Tuesday 3/15 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=203x343431

[dzika]

1. Video - Jon Stewart interviews author of Bullshit, compares to spin

March 14, 2005

Jon Stewart interviews author of new book On Bullshit
They discuss the comparison of bullshit and political spin.



Video in Real Media format (6 minutes)

[dzika]

2. 'Undaunted' Angelides set to launch campaign for CA governor

March 15, 2005

'Undaunted' Angelides set to launch campaign for CA governor

By BETH FOUHY, AP Political Writer

Saying he had "no illusions" about the difficulty of unseating a popular celebrity governor, state Treasurer Phil Angelides said he's confident he'll win the Democratic nomination for governor in 2006 and beat Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in a head-to-head showdown.

"This isn't going to be a plain, vanilla election — we're not talking about potholes," Angelides said in an interview Monday before launching a five-day statewide campaign tour Tuesday morning. "Gov. Schwarzenegger and I have a different view of the world, two very different visions of what makes society strong."

A longtime fixture in California politics, the 51-year-old Angelides has made little secret of his intent to run for governor next year and has raised already raised about $12.5 million for the effort. But with the Democratic primary still a year away, Angelides' early campaign kickoff signaled his desire to quickly frame the race as a two-man contest between himself and Schwarzenegger.

"The reason I'm doing this early is that the threat this governor presents to California is enormous," Angelides said. "He's hurting teachers, he's hurting nurses — he's going after the very fabric of California's strengths."

more here

[dzika]

3. Orlando Ex-mayor pitches plan for election

March 15, 2005

Orlando Ex-mayor pitches plan for election
Bill Frederick asks a potential candidate not to run in a special election for mayor

By Amy C. Rippel

Special Report: Orlando mayor
Buddy Dyer indicted

Former Orlando Mayor Bill Frederick floated a plan Sunday to be the only candidate in an upcoming special election for the seat left open after Buddy Dyer's indictment and suspension.

On Sunday, Frederick, Orlando's mayor from 1980 to 1992, called Tico Perez, a former mayoral candidate, and asked him not to run in a special election that could happen within the next two months. Frederick said he had not spoken to any other potential candidates, but his allies already were lining up support.

...
Perez, who has acknowledged his interest in filling Dyer's seat, said he rejected Frederick's proposal.

"I was very respectful to the former mayor but not receptive to the idea," Perez said. He would not comment further.

Frederick stopped short Sunday night of saying he would run for mayor in the special election, instead saying he is "seriously considering" it. However, Fred Leonhardt, an attorney, lobbyist and major Republican Party fund-raiser, confirmed Sunday that Frederick had asked him to be his campaign manager.

more here

[dzika]

4. Group of 19 CEOs Quits Coalition On Social Security

March 15, 2005

Forum Withdraws Support of Bush Plan
Group of 19 CEOs Quits Coalition On Social Security

By Jeffrey H. Birnbaum

Another major Wall Street player has dropped out of a business coalition that supports President Bush's restructuring of Social Security.

The Financial Services Forum, an association of 19 chief executives of large financial services companies, has decided to withdraw from Compass, the group that is leading industry's effort to gin up support for the president's plan outside the Beltway.

"We did not have the assent of our membership to rejoin," said Ken Trepeta, a vice president of the forum. "We did not send in the form to be listed."

The forum is the third defection in a month from business-led Social Security coalitions. Waddell & Reed Financial Inc., a Kansas-based money management company, and Edward D. Jones & Co., a Missouri-based brokerage, withdrew from the Alliance for Worker Retirement Security. The alliance, a sister organization to Compass, focuses on direct lobbying of Congress on behalf of Bush's proposal, which includes private accounts as part of Social Security.

The moves are a blow to Bush's effort. The White House is relying on coalitions such as Compass and the alliance to help persuade lawmakers and the public to rally behind the president's plan. Wall Street groups have been leaders in the fundraising for those drives.

more here

[dzika]

5. Administration Rejects Ruling On PR Videos

March 15, 2005

Administration Rejects Ruling On PR Videos
GAO Called Tapes Illegal Propaganda

By Christopher Lee

The Bush administration, rejecting an opinion from the Government Accountability Office, said last week that it is legal for federal agencies to feed TV stations prepackaged news stories that do not disclose the government's role in producing them.

That message, in memos sent Friday to federal agency heads and general counsels, contradicts a Feb. 17 memo from Comptroller General David M. Walker. Walker wrote that such stories -- designed to resemble independently reported broadcast news stories so that TV stations can run them without editing -- violate provisions in annual appropriations laws that ban covert propaganda.

...
Supporters say prepackaged news stories are a common public relations tool with roots in previous administrations, that their exterior packaging typically identifies the government as the source, and that it is up to news organizations, not the government, to reveal to viewers where the material they broadcast came from.

Critics have derided such video news releases as taxpayer-financed attempts by the administration to promote its policies in the guise of independent news reports.

...
"This is more than a legal issue. It's also an ethical issue and involves important good government principles, namely the need for openness in connection with government activities and expenditures," Walker said. "We should not just be seeking to do what's arguably legal. We should be doing what's right."

more here

[dzika]

6. Rolling the Dice on a GOP Rift

March 15, 2005

Rolling the Dice on a GOP Rift

By E. J. Dionne Jr

House Majority Leader Tom DeLay's ethics troubles threaten more than his own political future. They have the potential to create a much wider scandal over lobbying on the Indian gambling issue and to open a rift among socially conservative Republicans.

For now much of the public attention focuses on DeLay's connections with lobbyist Jack Abramoff's efforts to protect Indian gambling interests. The Post reported on Saturday that DeLay, a Texas Republican, took a trip to Britain in 2000 that was largely financed by two of Abramoff's clients, the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians and eLottery Inc.

Republicans are alarmed that the flow of the news is against DeLay. Democrats are using the reports to challenge new rules pushed through by the House Republican leadership that make it harder to investigate and discipline ethics lapses by members of Congress. The Democrats' strategy will be to put pressure on moderate Republicans to break with DeLay and enact tougher standards.

But the larger controversy lies beneath the surface. It involves a collision between the business interests of Republican lobbyists and the moral commitments of the party's large wing of social conservatives who strongly oppose the spread of gambling.

Perhaps the most bizarre example of this contradiction was detailed by Post reporter Susan Schmidt. When one Louisiana tribe, the Jena Band of Choctaws, won initial approval of a casino three years ago, another tribe, the Louisiana Coushattas, hired Abramoff to block the potential competition. Abramoff and an associate in turn paid $4 million to Ralph Reed, a Republican consultant and evangelical leader, to organize local anti-gambling sentiment against the Jenas. To get the job done, Reed worked with his fellow evangelical James Dobson.

more here

[dzika]

7. Pre-packaged pro-government news in large supply in US

March 15, 2005

Pre-packaged pro-government news in large supply in US

By Mayank Chhaya, Indo-Asian News Service

Washington, March 15 (IANS) Pre-packaged news consciously slanted in favour of the government has become one of the controversial public relations strategies of the Bush administration.

...
For instance, the Department of Defence's (DoD) official website has a category of 'News Products' that is barely disguised government handouts which to an unsuspecting eye seem like real news.

While many democratic governments are known to control and spin official points of view, under the Bush administration it has acquired unprecedented proportions.

Both the State Department and the DoD have carefully calibrated PR machines where public relations specialists masquerade as reporters and offer information that is subtly tailored in favour of the government.

According to the New York Times, at least 20 federal agencies, including the DoD and the Census Bureau, "have made and distributed hundreds of television news segments in the past four years, records and interviews show.

"Many were subsequently broadcast on local stations across the country without any acknowledgement of the government's role in their production," the paper said.

more here

[dzika]

8. Mainstream media fooled again

March 15, 2005

Mainstream media fooled again

by Paul Harris

Over the past couple of weeks, especially as movement in the long held positions of Syria’s troops in Lebanon has unfolded, mainstream media pundits have once again toadied up to the trough. It isn’t clear if they simply have nothing of value to say, or if they are continuing with a long-entrenched pattern of deliberate obfuscation.

Articles and news commentaries have started to fill the screens and papers of the world with mea culpas, and fawning adoration suggesting that President George Bush might have been right to invade Iraq. Not because an increasing number of dead Iraqis and American troops is a good thing; but because it seems the Middle East might be starting a move toward democracy.

...
Let’s recall the pretend reasons for invading Iraq in the first place: weapons of mass destruction. When those weapons, which the highest officials of the United States and Britain assured us were there, couldn’t be located, the secondary reason of getting rid of a bad guy became the mantra. And once he was toppled, well then the real reason became that the Iraqi people needed to have democracy. It can certainly be argued that some Iraqis are delighted to be rid of Saddam Hussein, but there are likely very few who are pleased with the ongoing manslaughter brought about by this ‘liberation’.

Even if we can agree to dismiss the obviously fluid thoughts of the American administration, how does anyone conclude that: invading Iraq has lead, or is leading, to democracy anywhere; that democracy actually is raising its head anywhere near the Middle East; that the United States had any democracy to export in the first place?

The best anyone anywhere should expect from American intervention is a shift from control by some unpleasant leader (and a fair number of pleasant ones, too) to control by some unpleasant corporation, usually with strong American roots.

more here

[dzika]

9. News Propaganda, fakery, bias don't serve the public

From dailycamera.com:
March 15, 2005

Not all 'news' is equal
Propaganda, fakery, bias don't serve the public

The media are far from perfect, as recent scandals and The New York Times' incorrect reporting from biased sources about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq demonstrate. But most traditional news coverage does reflect the trained journalist's almost sacred charge to, at minimum, "get both sides of the story."

Today, many Americans tune in to or read only news that meshes with their personal beliefs, whether liberal or conservative. FOX News trumpets its motto, "Fair and Balanced," mere seconds before turning the cameras on openly biased anchors; liberal Web sites dismiss any Bush White House assertion out of hand.

And a story in the March 13 New York Times details the Bush administration's (and to a lesser extent, the Clinton administration's) practice of using taxpayer money to create "video news releases" — used uncredited by many TV stations — to tout its programs with no attempt at balance. Government, in other words, is fine-tuning the dubious art of bypassing "the filter," as President Bush and his team derisively call the traditional media.

That news comes on top of reports earlier this year that the administration had been paying pundits to write positive stories about its agenda without identifying their conflict. More recently, a "reporter" who could be counted on to toss softball questions to interrupt a stream of hard-hitting questions at White House press conferences was outed as a political hack and former prostitute with no training or credentials whatsoever.

more here

[dzika]

10. FREE AND FRAUDULENT

March 15, 2005

FREE AND FRAUDULENT

by Jan Herman

I intended to write a fuller item than yesterday's about The Message Machine, which gives an extraordinary rundown on how the Bush regime has propagandized the American press through the use of Video News Releases (VNRs).

The piece, which started out on the front page of Sunday's New York Times and jumped to a huge inside spread taking up another page and half in the print edition, was so rich in illustrations of government propaganda airing as "news" on presumably independent TV stations that it was difficult to choose which to cite.

I intended to cite the most salient points. This, for instance:

• In all, at least 20 federal agencies ... have made and distributed hundreds of television news segments in the past four years, records and interviews show. Many were subsequently broadcast on local stations across the country without any acknowledgement of the government's role in their production. ...
  
  
• In most cases, the "reporters" are careful not to state in the segment that they work for the government. ... Some reports were produced to support the administration's most cherished policy objectives, like regime change in Iraq or Medicare reform. Others focused on less prominent matters. ...
  
  
• It is a world where government-produced reports disappear into a maze of satellite transmissions, Web portals, syndicated news programs and network feeds, only to emerge cleansed on the other side as "independent" journalism.

I intended to cite this, too:

In three separate opinions in the past year, the Government Accountability Office, an investigative arm of Congress that studies the federal government and its expenditures, has held that government-made news segments may constitute improper "covert propaganda" even if their origin is made clear to the television stations. ...

But on Friday, the Justice Department and the Office of Management and Budget circulated a memorandum instructing all executive branch agencies to ignore the G.A.O. findings.

Then I tuned into this morning's broadcast of http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=05/03/14/152202">Democracy Now! and decided to let it do the heavy lifting for me. In an interview, John Stauber of PR Watch, which monitors the press, was as impressed with the piece as I was. Noting its wealth of detail about "the widespread use of fake news," he said the piece was "the first mainstream media expose of any length and depth." Additionally, he pointed out that it "really puts the wood to the Bush administration, which has spent $250 million" on creating and distributing fake news.

more here

[dzika]

11. In Massachusetts, Hillary Beats Kerry

From angus-reid.com:
March 15, 2005

In Massachusetts, Hillary Beats Kerry

(Angus Reid Consultants - CPOD Global Scan) – New York senator Hillary Rodham Clinton is the top Democratic presidential hopeful in the Bay State, according to a poll by KRC Communications Research for the State House News Service. 51 per cent of respondents would vote for the former first lady in prospective presidential primary against Massachusetts senator John Kerry.

Rodham Clinton ruled out a presidential bid in 2004. Neither of the two major political parties in the U.S. has ever nominated a woman for president. In 1984, New York congresswoman Geraldine Ferraro was Walter Mondale’s vice-presidential nominee in the Democratic ticket.


...
Polling Data

I know it’s a long time away but if the candidates in the 2008 Democratic primary for president were Hillary Rodham Clinton and John Kerry and the primary were being held tomorrow, for whom would you vote?

Hillary Rodham Clinton 51% - 33% John Kerry

Source: KRC Communications Research / State House News Service
Methodology: Telephone interviews with 404 adult Massachusetts residents, conducted from Jan. 28 to Mar. 4, 2005. Margin of error is 4.8 per cent.

more here

[dzika]

12. Campaign contributions from finance correlate with bankruptcy votes

From YubaNet.com:
March 15, 2005

Campaign contributions from finance/credit interests correlate with Senate bankruptcy vote

By: Steven Weiss, CapitalEye

Judging by last week’s Senate vote on bankruptcy legislation, the millions of dollars in campaign donations contributed by the credit card industry over the years was money well spent.

The finance and credit industry strongly supports the bill, which would make it more difficult to escape from debt through bankruptcy protection. After several days of debate, the Senate on Thursday night approved the measure by a vote of 74-25.

An analysis of the contributions shows that senators who voted to pass the bill raised an average of nearly twice as much between 1999 and 2004 from the finance and credit industry as those who voted against the bill.

The bill’s supporters received an average of $36,600 from the industry during the six-year timeframe, while the measure’s opponents raised an average of $20,221.

A breakdown of senators by party reveals a similar trend. The 18 Democrats who voted to pass the bill raised an average of $51,200 from the industry during the period studied, as compared to the $20,200, on average, collected by the 25 Democrats who voted to reject it.

Republican senators, all of whom voted for the bill, raised an average of $38,600 from the industry during the past three election cycles. Sen. Jim Jeffords (Vt.), an independent who caucuses with Democrats and voted to pass the bill, collected $25,200 from the industry. Democrat Hillary Clinton (N.Y.), who did not vote, raised $19,700.

more here

[dzika]

13. Is Kerry blaming the Fourth Estate for his defeat?

March 15, 2005

John Kerry, Media Critic
Is Kerry blaming the Fourth Estate for his defeat?

By Howard Kurtz

The Massachusetts senator doesn't specify the charter members of this "sub-media," but I suspect that he has Fox News, talk radio and some aggressive Internet sites in mind.

...
"Addressing the audience of tame Democrats, Kerry explained his defeat. 'There has been,' he said, 'a profound and negative change in the relationship of America's media with the American people. . . . If 77 percent of the people who voted for George Bush on Election Day believed weapons of mass destruction had been found in Iraq--as they did--and 77 percent of the people who voted for him believed that Saddam Hussein was responsible for 9/11--as they did--then something has happened in the way in which we are talking to each other and who is arbitrating the truth in American politics. . . . When fear is dominating the discussion and when there are false choices presented and there is no arbitrator, we have a problem.'"

...
"'We learned,' Kerry continued, 'that the mainstream media, over the course of the last year, did a pretty good job of discerning. But there's a subculture and a sub-media that talks and keeps things going for entertainment purposes rather than for the flow of information. And that has a profound impact and undermines what we call the mainstream media of the country. And so the decision-making ability of the American electorate has been profoundly impacted as a consequence of that. The question is, what are we going to do about it?'"

...
What's the reason? Here's Kerry: "'The corporatization of the media in America has taken away some of the willingness of the media to do the great muckraking they used to do and to be the accountability folks they used to be. And so you have so many different media outlets that are just bottom-line, and they go where the ratings tell them to go. And there's a top-down hierarchical administration of what they'll go after and what they'll do, and it's driven by the economics more than anything. I think if we were to change the economics a little bit through grassroots effort, then you might begin to see a shift.'

more here

[dzika]

14. Fake News Gets White House OK

March 15, 2005

Fake News Gets White House OK

By Dan Froomkin

Prepackaged Video Reports


Here's Brian Williams on the NBC Nightly News last night:

"If the White House is struggling with the public relations effort in the Middle East, here at home some say they are perfecting the craft of public relations disguised as news -- and it's getting a lot of air time."

Then Andrea Mitchell reported that

"for millions of viewers, the government has found the best way to spin the news is to produce the stories itself. . . .

"On issues from Medicare to farm prices, hundreds of local stations are running stories extolling Bush administration policies, reaching tens of millions of people.

"But all these reports were written and distributed by the administration and its public relations firms -- not by journalists."

Christopher Lee writes in The Washington Post about the memos the White House sent out last week, insisting

"that it is legal for federal agencies to feed TV stations prepackaged news stories that do not disclose the government's role in producing them."

Those memos essentially overruled a Feb. 17 memo from Comptroller General David M. Walker. Lee writes:

"In an interview yesterday, Walker said the administration's approach is both contrary to appropriations law and unethical.

"'This is more than a legal issue. It's also an ethical issue and involves important good government principles, namely the need for openness in connection with government activities and expenditures,' Walker said."

Here's McClellan addressing the issue in his briefing yesterday:

"As long as this is factual information about department or agency programs, it is perfectly appropriate," he said. In fact, he added, "I think agencies and departments have an obligation to provide the American people with factual information about their programs."

Here's how Ken Herman reported it for Cox News Service:

"The White House, intent on continuing to crank out 'video news releases' that look like television news stories, has told government agency heads to ignore a Government Accountability Office memo criticizing the practice as illegal propaganda."

more here

[dzika]

15. DC was forced to pay for inauguration; now they need those hazmat suits

DC was forced to pay for inauguration; now they need those hazmat suits

On January 11, 2005, Jason Gallo wrote:

Why Does Bush hate DC?

According to the WP the Bush Administration is insisting that DC foot the bill for inauguration security by dipping into the city's homeland security budget. What a crock of shit. Taking money away from the nation's capital, and a prime terrorist target, in order to pay for inauguration security is absurd. While small municipalities across this country that can hardly be considered prime targets procure hazmat suits for first responders that haven't been trained to use them, DC gets stuck using its money to protect a big parade.

Today, CNN reports that at least one postal facility in central D.C. has been shutdown due to a hazmat scare:

Video in Real Media format (3 minutes)

Party on, Mr. President.

[dzika]

16. NC Republicans respond favorably to canvass for Verified Voting

From an email message:
March 15, 2005

NC Republicans respond favorably to canvass for Verified Voting

This is a first hand account by Eric Goldberg, who canvassed with For All NC last Saturday. As you can see, a great time was had by all. We hope more people can join us next time or contact us and we will be happy to help you organize your own canvass and we will even canvass with you to promote this worthwhile issue.

"We weren't huge in numbers, but as we learned, a small group can have a big impact: six For All NC members, from Raleigh and NE North Carolina, participated in the first of what we hope will be many SWAT canvasses to influence individual legislators around North Carolina.

We're calling our canvass methodology SWAT Canvassing because we sweep into the few blocks surrounding the home of a key legislator, talking to his/her neighbors about an important issue, and asking these neighbors/constituents to let the legislator know that our issue is important to them. We leave clear and concise information articulating the issue and contact info for the legislator. We then leave.

On March 12th, our issue was garnering support for H238 (Public Confidence In Elections) from a Republican member of the North Carolina House of Representatives House Election Law Committee. In a few hours, we visited and leafleted 150 homes, and personally engaged 60 of Rep. David Lewis's neighbors. We also visited Rep. Lewis at home. In the very Republican, very conservative, town of Dunn, we received positive responses from the vast majority of those we engaged about this issue and feel confident that Rep. Lewis will get more contacts from constituents over this issue than he's ever before received.

Those of us who canvassed in Dunn on March 12th returned home feeling very good! We feel we made a significant impact and had a great time doing it.

As a result of our experiences in Dunn, we concluded that we have real talent and expertise in using canvassing as tool for political influence and change. We enjoy doing it too. We hope to do more, and to serve as a resource to other individuals and groups around NC who want a concrete way to influence change.

So what can you do?

• Join us next time we have a canvass. You'll feel good doing it!
  
• Spread the word to others and ask them to join us.
  
• Help us identify individuals and groups around NC who we can help do similar canvasses elsewhere in NC

Please go onto our website and sign up with For All NC www.forallnc.org , click on the "volunteer" button, and then click "sign up now" -- check "door to door canvassing" as an area of involvement.

I look forward to seeing you soon,"
Eric Goldberg (for For All NC)

[dzika]

17. At Least Four Ethics Groups Will Hold Press Conference on DeLay Scandal

March 14, 2005

At Least Four Ethics Groups Will Hold Press Conference on Widening DeLay Ethics Scandal

Washington ethics groups on both sides of the aisle will hold a 10 a.m. press conference Tuesday to discuss the widening ethics scandals surrounding House Majority Leader Tom DeLay and a disgraced lobbyist close to the congressman, RAW STORY has learned.

The groups likely to attend include Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, Common Cause, Public Citizen, Judicial Watch and Democracy 21, a spokesperson for one of the groups said. Also in attendance may be the Center for Responsive Politics and the Campaign Legal Center.

Judicial Watch, a more conservative watchdog group, has repeatedly taken a firm stand against DeLay ethics charges.

The focus of the conference is expected to center on DeLay’s role with the House Ethics Committee. DeLay removed three members of the Ethics Committee in February after they voted to admonish him late last year on charges relating to appearance of impropriety and abusing his power in redistricting Texas.

"The ethics process in the House of Representatives is in total shambles," Democracy 21 president Fred Wertheimer said in a statement Monday evening. "This complete breakdown is the direct result of steps taken by House Speaker Dennis Hastert and other House Republican leaders in this Congress to undermine the House ethics enforcement process."

more here

[dzika]

18. GANNON RESOLUTION TO BE CONSIDERED WEDNESDAY IN HOUSE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE.

March 15, 2005

GANNON RESOLUTION TO BE CONSIDERED WEDNESDAY IN HOUSE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE... DEVELOPING...

Watch for more details at THE RAW STORY

[dzika]

26. Resolution on Gannon inquiry to be taken up Wednesday by House

3/15/2005
Resolution on Gannon inquiry to be taken up Wednesday by House Judiciary Committee

Resolution on Gannon inquiry to be taken up Wednesday

By John Byrne | RAW STORY Editor

A resolution put forth by House Democrats to force a vote on whether Congress will demand information relating to the credentialing of discredited White House correspondent Jeff Gannon will come to a vote Wednesday, RAW STORY has learned.

The resolution, which will put both Republicans and Democrats on the record whether to force agencies to turn over information relating to Gannon’s credentialing, is to be considered at 10 a.m. Wednesday.

The chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, F. James Sensebrenner (R-WI) gave notice at 10 a.m. Tuesday, a House aide close to the matter said.

The aide, who asked not to be identified by name, said the vote was intended to put members on the record as to whether they supported an investigation into Gannon, a conservative ‘reporter’ and male escort who had access to President Bush.

more here

[dzika]

19. Beating Bush at 'Information War'

March 16, 2005

Beating Bush at 'Information War'

By Robert Parry

The Republicans and especially the neoconservative intellectuals realized that control of information – or one might say replacing it with propaganda – was the key to solidifying their political power within the United States.

That’s why the conservatives have invested billions of dollars over the past quarter century in building their own potent media infrastructure, ranging from cable networks and major daily newspapers to AM talk radio and well-organized Internet bloggers. Besides writing their own historical narrative, the conservatives succeeded in throwing the mainstream press onto the defensive with endless charges of “liberal bias.”

The conservative success was compounded by the fact that while this media apparatus was under construction, American liberals largely sat on the sidelines, thinking that the mainstream news media would somehow respond or hoping that some metaphorical pendulum would swing back in their direction. Neither has happened.

Instead, the Republicans consolidated their dominance of the heartland “red states” where voters who listened to talk radio in their cars had little choice but to tune in rants about the evils of “librhuls” and “guvmint.”

Faced with this increasingly powerful Right-Wing Machine and lacking a comparable defense mechanism, national Democrats then tried to protect themselves by finessing issues and equivocating their positions, which, in turn, made them look like they didn’t know what they stood for.

more here

[gmoses]

20. CounterPunch: The Fix-It Guys and their Electoral Filters

March 15, 2005
Why Are Top Republicans Lawyers in Two States Suddenly Working on "Voter Integrity?"
The Fix-It Guys and Their Election Filters

By GREG MOSES

http://www.counterpunch.org/moses03152005.html

In light of our recent interest in the de-registration and criminalization of the voters of West Houston, news from Georgia comes timely. Last Friday, the Democratic Caucus of the Georgia Senate staged a symbolic walkout following that chamber's passage of a bill that would limit the kinds of ID that can be used to register and vote.

SNIP

An aide to the Senator explained over the phone that Staton had given no supporting evidence whatsoever in his address on the floor, because there wasn't enough time. Yet said the aide one example that might be offered was that more than 2,000 "questionable ballots" had been cast in Fulton County during last November's election. So we asked for his contact source.

Atlanta attorney Frank Strickland picked up the phone right away. He is the powerhouse Republican attorney who won a Supreme Court reversal of the state's Democrat redistricting plan, and he now serves on the Fulton County Board of Registration and Elections (FULBORE). He wants it known right away that he can't speak for that board. But he can tell us that Sen. Staton's aide was probably confused. On election day, "there were very few reports of irregularity" in Fulton County, says Strickland. "The system is not perfect, but we didn't have a great deal of difficulty at that stage."

SNIP

With only two phone calls to Georgia, troubling parallels to Texas are already laid to view. And this is not good news for America. First there is the eerie coincidence that each of the state's top Republican attorneys has shifted motion from redistricting to "election integrity." Like Strickland in Atlanta, Houston's Andy Taylor spent much of the past year in court, winning redistricting battles for Republicans. Suddenly, in 2005, he's all about tracking down illegal voters in West Houston and making them repay their miscast ballots for Democrat Hubert Vo (a battle that Taylor finally lost).

The second parallel is the issue itself, never mind the two lawyers who seem to be square dancing the same call. In Atlanta and Houston alike, a new day of "voter integrity" is upon us. In Atlanta we have the photo ID law churning up bad energy. In Texas we have brand new software that can spit names in wads big as you need of voters gasp who on election day gasp while traveling from home to polling place gasp cross over a county line. About 150 voters were tracked down and subpoenaed for their election day irregularities, and 110 saw their votes subtracted. Whether it's the "front end" ID fight in Atlanta, or the "back end" ballot fight in Houston, Republicans seem hard at work this year installing brand new election filters.

And then we have the homeland security fearmongering. Because I'm trying to figure out just what do Strickland and Taylor think that gangs of fraudulent voters are going to do on election day besides vote? When Taylor led the crackdown on West Houston voters, he discovered that one voter in 400 dared to return to an old neighborhood to vote. And Strickland says that on election day in Fulton County, things went pretty well. So in his worst nightmare, I wonder what does Strickland fear could happen? Does he get all sweaty like Taylor at the very idea of a filthy 400 to 1 ratio of voters whose lives outpace their registrations?

Finally, in Georgia and Texas alike, we have public claims of voter fraud that turn out not to involve voters at all. In Fulton County, somebody may have tried to turn in batches of voter registrations that were not actually filled out by voters (we'll call the D.A. about that sometime soon). In West Houston, the trick might have been tried on a much smaller scale. In both cases, the number of voters affected should not be confused with the number of voters involved. In addition, the "irony" of West Houston was that whoever pulled that trick, did it in an attempt to export voters out of districts where they lived. Not only was the "fraud" not committed by voters, but it made them ineligible to vote at home. Yet in both cities, high powered Republican attorneys spread fear about illegal voting based on what? Nothing but fear itself. Neither Strickland, Taylor, Staton, nor the aide have a fact to go on.

SNIP

The parallels between Texas and Georgia raise questions that can be asked of other states in turn. Are your top Republican lawyers hyping issues of registration integrity, raising specters of nefarious voters planning massive acts of fraud, playing up fears that have no basis in election facts, installing new filters into law that will make voting even less hospitable? And your local election activists? Are they so obsessed with issues of verified counts that they remain blind to all other issues in voting rights?

Like the peace movement before it, the election movement seems to have gone flat. Comprehensive voter reform bills by Rep. John Conyers, Jr. (D-Mich) or Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones (D-Ohio) languish in Congressional committees. You can still find a hot thread about exit polls at your favorite progressive forum, but just as the peace movement crested and dashed itself against hard times, vote reform seems not to know what to do next. Both movements have been hooded and shackled by the one big spin that says America will do anything for democracy. In fact, there's nothing America won't do these days so long as so many Americans refuse to be the kinds of citizens that a democracy demands.

http://www.counterpunch.org/moses03152005.html

[dzika]

21. Videos - CNN Inside Politics for 3/15

Video - CNN: Interview with John Kerry - 3/15

John Kerry talks about Bush's election mandate, Kid's First healthcare program, the middle-east and the 2008 race.



Video in Real Media format (6 minutes)

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Video - CNN: Delay losing Republican support over ethics - 3/15

Video in Real Media format (3 minutes)

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Video - CNN: 2008 Race: Bill Frist, VA Dem Gov., CA Gov. Race - 3/15

Video in Real Media format (3 minutes)

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Video - CNN: Breaking News: New anthrax tests are positive at Pentagon - 3/15

Video in Real Media format (3 minutes)

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Video - CNN: Reid, Dems warn over using Nuclear Option - 3/15

Video in Real Media format (3 minutes)

[dzika]

22. Thurston County, WA mulls switch to vote-by-mail

From theolympian.com:
March 15, 2005

Thurston County, WA mulls switch to vote-by-mail

by BRAD SHANNON

Thurston County election officials are weighing whether to ask voters if they would rather convert the county's election system to an all vote-by-mail system like Oregon's.

Several counties, including Mason, already are converting permanently, and legislation passed by the state Senate would make it easier for the rest of the state's 39 counties to follow suit.
Legislation in the House would force counties to convert by 2008.

Thurston County Auditor Kim Wyman said she likes giving counties the option, but she first wants to know what her public thinks -- perhaps through an advisory ballot in September.

"I want to sit down with the county commissioners," Wyman said, explaining her plans to raise the question. "I think we really need to be looking at it. We've got 70 percent of our voters voting absentee."

Under federal election changes that followed the 2000 Florida vote fiasco, all of the state's remaining punch-card counties, such as Thurston, must convert by 2006 to optical scan. The county also must make touch-screen voting machines available to people with disabilities at every one of its 57 poll sites, but it could avoid that by switching to vote by mail.

more here

[dzika]

23. A Vote-Less People Is a Hopeless People

March 15, 2005

A Vote-Less People Is a Hopeless People

Mrs. Robinson, a fighter for civil rights for nearly a century, is vice chairwoman of the Schiller Institute in the United States. Katherine Notley interviewed her on Feb. 15, shortly before Mrs. Robinson returned to Selma, Alabama to celebrate the 40th anniversary of a keystone battle for the right to vote—the 1965 Selma to Montgomery march, which had its baptism by fire on Bloody Sunday, March 7, 1965. She and her late husband S.W. Boynton had been fighting for voting rights for 30 years in Dallas County, Alabama, before the Selma march. Mrs. Robinson's autobiography is titled Bridge Across Jordan.

EIR: As you know, there's a lot of evidence that the 2004 vote in Ohio, in particular—in areas that appeared to be Democratic areas—there were a lot of shenanigans that went on, to prevent people from voting at all. Not just to steal their vote, but to keep them from voting. Areas that were Democratic, didn't have machines, for instance, and people waited 4 and 5 hours; in one precinct, they waited 9 to 11 hours to be allowed to vote. The last person voted at 3:00 in the morning. Other things went on.

You fought in the right-to-vote battles in the 1960s, and a lot of similar things went on just to keep people from even registering. So, maybe you can tell us some about that.

Robinson: Well, in 1867-68, men—not white men, not black men, but men—were the only ones who were allowed to vote. Only in 1920 or '21, women were given the right to vote. But, during that time, there were many, many African-Americans—or blacks, or colored, or Negroes, whatever you want to call them (you'll run out of names after a while, and I don't know what else you're going to say, when you run out of names), who realized the importance of fighting for justice, the Constitution of the United States' right. So, they began to register in large numbers, and to vote. And consequently, in almost every political position, you had people of color. They had some mayors, they had Congressmen, they had Senators, they had people in all of the political positions.

And in 1910, the system decided, that "We're going to stop this." So, they began to put all types of hurdles, to keep people from becoming registered voters. And, of course, that meant the South thought it was a good idea, and I'm quite sure they were the ones who orchestrated this. And very few black people began to register and vote. Not because they didn't want to, but because there were many hurdles that were placed, that they could not get over.

And, when I came along, which was many years ago, the only African-Americans who were registered voters, were those who were leftovers from those people who were given permission to vote without having to fill out the applications and whatnot.

more here

[dzika]

24. WA Capitol Watch: Election reform lacking

March 15, 2005

WA Capitol Watch: Election reform lacking

SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER EDITORIAL BOARD

State senators, working late Friday, passed a bill mandating broad changes in election law but failed on an important element -- moving the primary election back by several weeks.

The Senate made legitimate progress. Senate Bill 5499, sponsored by Jim Kastama, D-Puyallup, not only embodies some long-sought changes but also responds to weaknesses exposed during last year's general election.

Among other things, the bill would empower the secretary of state to audit county elections on a regular basis, require that voters present photo identification or voter registration cards at the polls, establish universal signature verification standards for absentee ballots, require that provisional ballots be of a distinct format that can't be tabulated by poll-site machines, prohibit the "enhancement" of ballots and require county auditors to reconcile the number of votes counted with the number of voters voting.

The Senate failed, however, to approve a provision moving the date of the primary back by several weeks, as has been repeatedly recommended to avoid a "train wreck" when a closely contested primary backs up against the general election. Because that would have altered Initiative 872, which voters approved in November, the change needed a two-thirds majority; after caucus negotiations broke down, the idea failed to muster even a simple majority.

more here

[dzika]

25. Gonzales Shields White House on News Forgeries

March 15, 2005

Gonzales Shields White House on News Forgeries

TO Editor's Comment: This story appears to be gathering steam quickly. In addition to considerable public outrage, the White House's position was further complicated by a ruling from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) that the practice described was illegal, violating laws prohibiting the U.S. government from producing covert propaganda. In response to the GAO's ruling, an attorney for the Justice Department issued a statement in opposition to the GAO's position, stating the White House had not broken the law and is within its rights to continue the practice.

While the attorney who drafted the opinion was Steven Bradbury, the final decision on whether or not to take legal action against the White House would have to be made by the head of the Justice Department, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, the man who has been George W. Bush's personal attorney for decades. Accordingly, we are reporting that the Justice Department, under the direction of Gonzales, is shielding the White House rather than acting on the recommendation of the GAO. - ma.

White House to Agencies: Ignore GAO's Ruling on 'Illegal' TV News Releases
By Ken Herman
Cox News Service

Tuesday 15 March 2005

Washington - The White House, intent on continuing to crank out "video news releases" that look like television news stories, has told government agency heads to ignore a Government Accountability Office memo criticizing the practice as illegal propaganda.

In a memo on Friday, Joshua Bolten, director of the Office of Management and Budget, said the lawyers the White House depends on disagree with the GAO's conclusions.

more here

[dzika]

27. Bush's Social Security road show strategy

March 15, 2005

Bush's Social Security road show strategy

By RON HUTCHESON

WASHINGTON - Weeks before President Bush declared his intention to restructure Social Security, he and his aides mapped out a strategy to sell their proposal with a public relations blitz that has all the earmarks of a presidential campaign.

Bush's weekly road trips to promote his plan for private investment accounts are just the most visible aspect of an all-out effort by top administration officials, Republican operatives, congressional allies and well-funded interest groups. Some of the same organizations that helped Bush beat John Kerry in the November election are working just as hard to sell the president's Social Security plan.

Advocacy groups have pledged at least $50 million for television and radio ads, direct mail and other efforts to build public support for big changes to Social Security. Much of the activity is well below the radar of national media organizations.

While Bush captures headlines with his carefully staged "conversations" about Social Security and its future funding needs, other administration officials are pitching the president's ideas on drive-time radio shows, in interviews with regional and local newspapers, and in speeches to civic groups and professional organizations. The Republican Party is urging supporters to defend Bush's plan in letters to the editors of their local papers and phone calls to talk-radio shows.

more here

[dzika]

28. Hughes to market Bush policies to the Muslim world. Good luck!

March 15, 2005

Karen Hughes Sells Brand America
She's supposed to market Bush policies to the Muslim world. Good luck!

By Fred Kaplan

As part of his plan to improve America's image in the Muslim world, President Bush has appointed his longtime adviser, Karen Hughes, as the undersecretary of state for public diplomacy. Condoleezza Rice, announcing the choice on Monday, said, "We must do more to confront the hateful propaganda, dispel dangerous myths, and get out the truth."

Hear, hear. The question is: Can that be accomplished by this peculiar tool called "public diplomacy?"

Hughes' most notable predecessors—two similarly strong women—ended up fleeing the post in horror. Charlotte Beers, a brilliant advertising executive, took the job a month after 9/11 with a mandate to re-brand America, and got run out of town a year later when her marketing campaign prompted storms of outrage and ridicule from its intended audience. Margaret Tutwiler, James Baker's press secretary during the presidency of Bush's father, followed with her customary can-do gusto, and lasted a mere six months before throwing up her hands and taking refuge as vice-president at the New York Stock Exchange.

The problem wasn't with Beers or Tutwiler per se, but rather with the assumption that led President Bush to believe their credentials were suitable in the first place. The assumption was that a clever ad can sell America in pretty much the same way that a clever ad can sell Coca-Cola, Nike, or Britney Spears. The fundamental flaw in this notion isn't so much that Arabs or Muslims overseas are different from Western consumers: They too are susceptible to shrewd marketing. Arab Muslims can take a swig of Coca-Cola, try on a pair of Nikes, or listen to Britney's new hit. If they like it, they might buy it and gradually develop a loyalty to the brand. If they don't like it, the best ad in the world won't convince them otherwise—just as, in America, not even Bill Cosby's endorsement could overwhelm the wide consensus that the New Coke was swill.

more here

[dzika]

29. Vermont Senate considering campaign finance update

March 15, 2005

Vermont Senate considering campaign finance update

By Ross Sneyd, Associated Press Writer

MONTPELIER, Vt. -- Senators are looking for ways to close loopholes in the campaign finance law while preserving the state's position on a pending federal lawsuit that they hope will have broad national implications.

The Senate Government Operations Committee reviewed a new draft of a proposed bill on Tuesday that would clean up some inconsistencies and unclear provisions in the law but also would strengthen the state's ability to enforce it.

Some would like to go farther in changing the way the state governs the financing of election campaigns, but they don't want to give federal appeals courts the ability to use changes in the law as a reason to rule against the state in a case that dates back to 1998 when the last major reform was enacted.

"I don't want to adversely affect the court case," said Sen. James Condos, D-South Burlington.

Opponents of the 1998 reform law sued in U.S. District Court over a number of its provisions, but the one that lawmakers are most keen to preserve is the attempt to put a cap on campaign spending. The law attempted to make that palatable to candidates by offering public financing of campaigns for governor and lieutenant governor and capping total spending by all candidates for these offices, regardless of whether they accepted public financing.

That cap has never gone into effect for candidates who declined to take public money because courts, relying on a 1976 U.S. Supreme Court precedent, have ruled that such a limitation was an unconstitutional limit on free speech.

more here

[dzika]

30. DLC: Micro-Politics

March 15, 2005

DLC: Micro-Politics

Editor's Note: The print version of this article contains breakdown maps of the "micropolitan" counties in the three states mentioned. These maps have been converted into pdf files, which you can download by clicking on the state names here: Ohio, Florida, and Pennsylvania. These files may take a moment to download.


Analysts parsing the 2004 presidential election results quickly concluded that Democratic gains in the cities and inner suburbs that constitute the party's political base were matched by Republican gains in exurbs and rural areas. Worse for Democrats, it appears that their get-out-the-vote efforts in urban and inner-suburban areas are reaching the point of diminishing returns, because some of those places are steadily losing population.

With President Bush's exurban-rural coalition ascendant, Democrats face a challenge: County-level maps of presidential election results already show their strongholds as small islands of blue surrounded by vast seas of red. Since their islands are shrinking, Democrats must now chart a new course to rebuild their strength -- or at least reduce Republican margins.

But as they plot their strategy, Democrats should study the political maps carefully. When they do, one thing they'll notice is that analysts' simplistic descriptions of the GOP's exurban-rural coalition can be misleading. They call to mind a combination of sprawling new fringe cities and bucolic farming communities.

In reality, there are also places in between. The Census Bureau calls these in-between places "micropolitan statistical areas." They are nonmetropolitan counties whose population centers have between 10,000 and 50,000 people. In standard analyses of voting patterns, these counties are sometimes considered exurban, and sometimes rural. But they basically represent small-town, Main Street America. They include places like Flagler County, Fla.; Ashtabula County, Ohio; and Schuylkill County, Pa. Together, their voting age populations add up to a bit more than 10 percent of the national electorate.

more here

[Wilms]

31. LA Daily News: Hahn wants to know why ballots re-inked

Hahn wants to know why ballots re-inked

By Rick Orlov Los Angeles Daily News 15 March 2005
Staff Writer

Mayor James Hahn questioned on Monday why the City Clerk's Office hand-sorted ballots on election night so workers could re-ink ballots that might have been marked too faintly to be counted accurately by machine.

Without informing the candidates or setting up a system of independent observers, City Clerk Frank Martinez had his staff and temporary election workers use blue highlighters to mark Ink-A-Vote ballots they deemed questionable a practice that has raised concerns about the integrity of the election process.

-snip-

Martinez said the same issues will not affect the May 17 runoff election, when voters will decide the mayor's race, two ballot measures and a runoff in the 11th Council District.

"Because it is such a small ballot, we won't even be using voting machines," Martinez said. "Voters will be given a ballot and fill out the circles themselves and it will be obvious if there is a problem."

-snip/more-

http://www.votersunite.org/article.asp?id=4999

[Wilms]

32. New York Times (4) Letters to the Editor For Voting Machines We Can Trust

For Voting Machines We Can Trust (4 Letters)

Letters to the Editor New York Times Published: March 14, 2005

http://www.votersunite.org/article.asp?id=4991

[Wilms]

33. (CA) Supes to hear report on new voting system requirements

Supes to hear report on new voting system requirements

Monday, March 14, 2005 6:15:10 AM PST

By James Faulk The Times-Standard

EUREKA -- Humboldt County is required by federal law to acquire a new voting system that complies with state and federal law by January 2006.

This provision and others under the Help America Vote Act will be presented to the Humboldt County Board of Supervisors at its meeting Tuesday.

-snip-

The meeting starts at 9 a.m. in the Supervisors Chambers of the Humboldt County Courthouse.

-snip/more-

http://www.times-standard.com/Stories/0,1413,127~2896~2761856,00.html