Hot Potato Mash

Don Siegelman Interview on 'Stolen Elections' and Karl Rove's Contempt

The Brad Blog's Brad Friedman interviewed former Alabama governor Don Siegelman at the Democratic National Convention on Wednesday August 27, 2008. The excellent exchange (6:14) includes the following choice quotes:

On Rove: "If we do not vote the contempt citation, Karl Rove is simply going to get in his getaway car and thumb his nose at the Constitution, Congress, and the American people. It creates almost two systems of justice: one for the powerful, those connected to the White House, and then another system for you and me and the rest of the people."

On Democrats: "Democrats are so magnanimous in victory, as they were after Watergate, they did nothing. After the Iran-Contra scandal, they did nothing. But what Democrats are going to want to do is get on with positive programs, to fix the damage that has been done by the Bush administration...But I view this as part of that positive change. Finding out who hijacked the Department of Justice and who used it as a political weapon."

On his 'stolen' 2002 election: "I went to bed the winner. The media had been sent home. The poll-workers had been sent home. The party chairmen had been given their copies of the election results. And then after midnight a light went on in the basement of the capitol, the basement of the courthouse, in the sheriff's office, and 5,200 votes that were mine were shifted to my opponent."

See Hot Potato Mash's entire Don Siegelman coverage.

MUST WATCH STOLEN ELECTION/DEMOCRACY VIDEOS

First up is the newly released free online documentary "Free For All" (the entire movie is available for download here). The flick, which is written, produced and directed by John Wellington Ennis, is not only informative but hugely entertaining.

Next up is a clip (7:04) about Clint Curtis from the excellent election documentary, Uncounted, The New Math of American Elections, by David Earnhardt. Curtis has testified under oath that he was hired by hella corrupt Florida Republican Congressman Tom Feeney to create vote flipping computer software in order to steal elections.

FYI: Brad Blog's Brad Friedman figures prominently in both documentaries.

RIGGED DEMOCRACY

Professor and cyber lawyer extraordinaire, Lawrence Lessig, discusses his big idea - that the American public has lost faith in and respect for the central institution of our democracy, Congress - at the 2008 Aspen Ideas Festival.



Yesterday Rasmussen Reports released a poll that showed Congressional approval ratings had fallen to single digits (9%) for the first time in tracking history.

Yet, if history is any indication, more than 90% of all Congressional incumbents running for reelection will win despite the single digit approval rating:

1964 87%
1966 88%
1968 97%
1970 95%
1972 94%
1974 88%
1976 96%
1978 94%
1980 91%
1982 90%
1984 95%
1986 98%
1988 98%
1990 96%
1992 88%
1994 90%
1996 94%
1998 98%
2000 98%
2002 96%
2004 99%
2006 94%

How does this happen? Well, throwing election fraud aside, the system is rigged to ensure incumbents win by, among other reasons, gerrymandered districts, unfair money advantages and "perks" of the Office.

Gerrymandering is when Congressional districts are redrawn, often in ways that look and are insane, to give unfair advantages to one party. In 2000, the two dominant parties in California (aka Republicans and Democrats) co-operatively redrew the legislative map to ensure electoral safety for politicians on both sides of the aisle. This included the 38th district (at right) which, despite being held by a Republican from 1984 to 2000, is now overwhelmingly Democratic to the point that the Democratic incumbent was not even challenged in 2004 and garnered 100% of the vote.

Then there is the ridiculous money advantage incumbents enjoy over challengers. For example, in the 2000 election cycle incumbents spent 93% of the total money and won 67% of the total vote. And in 2004, challengers in the House were outspent by incumbents by an average of $700,000 while Senate challengers were outspent by $4 million.

The result of this rigged system is that the American people have little say in determining who represents us in Washington. More to the point, Congress has little incentive to represent the American people. Instead, Representatives and Senators write laws that benefit the corporations that keep them in office through large donations to their campaigns. And more often than not, those same laws hurt average middle-class Americans.

Thus, a Congressional approval rating of 9%.

The Story of American Hero Steve Heller

Note from David Earnhardt, "Uncounted" filmmaker:

Former Utah elections official and whistleblower Bruce Funk said it best, "I can't think of anything more important to do with my life than to try and save our democracy." And now, as we get closer to a presidential election that has been preceded in both 2004 and 2006 by a blatant pattern of election fraud and voter disenfranchisement, his words never had more meaning.

We've been traveling with UNCOUNTED for many months, using it as a tool to organize and to educate about the importance of legislative efforts that could ensure the integrity of elections. But the time for legislation is over and our mission has changed - and has become critical.

Now, we realize, is the time for citizen vigilance. Now we must use the film to encourage people to ramp up their voter registration drives and get out the vote initiatives. Now is the time to encourage everyone to take responsibility for their vote and voting rights. Now, more than ever, people need to see the stories in UNCOUNTED that wake them up to the blatant attempts and successes of election fraud and disenfranchisement and motivate them to stand up and save our democracy.

To that end, each week we will release a clip from the film that will move people to do what Bruce Funk and Athan Gibbs and Steve Heller and Clint Curtis did - fight to save our democracy.

Please use these clips in your travels. Show them to the bleary-eyed and the uninspired and the skeptical. One person standing up on election day can make a difference. But imagine if there were millions?

Week 1: The Ballad of Steve Heller

All he was doing was his job when Steve Heller found "smoking gun proof" that an electronic voting machine manufacturer was using illegal uncertified software in their voting machines and were breaking the law in California because they knew it was illegal and uncertified.

Steve then did the only thing a man of his character could do - he leaked the proof to someone who would know what it was and what to do with it, Bev Harris of BlackBoxVoting.org. When Bev subsequently got the documents to Ian Hoffman who printed them in the Oakland Tribune, Steve thought, "Well, my work here is done." Uh, yeah, sure, if your work includes being prosecuted for several felonies by the Los Angeles County District Attorney.

The Ballad of Steve Heller is one man's story of standing up for liberty, freedom, and democracy - and then getting his ass kicked for it.

DISCLOSURE: I know and like Steve Heller whom I find to be a warm and generous individual (along with his wife).

BUY UNCOUNTED DVD: "Uncounted: The New Math of American Elections" (David Earnhardt)

Dennis Kucinich Files 35 Articles Of Impeachment Against George W. Bush

Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) presented 35 Articles of Impeachment on the House floor tonight. They are a must read for all Americans. But until a transcript is up check out Articles 28 and 29 which are near and dear to my heart:

Article 28: Tampering with Free and Fair Elections (7:20)

Article 29: Violation of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 (Part 1, 8:54)

Article 29: Violation of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 (Part 2, 9:39)

Brad has much more

"The Courage to Survive" (Dennis Kucinich)

Democracy, Dennis Kucinich, elections, George W. Bush

Pastor John Hagee Says God Intervened During 2000 Florida Election

While most informed people attribute George W. Bush's 2000 election victory in Florida to the Supreme Court, Karl Rove, Jeb Bush or even Katherine Harris, Pastor John Hagee blames a higher power -- God! From the 2003 clip above:

"I believe that God has raised George Bush up for this time in history to crush Saddam Hussein. And let me give you just an ironic something that I put together the other day and I almost jumped out of my chair. When George Bush was running for president, Florida was the basis of contention. And an Orthodox Rabbi was in my office and he was saying - you know - he's a democrat - [that] one of the confusing things in the Florida election was that, in a neighborhood that Mr. Gore should have carried, there is a large block of retired Jewish people and - somehow, mysteriously - they all voted for George Bush. Now think about that. He won the state. He became the president."

Hagee was clearly speaking about the infamous Palm Beach County butterfly ballot which The Palm Beach Post concluded cost Al Gore 6,607 votes or 10 times Bush's "winning" margin. Of course, a review of all the Florida ballots by a media consortium concluded that Gore got more votes in Florida anyways.

In any case, it does make one question God's motives and virtue. According to Hagee, God fooled old Jewish Floridians into voting for George W. Bush so that the United States would attack Iraq, something Al Gore would not have done. So God is a meddling, duplicitous, warmonger. More good news!

Related: My encounter with the lying Pastor John Hagee

Democracy, elections, Florida, Pastor John Hagee, Palm Beach County

NY TIMES Perpetuates The Myth - It Created - That Bush Won Florida In 2000

Thank you Larry Beinhart for finally putting together a clear article for all to read about Gore's win and the massive coverup by the mainstream media led by the NY Times:

The New York Times: "STUDY OF DISPUTED FLORIDA BALLOTS FINDS JUSTICES DID NOT CAST THE DECIDING VOTE."

If you were still interested, after the headlines, and bothered to read the stories, it didn't get much better. I read it in the New York Times. Frankly, I missed the key paragraph, until I saw it pointed out in an article by Gore Vidal. I subsequently went back and read all the stories. The Times was the worst in terms of active misdirection. They spent the first three paragraphs supporting the headline and they explicitly stated that Bush would have won even with a statewide recount. Finally, in the fourth paragraph -- if you got that far -- was the statement quoted above:

"If all the ballots had been reviewed under any of seven single standards, and combined with the results of an examination of overvotes, Mr. Gore would have won, by a very narrow margin."

There it was. A very simple statement. Al Gore got more votes in Florida than George Bush. It is also very well buried. It had arcania about chads on both sides of it. Even so, as if in a panic to make sure that nobody might think that it mattered that Al Gore got more votes than George Bush, the Timesdismissed what the Consortium had spent a million dollars to find out: "While these are fascinating findings, they do not represent a real-world situation. There was no set of circumstances in the fevered days after the election that would have produced a hand recount of all 175,000 overvotes and undervotes." Even though that would seem to be a fairly obvious interpretation of the law and it is what was found when someone actually did sit down and count the votes.

PLEASE READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE!

"Wag the Dog: A Novel" (Larry Beinhart)

HOW REPUBLICANS QUIETLY HIJACKED THE JUSTICE DEPARTMENT TO SWING ELECTIONS

“Loser Take All: Election Fraud and The Subversion of Democracy, 20002008” (Ig Publishing)

Steven Rosenfeld's contribution the new Mark Crispin Miller anthology on “The Subversion of Democracy” can and should be read at AlterNet:

Jim Crow has returned to American elections, only in the twenty-first century, instead of men in white robes or a barrel-chested sheriff menacingly patrolling voting precincts, we are more likely to see a lawyer carrying a folder filled with briefing papers and proposed legislation about “voter fraud” and other measures to supposedly protect the sanctity of the vote.

Since the 2004 election, activist lawyers with ties to the Republican Party and its presidential campaigns, Republican legislators, and even the Supreme Court -- in a largely unnoticed ruling in 2006 -- have been aggressively regulating most aspects of the voting process. Collectively, these efforts are undoing the gains of the civil rights era that brought voting rights to minorities and the poor, groups that tend to support Democrats.

In addition, the Department of Justice (DOJ), which for decades had fought to ensure that all eligible citizens could vote, now encourages states to take steps in the opposite direction. Political appointees who advocate for stringent requirements before ballots are cast and votes are counted have driven much of the DOJ's Voting Section's recent agenda. As a result, the Department has pushed states to purge voter lists, and to adopt newly restrictive voter ID and provisional ballot laws. In addition, during most of George W. Bush's tenure, the DOJ has stopped enforcing federal laws designed to aid registration, such as the requirement that state welfare offices offer public aid recipients the opportunity to register to vote.

Continue reading the article at AlterNet.

Rosenfeld's piece goes into great detail about the role of the Civil Rights Division of the Voting Rights Section at the DoJ in disenfranchising millions of voters. The recent head of the department, until he was forced to resign after I captured him on video making racially inflammatory comments which I posted at Brad Blog, was John Tanner. In the video below The Washington Post's Dana Milbank repeatedly credits the one line (from my video) for Tanner's downfall.

Technorati Tags: abrams, Bush League Justice, election integrity, Elections, John Tanner, Justice, JIm Crow, voter ID, voter suppression, Voting

Bonus 'Bush League Justice' Segment On Tanner Resignation

Former DoJ attorney David Becker and The Washington Post's Dana Milbank joined Dan Abrams on MSNBC to discuss the resignation of John Tanner as chief of the voting section of the Civil Rights Division at the Justice Department. Throughout their conversation all three repeatedly credit Tanner's ridiculous comments at the National Latino Congreso, which I caught on video and reported about with Brad Friedman at The Brad Blog, for his downfall:

Milbank: “This guy simply became too difficult to handle, not  necessarily because of the policies you've been talking about, but because of that one line.”

Milbank: “Let's remember, he was sort of abused before this committee in the House, they wanted him to come before this committee to explain his record, to explain the Georgia Voter ID law. The Justice Department wasn't letting him go. Then he let his mouth slip. Then they let him go. They weren't apologizing for the record here, they were saying, well, we're gonna have to cut him loose because of this one bad line.”

Abrams: “Right. And this is the line about saying, ”white people tend to live longer“.

Abrams: ”The bottom line is that it is this comment in conjunction with the fact that everything they have done in the voting rights section is consistent with a guy who says things like, “white people live longer”, and that's the reason this is significant.“

Becker: ”Yeah, it's nice that they are now, once they get caught, concerned about the feelings of voters whose feelings they might hurt...

Well thank you very much!

JOHN TANNER RESIGNS!!!!!!!

The chief of the DoJ's Civil Rights Division, Voting Section, John Tanner, who was thrust into the national spotlight after making absurd comments about minorities that were caught on videotape by yours truly and reported about by myself and Brad Friedman over at The Brad Blog in October, resigned today. 

After Tanner's comments garnered some limited coverage from the mainstream media, Brad and Paul Kiel at TPM Muckraker kept up the pressure on Tanner by breaking new stories about other Tanner shenanigans. By the end of the month, Tanner was compelled to testify before the House Judiciary subcommittee where his dismal performance led the Washington Post to call him “one sorry man”.

Tanner's comments eventually led to calls for his firing from Barack Obama, Rep. Jerrod Nadler (D-NY), Ted Kennedy (D-MA), the DNC and many more civil rights organizations.

And now Tanner's reign of disenfranchising Democratic leaning voters is over. Yet, my enthusiasm is tempered, like that of Barack Obama, who remains upset that Tanner was not fired but reassigned:

“It's unacceptable that the Administration is simply shuffling deck chairs by moving Mr. Tanner to another important position in the Justice Department.  During his tenure, he made offensive, intolerant comments about minorities in an attempt to defend voter identification laws that threaten voting rights, and that's why I called on him to be fired. It's time we restore confidence in the Department by appointing public servants who are truly committed to upholding our civil rights.”

And we still do not know who will replace Tanner in the Voting Section at DoJ where his two top disciples remain. Still, this story is proof positive that a citizen journalist/blogger can make a difference. And I'd like to believe that a few more votes will get counted in 2008 as a result.

Brad has much much more.

Bush League Justice Series

MSNBC's Live With Dan Abrams ran a four-part series this week titled, “Bush League Justice”, which investigated the administration's abuse of the Department of Justice to expand its power.

Day 1 - Bush Administration's Use Of The DoJ To Expand Its Own Power

The series began with a look into the “department's almost unrecognizable Civil Rights Division” and even includes a snippet of my infamous John Tanner video (without credit!) first posted and reported about on The Brad Blog.

Day 2 - Bush Administration's 'Unprecedented Use' of Signing Statements To Subvert The Law

A signing statement is a president's written interpretation of legislation passed by congress which accompanies his signature when he signs a bill into law. Bush has used signing statements almost twice as much as all the presidents that preceded him combined and has often done so to circumvent the law.

For example, in 2005 congress voted overwhelmingly to ban torture which Bush signed into law. However, Bush also included a signing statement which basically allowed him to ignore the new law.

Day 3 - Partisan Investigations and Prosecutions

Despite the overwhelming criminality of Republicans since Bush was gift wrapped the White House by the Supreme Court, Democrats have been investigated and prosecuted at nearly six times the rate of Republicans at the federal level.

Day 4 - The Controversial Prosecution Of Former Democratic Alabama Governor Don Siegelman

Evidence suggests that Siegelman, who remains in prison, was wrongly prosecuted by prominent Alabama Republicans with the help of Karl Rove.

Dan Abrams concludes the series by stating, “Now while this was the last episode of this series, our ”Bush League“ investigations are far from over. A new Attorney General has taken over. We are going to be watching very closely. The days of Justice Department malfeasance remaining under the mainstream media radar are over. You are on notice.”

DoJ Voting Rights Chief Says Photo ID Laws Disenfranchise Elderly But Not Minority Voters Who 'Don't Become Elderly, They Die First'

Unbelievably, the Chief of the Voting Section of the Civil Rights Division, U.S. Department of Justice, John Tanner, contends that while it's “a shame” that elderly voters may be disenfranchised by new Photo ID restrictions at the polls because many don't have driver's licenses, minorities don't have to worry quite as much. Why? Because “minorities don't become elderly the way white people do. They die first.”

Yes, that's what Tanner said last Friday at the National Latino Congreso in Los Angeles and The BRAD BLOG was in tow with video camera to prove it...

The NLC kicked off their 2nd Annual convention over the weekend, including an expert panel titled, “It's Not Over - Defending the Right to Vote Against Disenfranchising Tactics.” While many issues were covered over the course of the 2 1/2 hour panel, the most hotly debated subject was the current rash of GOP-pushed Photo ID laws sweeping the nation, just in time for the 2008 Presidential Election.

Tanner --- and we'll repeat it again, he's the Chief of the Voting Section of the Civil Rights Division at the U.S. Department of Justice --seems to believe that restrictive Photo ID laws are not only non-discriminatory but actually favor minorities (at least in Georgia). All of the other expert panelists, audience members, and even one particular vocal cameraman (that would be me), were incredulous, and found Tanner's comments absurd and objectionable.

Get the entire story and more videos from the panel at The BRAD BLOG.

VIDEO EXCLUSIVE: Professor Steve Freeman Presentation On Stolen US Elections

Elections can be stolen, have been stolen and will continue to be stolen! The presentation was given at the 2nd Annual National Latino Congreso in Los Angeles on Friday and runs 21:00.

“Was The 2004 Presidential Election Stolen?: Exit Polls, Election Fraud, and the Official Count” (Steve Freeman, Joel Bleifuss)

VIDEO EXCLUSIVE: Interview With Professor Steve Freeman About The Stolen 2004 Election

Cross-posted at BRAD BLOG.

University of Pennsylvania professor Steve Freeman, author of the important book, “Was The 2004 Presidential Election Stolen?: Exit Polls, Election Fraud, and the Official Count”, sat down with BRAD BLOG at the 2nd Annual National Latino Congreso in Los Angeles on Friday. Below is our interview broken down into five easy viewing segments.

Who won the 2004 presidential election?

The short answer is John Kerry. Professor Freeman explains that while the official vote count gave George W. Bush a narrow margin of victory in Ohio of 120,000 votes and a slim electoral win, exit poll data indicates that Kerry actually won Ohio by 500,000 votes and won the national vote by a 6 million vote margin.

What is the significance of the November 2004 Ukraine exit polls and the 1992 presidential election exit polls?

Professor Freeman: “The incredible irony is that at the same time members of the administration were saying the exit polls indicate fraud in the Ukraine -- undersecretary of state John Tefft was giving testimony saying that exit polls are one of the few reliable measures for showing mass scale election fraud. At the same time, Ed Gillespie, the head of the Republican National Committee, was speaking before the press conference saying that the press should abandon exit polls, they don't work anymore.”

As a professor of business management, did you have any interest in election integrity issues prior to 2004? And what can individuals do to learn about election integrity issues?

Professor Freeman: “It wasn't until 2004 when I really investigated the system and just, absolutely stunned. At first I thought I must not understand this. I looked at electronic voting and I said, well there has to be some safeguard, it can't be this easy to corrupt. But it is. Even worse. If you haven't looked into this it is worse than you can possibly imagine.”

Why do we have voting machines and is there a solution to our election problems?

Professor Freeman: “It is funny to hear myself speak like radical on this issue. I've spent my life starting businesses and teaching in such radical institutions as Harvard Business School system and Wharton. Running businesses, starting businesses and teaching business school students. But when you are talking about privatizing elections you are really giving up the security we have that elections are unfettered and free.”

What can individuals do to help ensure fair elections?

Professor Freeman: “The key fact is that this is not a hypothetical threat. It has happened. Elections have been stolen. Read my book, Read Fitrakis's book, read BRAD BLOG and learn what is happening.”

“Was The 2004 Presidential Election Stolen?: Exit Polls, Election Fraud, and the Official Count” (Steve Freeman, Joel Bleifuss)

Moonshine Elections

Anyone who has confidence in our elections doesn't know anything about our elections.

Black Box Voting