush, Noam Chomsky…I don’t give a fuck…either your trying to make progress on a real tangible level(much like the BRADBLOG) or you’re a poser…a waste of time and money. I won’t vote for Matheson, Gore, Obama, any Clinton, or Ron Paul(he had my vote until he said he didn’t support impeachment). The fact is these people don’t compromise on the issues, they compromise where they stand on the issues(ultimately they compromise on who they are and what they represent).
If you compromise who you are and what you stand for…get FUCKED.
Sam