In my fantasy, the Republican Party, which pledged under a consent decree to never engage in caging again, is ruled an illegal party by the SCOTUS, as the National Socialists were in Germany after WWII.

Article excerpt:There's no pride in this. Our BBC team broke the story at the top of the nightly news everywhere on the planet --- except the USA --- only because America's news networks simply refused to cover this evidence of the electoral coup d'etat that chose our President in 2004.

Why?? It is truly bizarre that the integrity of the democracy of the United States isn't a top priority and major area of concern for the American media. It is time to reinstate anti-trust laws against the media, so that it is no longer dominated by headless greed-based censorship-imposing corporate interests. So-called "Deregulation" has been a colossal failure. The media monopolies strangling America today must be broken up so that journalists may once again serve their purpoted business --- to actually report the news. It is time to boot the vile democracy-hating whores posing as reporters to the curb, and let the real journalists stop in. First thing is to protect Internet Neutrality, so that these vile fascists can't stop the news from being reported on the Internet. A possible area of independent journalistic investigation: Is the American media cabal war-profiteering? Let's investigate the media corporations' defense industry holdings, and whether they profit from the war and the gutting of America's democracy, and, if so, to what extent. We know that mega-military contractor GE owns NBC.

Disney(who own ABC)get massive Tax breaks as well as other forms of corporate welfare.They're certainly not going to bite the hand that feeds them.

Forgot to mention the D.C. Madam story that ABC exec's killed to protect the White House.http://www.waynemadsenreport.com

It ties in with Greg Palast's reporting.This is just the tip of a massive iceberg of criminal behaviour.

Sic-em Greg !!!, I only had one word for that fiasco yesterday...WEAK

This should have top billing one all of our WEAK news outlets.

Yours and Sibel Edmunds' story, Fat Bastert should be hung up by his little testicles.

"In Gag We Trust"

The Senate Judiciary committee tends to be more capable of detailed, more to the point questioning. They have more ex-prosecutors on that committee who are trained in interrogation of witnesses.

The House Judiciary tends to get general information, which can help the Senate committee get the general feel of the testimony and decide on areas needing further investigation.

Ummm... The Palast story has been cited on the WE Blog of the Wichita, KS, Eagle open thread blog... The Reich Wingers are, of course, lambasting Palast, and the Bradblog... as if it is worth nothing of news...

Any of you all catch the latest on Presidential Directives, cited at Worldnetdaily.com??? NSPD-51/HSPD-20?? The combined Directives give the President UNLILMITED powers in event of any national emergency (defined by the President alone)... without Congressional notification, or approval... Sounds like potentially dangerous stuff, given Rove's power hungry attitudes, and Bush's blinders on the Middle East... Somebody might want to check it out???

White House Issues HSPD 20: National Continuity Policy
Submitted by sallyc on Wednesday, May 9, 2007 - 22:22
https://www.hsdl.org/hslog/?q=node/3482

National Security Presidential Directive 51/ Homeland Security Presidential Directive 20
http://www.whitehouse.go...2007/05/20070509-12.html
The Whitehouse has released National Security (NSPD51)/Homeland Security Directive (HSPD20) addressing National Continuity Policy . From the directive: "This directive establishes a comprehensive national policy on the continuity of Federal Government structures and operations and a single National Continuity Coordinator responsible for coordinating the development and implementation of Federal continuity policies. This policy establishes "National Essential Functions," prescribes continuity requirements for all executive departments and agencies, and provides guidance for State, local, territorial, and tribal governments, and private sector organizations in order to ensure a comprehensive and integrated national continuity program that will enhance the credibility of our national security posture and enable a more rapid and effective response to and recovery from a national emergency."

But what does it REALLY do...nothing, except say that he is the person who everyone should look to in the case of an Emergencey. He is incapable of pulling all the levers and knobs of government, so to actually put any "ACTION" in play would still rely on dedicated government and local government workers and career employess, and seeing how Gonzo is being gored from within the DOJ itself, I would find it hard pressed to think that chucklenuts would be able to fear monger the masses into submission. Especially seeing how much of a neccessity it is for the shopping masses to keep the other fascistas in money, and keep the evil Fascist cabal happy-like. This whole directive is his ultimate mindscape of Bush as historically relevant decidererer. He is dead within 3 days of invoking Martial law. Hung by Karl's entrails from the Whitehouse portico.

COMMENT #8 [Permalink]
... Wretched Refuse said on 5/24/2007 @ 6:46 am PT...

Whatever the bullshit is on the Prime Directive, I just worry about the 'Peckerwood in Chief' letting another 9-11 type thing happen here, I trust these fuckers as far as I can throw them.

On my Sibel link above, it's a video, or a link to the words.
She says a lot in this one...you'll be sorry not to click on the link.

We know that CNN can't bee too damning of the government or else they will be cut-off from talking to them. McClatchy newspaper co. is now excluded from the Def Sec airplane because of their skeptical reporting. And we also know that political advertising on news networks has become a huge conflict of interest. Not to mention that Fox News is literally a White House Republican Neoconservative propaganda channel. As well as the "liberal" media has been adding right wing shows & writers for the last few years for two reasons, ratings & they don't want to look as they are accused of being, liberal. Even so called liberals on the air are actually Republicans (Wolf Blitzer, Lou Dobbs, Chris Matthews). After thousands of hours of analyzing the news services I get my news from Brad Friedman, Greg Palast, RawStory.com, & Air America Radio, because they are so damned accurate & the MSM is crap, often misleading, leaves out key information, does no investigation, makes it nearly impossible to follow stories & issues, & gives more air time to dead Anna Nicole Smith than the TWO wars we have created! Let's investigate these terrible news services! A democracy can not function without an independent press, which our country no longer has. If you want the news, you have to turn to comedian Jon Stewart & Stephen Colbert, which just proves the state of our press. We need a congressional investigation of our press.

I was over at ICH and I got the quote of the day from one of the comments there, "Stop being fucking horrified and pick up one of those redneck shotguns you all have littering your homes".

comment 6

Yes net neutrality is important, but so is getting rid of these fucking unconstitutional un-validatable electronic voting machines. How else are we going to get enough people into office to un-do the corruption? Wish them in? I get it. e.g. The caging lists. This is domestic terrorism. Plain and simple. The people involved in this should never be allowed to work in government anything again, never be allowed to contract for the government, never to be trusted by the government, and never allowed to have anything to do with voting. The people that were elected should be redacted. A new special election held to replace them. The laws they passed redacted. If we really want to completely gut the constitution, let's do it with representatives that were validated as elected to office. The more I think about this the less of a giant mess it is, the less complex it it. It's simple, you have people who broke their oath of office, allowed domestic terrorism, and did not protect the constitution.

Now where are the sworn black ops to clean up our government, bust the doors down, yank the security clearances, and confiscate the evidence?

We need a Department of Government Security. Something that has TOP clearances for all locations, lethal force, and with oversight by all political parties.

It's not a war in IRAQ, it's a war right here in bankrupted America! Want to know what those in control have planned for us?

http://spp.gov/

enjoy!

or hate
or get pissed
or do something
http://www.codex.citymak...om/page/page/3113337.htm
or get sick from lack of nutrients and enjoy the dictatorship as a slave

By the way is anyone noticing that all the fucking mission statements on all the government agencies are actually executing their offices the opposite of their mission statements?

I mean, I hope I am not the only one noticing this.

So when are we going to consider these oath of office breakers, THE enemies of state?

That is what I wonder.

(I am not suggesting anything yet)

I heard Phil #13, Disneyland is going to be renamed "Orwellianville"

One last thing about the fiasco yesterday.
Why did Conyers keep interupting Monica with "Gentlemans time has expired" and not wait until after she was finished with her answer ? was he afraid she would continue on and say too much ?...just wondering

I second what Lewis Goode and Phil said in comments 10 and 12. The MSM is very, very slowly starting to pick up SOME of the dirt, but funny how it disappears from the news faster than Anna Nicole Smith got in and stayed in the news. The latter is good, wholesome, non-threatening fun to spread around news, the former threatens the power structure of government and revenues to the reporting organization. So if we are relying on morals and ethics to influence the MSM to cover "hard" stories, we are mentally deficient. And yes, all e-voting machines must go, and must go before the '08 presidential election. It CAN happen, we just have to MAKE it happen. Oh, and in San Diego, we don't want no fucking Vu-do elections. Vu must go, Vu must go!

One other thing...

Connie Fogal On The Corporate North American Union - Google Video

Not an American granted, but actually more patriotic most Americans currently. (of course not the bradbloggers)

Personal Appeal to Brad Friedman and Greg Palast:

Brad:
You have contacted and dealt with Rep Conyers before in connection with voter fraud. Would you please--PLEASE-- assure us that you will personally make Rep Conyers aware of the Palast report and the emails and obvious frigging implications of this to his Committee Investigation. I am begging.

And if you have already done this, would you please instruct us readers on the best way to make sure Conyers and his entire committee (R's and D's) pay attention to this important story and collect the evidence Mr. Palast and BBC can provide?

And while you are at it, can you tell us how to make sure the Leahy Committee is apprised of this.

I was only vaguely aware of the Palast's research containing a number of the missing emails tying all this together. Maybe the Committees are too. But it is time for the big, bright light to shine and get the dots connected.

One last one...

http://www.ceocouncil.ca...ion_Paper_April_2004.pdf

Doin some searching for ya! o;)

I'd like to see the bradblog.com log files fpr May 24th 2007. Seems like coincidence trouble with the website

Come on Greg. Post all the emails!

As much as I would love this to be true, I have to wonder if these emails really exist. If they do, why doesn't Congress have them? If they have them, what the hell are the doing wasting our time with hearing when they could start impeachment now (not that they couldn't for a number of other reasons...)?

I have been hearing about Palast having these emails for at least a couple of weeks. If this is true, why doesn't he go public, or just hand them over to Congress? These would be the final nail. This would be the end game. I see no reason that if these are real, why they wouldn't be in the hands of law makers, and analysts for verification of authenticity.

Can anyone expain this?

To follow-up:
It's just weird that NO one - not US press, not Congressmen, picked up on the key and damning accusations in the Goodling testimony.

Chairman Conyers of the Congressional Black Caucus is deeply interested in my findings - as he takes an interest in all my BBC reports. Unfortunately, the Hill is still in control of the Congressional White Caucus and have no interest in voting issues which are seen as "minority" special interest concerns.

Despite a personal plea from Bobby Kennedy to his uncle's committee, we were blown off with "Griffin's only an interim appointment." Interim, as Goodling says in one email, "interim" through the 2008 election.

Well, as Keynes said, in the long run, we're ALL interim.

gp

Jeebus Greg, with the problems of caging, rigged polls, rigged voting, they must be knocking down +10% of the vote, Why don't these dummycrats think that this is important ?
They must not listen to anything Conyers says because of his slow diction.

Palast went public. Globally.

Were you so foolish as to expect the corporate mainstream media in America to mention it? Or are you so stupid as to believe that if the CMSM doesn't report it, it "didn't happen"?

Palast said that the emails have already been turned over to congress.

Has to why Congress has done nothing... last I heard the Democrats were too busy engaging in empire-building, gutting ethics reform and taking it up the ass on Iraq to care about such minor things as solid proof of White House felonies.

That's your cue to start yammering about how the Dems must be "cleverly biding their time"...

Re.: Comments #18 and #23

I am relieved the GTASH brought up what was my first thought upon reading that Palast has the emails. GTASH wrote what I would have.

But Mr. Palast, do the committees investigating the Justice Department "firings" actually have the 500 emails in their hands? And if not, why not?

I feel that anybody who wants truth to come out--no matter what careers are toppled--has the ethical responsibility to provide every bit of factual information available to the people who have the best chance of redressing these myriad wrongs.

I appreciate your diligent reporting, but it's unfortunately a reality that reporting without official prosecution (remember Watergate) is compelling but relatively toothless.

Thanks for keeping on top of this.

As I have been saying for about 3 years now, there is only ONE way this bullshit is going to stop.
The Mainstream Media MUST be taken back, we need to march on Faux News by the 10s of Millions and literally destroy them forcibly because there is no other way.
Then turn to the other news media and say you got 24 hours to start singing the truth or you are next.

One reason why Congress seems to be avoiding the emails is that they MAY have been obtained by somewhat fraudulent means. For example, sending fake emails to the white house with real White House peoples' addresses but with the .com changed to .org in order to get them added to the cc line in follow-up emails.

If so, this was a smart move, but might make congress shy about using them directly or putting them into the record. It shouldn't stop them from using them indirectly though, as background.

This is just a wild ass guess on my part. If true it doesn't make them any less true or informative, just tainted.

I'm not sure I get it. If those mailed had a mailbox, wouldn't the mail be delivered and not returned? Sounds like a good plan! If they can't live where they say they live, how is that wrong? Legitimate voters would just reregisted if somehow they got caught in the purge.

I tried to talk about this on C-SPAN's "Washington Journal" this morning and was cut off after about 25 seconds, just as I said "...Karl Rove committed a Felony". It is interesting to note that none of the major network newscasts - including PBS's Jim Leher - said nothing about it. Apparently something was said about in on CNN of all places, I don't know in what context, however. Even Keith Olbermann didn't mention it on "Countdown" last night.

I have e-mailed most of the people in my address book on this, and posted to a couple of boards I belong to. I have also e-mailed my Congressman, which happens to be Majority Leader Hoyer, on this. We must keep it up. This could be better than any Nixon White House "smoking gun" tape. We now have sworn testimony about it by a memeber of the administration. How much more is it going to take to get Rove hauled before Congress under oath?

... Onyx said...

"One reason why Congress seems to be avoiding the emails is that they MAY..."

?!
Has anyone indicated such a thing has happened? Palast just indicated that the .org owner received the misaddressed emails... which would have been fine in and itself.

If so then this is troubling. Not necessarily fatal to the use of the emails as evidence, depending on the exact circumstances... but troubling.

If not then the allegation itself may just be despearate stonewalling...

Greg Palast? A definite answer is needed... quickly, I think.

The waynemadsenreport.com site is reporting today that the US Attorney scandal is tied in to the DC Madam story since (as he says) the first USA fired (Maryland's USA if I recall correctly) was the one investigating the DC Madam case.

He also adds snarkaliciously that one of the DC Madam clients hired a lawfirm named Bracewell & Giuliani!

And, there is even more interesting stuff in his articles this week.

Interesting stuff. I hope it can all be corroborated (or disproved) to clarify what's really been going on.

... scruzman said...

"I'm not sure I get it. If those mailed had a mailbox, wouldn't the mail be delivered and not returned?"

The caging letters were sent as registered mail.

The caging mail must be signed for by the recipient and if the recipient happens to be a black soldier busy dodging insurgent mortar rounds and random IED's in Iraq... then the soldier's out of luck as far as democracy is concerned.

When the soldier sends in his absentee ballot his votes are quietly challenged and discarded by a Republican operative... and the soldier never finds out.

There is no defense against such attacks when they are targeted against legitimately absent voters... and thus "caging" is highly illegal.

Don't ya just love the way Republicans "support the troops"?

Same principle for homeless citizens.

Now watch the Democrats turn the other other cheek while busily applying more vaseline...

Friends-
I just called/ emailed Congressman Bobby Scott (D-VA), who I worked for on my first political campaign as a teenager, and directed him to GREG PALAST's report via BRADBLOG. Mr. Scott has always been a sensible, dependable public servant. If anyone on the committee will listen/ follow-up on this, it might be him...do give him a ring.

BOBBY SCOTT
WASHINGTON OFFICE
1201 Longworth HOB
Washington, DC 20515
(202) 225-8351 Phone
(202) 225-8354 Fax

HAMPTON ROADS OFFICE
2600 Washington Ave.
Suite 1010
Newport News, VA 23607
(757) 380-1000 Phone
(757) 928-6694 Fax

Let me assume that

'Caging' voters is a crime, a go-to-jail felony.

Then I don't care if congress knows or not, but I would like to see a district attorney take this on. I suspect that getting the Republicans in the committees to testify might be difficult or getting some letters to verify that it was done, but if one can come up with the goods, then a trial would be more pleasing to me than a congressional investigation. Jail, if the shoe fits ...

I was reading a gloom-and-doom website yesterday, in which they were bemoaning that one world government was in the works for North America, as well as the rest of the world.

It dawned on me that they may have some of the details wrong, but generally, they've got it: the modern age of interlocking corporations controlling all the world's resources, with a massive, self-stoking military-industrial complex policing the planet's unwilling, simply does not jibe with the concept of Jeffersonian Constitutionalism, a democratic republic, free flow of information, and the rule of law.

Sure, it's a romantic concept, and it keeps the lumpen wearing their flag pins and sporting ribbon magnets... but it's unwieldy and unworkable, when broader neocon and free trade goals are required.

And it further dawned on me, that this may be the reason why, in the clinches, even a Dem Congress bails to the Bush administration: no impeachment; no withdrawal from Iraq; no repeal of the Patriot Act, etc. The broader international corporatist goals are a given, in the minds of the few who write the rules. It's simply a matter of keeping the unwashed believing in a fairy tale democracy, while in actuality, bit by bit they "boil the frog".

The feeling I think they have is that they've already won; their populist opponents here and around the world would have no clue how extensive the plan is, and the desired results are inevitable. If the foul annoyance of populism raises its ugly head, here or anywhere else, it will simply be contained by force, disappearance, whatever. Here's the problem with that:

Their first foray into reshaping the world? Iraq. How did that work out for them?

If they intend to pacify every sovereign nation on the planet, and run that planet for the enhancement of "made" corporations... this may take 'em longer than they think.

The good news, I guess, is that while they may intend to smack down any uprising of unwilling citizens; while we may have no real allies in Congress; while the people are not exactly getting the data they need to form opinions (see Palast's disturbing note about how the "caging" piece ran everywhere but America. Now tell me that kind of discipline in American media could even happen, without A COORDINATED EFFORT!)... in the end, this anti-Constitutional cabal will screw up.

My rationale is: Iraq. I am called to mind of "War Of The Worlds", where the most indomitable enemy ever was felled by something really stupid. In this case, it's their own flaming incompetence (and arrogance about their incompetence, that causes them to deny it even exists!).

Forgive my naivete, by has Palast called the congressional offices and volunteered to testify?

... petedskier said...

"Let me assume that 'Caging' voters is a crime, a go-to-jail felony... Jail, if the shoe fits ... "

Except that it's a federal case and the people who would be in charge of prosecuting would be... the people who did the caging: our very own Department of Justice.

Can you feel the irony...?

Brad, What the dillio with the Bradblog T-shirts . . .

The beach season is short in the N.E.

Not much time to get skank on my T, man. . .

In reference to #25, not sure if you directed that at me, but I'll answer it as if you did.

I didn't know Palast had gone public in the US, I knew he went public elsewhere, but much like the Downing Street minutes, there is no play here in the US. It wasn't really my point though. My point has more to do with knowing if these emails are real, and if so, finding a way to get them the attention they deserve in the US.

I am not foolish and not stupid (I got through engineering school, and work as an engineer). I don't watch MSM anymmore. I stopped watching around 2003. I get my information from the radio (not NPR, the new republican propaganda machine for the airwaves) and the Internet, and even then I'm highly skeptical.

One other thing, I don't yammer, and I certainly have no attachment to the Democratic Party. I have been registered Green for 8 years. I have no faith in Democrats having the balls or the spine to actually hold this administration accountable. I'm actually beginning to think that this group of Democrats are worse than bush and cheney. Where as bush and cheney are breaking laws, this Congress is letting them get away with it.

Barrys got it, it's just that nobody wants to hear about that...too complicated, they just want to hear the small feeley good stuff that they think they can control.

I've been ranting about this for years off and on.

Here's the House Judiciary Committee e-mail link:

http://judiciary.house.gov/Contact.aspx

You can e-mail the committee directly. Please be short and to the point and demand investigation into Rove, Griffin, and caging lists, and insist that Greg Palast be called to testify and rpesent his evidence to the committee.

... AngryAmerican said...

"In reference to #25, not sure if you directed that at me, but I'll answer it as if you did."

Nah. Just snarling in frustration after the 12th go-round of "This Palast thing just can't be true... (for some reason or another)" in various venues...

My apologies.

I'd like to clarify this story a little, because some of this is not "new," and yet Greg has taken it a long ways...

Some of these emails were printed in 2004 by georgewbush.org, including attached spreadsheets. Even the key Tim Griffin email was released back then.

I remember researching many of the addresses listed in the spreadsheets that were provided at the time, and noticed they were clumped together. It was clear what the Republicans were up to, but proving it was an entirely different matter.

Greg has obtained hundreds more, but more importantly, he has made sense of the spreadsheets. He and his team have figured out who these people are...for example, the spreadsheet with the address for the homeless shelter - that was not released back in 2004, and too bad...it would have been a great to have that back in 2004, so we could have figured this all out definitively a lot earlier.

Outstanding work, and we all need to bombard the press with this.

ZapKitty: Thanks for the clarification. That's just sad. I don't think voter fraud is a big priority at the Justice Dept. and the Dems will not open up inquiries...well, maybe Waxman will: He doesn't appear to take orders from anyone.

Best bet is to vote Green and get the entrenched politicos outa there, otherwise, get used to compromise and the SOS.

I've sent this up to my Congressman. I love Greg Palast!!!!

Outstanding work paying attention to this testimony and documenting this story!
Thank you Greg and Bradblog.
GBD

THE_ZAPKITTY at 43

Ah, thanks for the clarification, my appologies too.

I feel the frustration. I feel like my head is going to explode at least a dozen times a day. Every time I see bush on TV, I get the urge to kill, and I'm a very peaceful person by nature.

Anyhow, I guess it's time to put some pressure on the HJC per the comment at 42.

JOHN DEAN at 44,

Truly astounding, and I feel a little ashamed that I haven't been following this closely enough to know what is going on. I really thought this was more recent material. There are so many things this administration has done that we need to keep our eyes on that I guess my eyes got tired. I do feel like this is just another piece that fits into the larger puzzle. I think that everything the bush administration has been up to has everything to do with election fraud and keeping American's from voting. Which eventually ties back into their dream of empire and nation building along the lines of the PNAC plan.

This is amazing information. I have a hard time wrapping my head around the idea that Congress wouldn't be drooling over this, even as spineless as the Democrats have been acting, there are only a handful of reasons I can think of that they wouldn't be rolling with this. It makes me wonder if the Democrats might have something to hide. It would be a shame to find that out, but not beyond the realm of possibility anymore. The only bright spot I have been able to find in all of this is a very huge personal civics lesson. Never, ever, trust what your government tells you. I don't care who is in charge.

Greg,have you turned these e-mails over to Congress? Just wondering.

why don't you post the complete emails in pdf form? As is, your evidence is not very strong and there is no reason why a congressperson would accept your description of the emails as accurate on the basis of your post alone.

Does any one really wonder any more why the democrats are so "spineless"?

The anthrax was sent to Democrats and the media. It was US military anthrax and that case has never been solved.

It is no longer secret that this administration has been sweeping up massive ammounts of information about every American.

This administration has shown itself to base every single policy and decision on politics and party loyalty without a second's notice to the good of the country.

It is naive to think the democrats and the media are going along to get along, and it's disingenuous to be baffled by the democrats' apparrent week-kneed response when by simply following the money and putting two and two together, one can easily see how those in congress who weren't cowed into submission by mysterious anthrax attacks right on the heels of the worlds' worst "terrorist" attack, would "get the message" when they know that all their dirty, dark secrets could be aired courtesy the illegal wiretapping program(and just to prove it, they throw one of their own to the wolves...but I'm sure Tom Foley would disagree). This looks like a bad gangster movie, with all the clues right in front of us, knowing what's happening, knowing who's lying, knowing how it ends but not being able to stop it.

What Mr. Palast and others are showing here, is not just the pattern of stolen elections, but just another piece of evidence of an ongoing coup.

All of this is very nice...and completely useless. The hearings should be stopped now; there's no value added because her testimony was immunized. The Dems did an unbelievable job of shotting themselves in the foot. She can't be prosecuted for what she's said. The red flag came when she pleaded the Fifth, without having been confronted with any real criminal charges. Anything that happens after this is pure conversation; the Dems fell for this hook, line and sinker. She's a Rovian plant; designed to confuse the case. She was required to turn over documents weeks ago and didn't do it until yesterday. Mark my words; this is over, done and wrapped up. Gonzo will survive, President Poopypants and the Dark Lord will survive but most importantly the AG's will survive and be ready to do mayhem in next year's election. Goodling is Oliver North in a Victoria Secrets and she's at least a compelling witness who will be used to mobilize the fundies and flat earthers. Stop the hearings, call off the investigations and try to bring criminal cases; that's about the only hope now. Between Charley Rangels' sell-out to the corporate interests, the Dems abandoning our brave troops to the meat grinder in Iraqnam or maybe it's Vietraq and this absolutely horses'assed move on the part of John Conyers and the Judiciary Committee this has been a very tough week to be a Dem.

All of this is so dramatic, incredulous and staggering...and all of it is completely useless. With her testimony the investigation into this whole thing has been terminated. There is no reason for the hearings to go ahead; they should be stopped now. What everyone is missing is that her testimony was IMMUNIZED and she cannot be prosecuted for what she has said. The Dems fell for this hook, line and sinker. Goodling is a God Squadding, snake wiggling, plate passing plant straight from Karl Rove. For the Dems to go to court and get an immunity grant for an official who resigned her position taking the Fifth Amendment is something beyond comprehension. Gonzo will survive, President Poopypants will survive, the Dark Lord will survive but, most importantly, the AG's will survive and be ready to do the bidding next year. She's Oliver North with a Victoria Secret's bend and she's at least as compelling of a witness. This is a complete disaster for Conyers and telling her "...you will answer every question truthfully" doesn't cut it. Between Charley Rangel's sellout of the American working man, the Dems leaving their cojones at last year's ballot box and this stupidity it's been a tough week to think progressively in this country. She'll mobilize the religious wackos who will claim they're being picked on by the "secular" left. Stop the hearings; try what they can in court and walk away from this. Learn from Iran Contra. Conyers and the Dems failed their country on this.

I agree! Greg......POST ALL THE EMAILS! Give the emails their own blog.

This is something else,though. I wish nothing more than Rove et al to live in prison the rest of their lives!

To Greg Palast: We suck! By "we", I mean the American government, and every politician in it, except for a handful. The Democrats should be making sure EVERYONE knows about this!

It's like FACTS don't matter anymore! This is the era of government where FACTS don't matter anymore!

What about the FACTS that Clint Curtis has, about the Curtic/Feeney election? Affadavits are not good anymore. FACTS don't matter, the people don't matter. It doesn't matter, it seems, that RFK, Jr. is screaming about it, either.

We suck!

There's a small group of people here in America, a couple of hundred out of 300+ billion, that don't give a flying F*CK about anything but themselves...I call them "the American Government"...anyone got any better names for these selfish creeps who don't care about us?

You know, if the Democrats are the opposing party, aren't they supposed to MAKE IT A F*CKING POINT TO DO SOMETHING ABOUT THIS????????????? What good are they, if they don't?

Why hasn't this been on the Daily Show w/ Jon Stewart, yet? Once it hits that or the Colbert Nation, it will be news. Let's see if it gets that far.

COMMENT #45 [Permalink]
... scruzman said on 5/24/2007 @ 1:26 pm PT...

ZapKitty: Thanks for the clarification. That's just sad. I don't think voter fraud is a big priority at the Justice Dept. and the Dems will not open up inquiries...well, maybe Waxman will: He doesn't appear to take orders from anyone.

Guess again. Waxman is Jewish and is controlled by AIPAC, just like all the rest of them.

Letters returned ("caged") were used as evidence to block these voters' right to cast a ballot on grounds they were registered at phony addresses.

This is only a crime if you live in a homeless shelter or Iraq. Ask Coulter, she'll tell ya.

Brad: ______Edit as Required____

I can see many of you have not read what Greg has written nor connected it to election fraud and Goodling, and Rove and Tim Griffin. I am posting here an interview clip from Palast at the Buzzflash website. I lost the link, hence the excerpt. Palast makes it all quite plain.

Quote
Greg Palast: Because the Democrats have no cojones. I’m going to tell you something very unhappy, okay? Again, it’s the white caucus versus the black caucus. It’s not Democrats versus Republicans. I talked to the black caucus. John Conyers, head of Judiciary on the House side, is very upset that you have a criminal who knocked black soldiers off the voter rolls as the U.S. attorney in Arkansas. The white caucus leader on the Senate side, is Patrick Leahy. His people said, well, Griffin is just there as an interim appointment, so big deal. Well, he’s interim through the 2008 election. In fact, I have another e-mail from inside the Rovian office which said if the Democrats complain, just say that Griffin is interim.

BuzzFlash: The press fell for this, and Democrats fell for this, too. They won’t seek Senate appointment, and everyone went, oh, you see? They’re conceding that they wouldn’t get it. But it didn’t matter because that was the whole scheme. They are in place for 2008. Rove won.

Greg Palast: Oh, it’s okay because he’s only in there for two years. It’s through the election. Like I say, this is not about Democrats versus Republicans. What you just saw was the millionaires white boys’ club --- versus the black caucus. And that’s what it’s all about. America has an apartheid electoral system and an apartheid Congress. And it’s about time we call it what it is.

BuzzFlash: How does the amazing Tim Griffin represent what really is the goal? As you just pointed out, it’s very important. The Democrats in Congress seem to have forgotten this in not calling for the impeachment of Gonzales.

Greg Palast: If the prosecutors are wrongfully fired, what you do in any wrongful dismissal is you hire them back. Why don’t we have one Democrat saying put them back? Crazy.

BuzzFlash: Basically if you’re Karl Rove and you’re sitting there, you feel you’ve survived everything. And you say I’ll survive this one. The people I’ve put in place to steal the 2008 election are gonna still be there.

Greg Palast: My boys count the votes.

BuzzFlash: Let’s look at Mr. Griffin, who’s one of those who’s in place and will be there until 2008. They went around the senior Democratic senator from Arkansas, Mark Pryor. There’s all sorts of e-mails indicating how they played Pryor.

Greg Palast: The Republicans proved their point. They can break the law. They can put a criminal in as U.S. prosecutor. They can break every rule of the Senate by going around --- remember, it’s not just senatorial privilege, it’s called voter privilege. The people of Arkansas elected Senator Pryor. One of the things that they elected him to do is approve the U.S. attorney for his area. We call that democracy.

BuzzFlash: Why is Griffin particularly emblematic of the reason that most of these eight were being replaced? Either to muddy up Democrats ---

Greg Palast: I think that muddying the Democrats is secondary. It’s that he is the guy in charge of the caging list operation. He’s the guy who knocked off tens of thousands --- and it may go up to hundreds of thousands --- of Democratic voters, mostly minorities. That was his operation. And that is why he is particularly evil, manipulative; and plus, if he can get away with it and then get this appointment without any Democrat raising their voice, then what do you think he’s going to do in office? In other words, if he could get away with what he did, and the Democrats don’t complain, and they basically piss all over the Democrats and Senator Pryor says that’s all right with me, and Patrick Leahy says that’s all right with me, then obviously, what’s he going to do once he’s in office? Take my word for it, he’s going to wipe out the black voters of Arkansas.

And I smell a deal, by the way --- and now I’m speculating. Everyone keeps saying he’s been put in Arkansas so he can do investigation of Hillary Clinton. He’s not going to do that. The deal’s been cut. Why do you think that he’s allowed to be there? Because the deal has been cut. We’ll put in Timmy, but he’s not going to touch Hillary. I’ve seen this before. There was a deal cut between the Democrats and Republicans back in the late nineties. The Republican, Newt Gingrich, was going to be in big legal trouble. So was Hillary Clinton. They traded. I smell a trade right here. Why would you allow a complete dirt bag, felon, criminal, racist scum spider in as U.S. prosecutor in Arkansas, in Hillary Clinton’s state, unless the deal was cut that Hillary is off limits to any investigation or grand jury charges?

BuzzFlash: Now we’ve got Griffin, specialist in violating the Voting Rights Act. In Arkansas, we have other people who were appointed who are willing to go on with the scheme to suppress the vote and then have states pass Jim Crow-type laws and Republican legislators. There probably are other prosecutors who weren’t replaced who are willing to go along with this scheme in key states. Otherwise, they would have been replaced. There also have been bogus claims of violation of registration of voters on Native American reservations.

Greg Palast: There is a litany of fake charges. In the new Armed Madhouse, I have Russell Pearce, a Republican legislator from Arizona, who said five million illegal aliens crossed the border to vote for Democrats --- five million. I asked this fruitcake to give me five names. I said, “If they voted, that means that you have their names. You have their registrations. So why aren’t you arresting them?" And that’s when I began to smell the Rove plan. He said, “Oh, the U.S. attorneys are going to arrest them." But there was not one case brought in New Mexico by the honest attorney. Not one case where there’s an honest U.S. attorney. And by the way, they did find about a half dozen illegal aliens who had registered to vote in Arizona. They were registered by the Republican Party.

end quote

i've asked this on greg's site with no response (in fact, the entire post was removed --- see for yourself) so i'll ask it here:

why not turn over these emails to congress? they are evidence that could help turn a case, if not blow the scandal wide open if we are to believe greg palast.

is it because mr. palast has a book for sale, and the profits of that book and the fortunes of this administration are correlated?

before i was only curious, but after the scrubbing of the "press release" and subsequent comments from mr. palast's website my suspicion has only been enhanced. palast has done good reporting but has made no secret about his frustration about having gotten no coverage in the u.s. mainstream media.

as i said on his site, there are many of us who are nothing short of desperate to rid our country of this absolutely horrible, lawbreaking administration --- these emails would appear to move us toward that goal --- so why not turn them over to the proper authorities?

It's the Jews stupid...

Palast is again taking paranoia to the limit. His description of "caging" is assigned improper actors and his claim that the practice is illegal is untrue.

The "actors" in the "caging" process are not Republican operatives but rather local registrars of voters who are legally obliged in Massachusetts (at least) to send out verification notices to voters who did not vote in the last election (though I notice that they frequently send such notices out to voters also). These local registrars are predominantly Democrats and in the last election in Florida were 100% Democrats.

The process as he describes it is not illegal at all but is legally required by some (if not most) states of their registrars in order to prevent voter fraud. The "Do Not Forward" stamp on the letter is required since, if the post office did forward the letter to the addressee at the new address, the addressee would have an opportunity to vote mutliple times using different addresses. This is not conspiracy but rather sound administrative practice to lessen the impact of potential voter fraud.

Palast is also in error in hypothesizing some sort of conspiracy. Voter lists cannot be arbitrarily changed by some bureaucrat in Washington like Karl Rove --- changing voter lists must be done on a town by town basis in New England or on a county by county basis in the rest of the country. A conspiracy such as he describes would involve tens of thousands of co-conspirators and would fall apart before it got off the ground. In addition, with so many of the local registrars being Democrats, there is no way that local cooperation with a scheme to eliminate Democrat voters would be extended.

Palast is correct in one of his allegations. The voter verification process does have a differentially negative effect on poor (black, Democrat) voters. Poor people move more often and they are therefore differentially subject to removal from voter lists during registrar verifications. But the problem here is not significant since any concerned voter would re-register at his/her new residential address when he/she moved. I would expect that many of the "caged" voters cited by Palast had actually re-registered at their new addresses and cast votes at their new precincts.

Lee Nason
New Bedford Massachusetts
Member, Coalition for Free and Open Elections

Full Disclosure: I have never voted for any Republican for President and have seldom supported Republicans running for any position. I am not a Republican and specifically disapprove of almost every action taken by the Bush Administration. I am simply honest and knowledgeable enough to know that my personal preferences have nothing to do with who actually won the last two presidential elections, a concept that Mr. Palast seems to be unable to grasp.

... lonesomerobot said...

"why not turn over these emails to congress?"

Palast indicated they were turned them over to Conyers and the Judiciary Committee.

Now... why do people insist on implying that he hasn't done that?

Here's the reason nothing will become of this.

This crime would completely destroy the Republican Party. The Shadow Government that has both Parties by the balls won't allow that. If the Republicans were to fall on of the other now fringe Parties would take their place. Any of the Parties outside the two majors have more credibility than both of them put together. There is no way the system is going to let their control of our political process actually go back to the people.

Hence this story will never see the light of day and like all the other crimes that should have brought the criminals in our current form of government to justice, this too shall be buried.

Ok, fine. A crime has been committed. The proof exists. People should go to jail. Slam dunk. Positive, no doubt. Yet, nothing happens. NO-THING! The point? The neo-cons won a long time ago. Game over. Nobody is going to jail. No trials, just medals and awards and pardons. Greg, I think you are a great journalist, I love reading your articles and books. But until Rove and others are hauled into court in shackles, given a fair trial and then put up against a wall and shot, it just doesn't matter.

You might want to check your facts: Goodling was referring to the Deputy Attorney General, Paul McNulty's, knowledge of alleged "caging", not the Chief of Staff's .

Of course this plan goes all the way back to the 2000 Presidential election. Remember Katherine Harris? She hired Choicepoint, a Repub connected company to get rid of as many minority voters as possible. The following is how it is reported, what is not said however, is that many people were placed on the list who had similar names even though their birthdays, first names, middle names were different. This company and the Sec. (Harris) knew what they were doing.

" Florida is the only state that pays a private company that promises to "cleanse" voter rolls.The state signed in 1998 a $4 million contract with DBT Online, since merged into ChoicePoint, of Atlanta. The creation of the scrub list, called the central voter file, was mandated by a 1998 state voter fraud law, which followed a tumultuous year that saw Miami's mayor removed after voter fraud in the election, with dead people discovered to have cast ballots. The voter fraud law required all 67 counties to purge voter registries of duplicate registrations, deceased voters and felons, many of whom, but not all, are barred from voting in Florida.

In the process, however, the list invariably targets a minority population in Florida, where 31 percent of all black men cannot vote because of a ban on felons. In compiling a list by looking at felons from other states, Florida could, in the process, single out citizens who committed felons in other states but, after serving their time or successfully petitioning the courts, had their voting rights returned to them. According to Florida law, felons can vote once their voting rights have been reinstated."

Brad, Greg, or anyone . . .

Can someone compile a detailed summary of all the well-documented items that we know to date about the Rethuglican campaign to highpjack the election process? We have, for instance, the well-documented irregularities in recent elections and a few convictions to date of Republican opperatives in Ohio, the politicization of the Federal Election Commission with partisan appointees who suppressed studies that showed that election fraud wasn't a big problem, the investigations just announced yesterday that confirm that the Hatch Act was violated by the head of GSA (Lurita Doan) when she allowed a Rove opperative to make a presentation to federal employees of how to help "our candidates"(one of many such presentations), the outrageous problems with the computerized voting machines, and, of course, the very obvious patterns of hiring and firing of U.S. Attorneys that show a clear pattern directly related to efforts to suppress voting by various means.

And we all need to beat the drum loudly and constantly for a special prosecutor and a grand jury to examine this mess.

Early prosecution will not net the big ones. I'm sure Conyers knows of the emails. More time will give the save-my-own-skinners an opportunity to come clean.

Be patient, this colossal story has thousands of legs. Lots of indictments ahead.

Great, great work, Greg. And, thank you, Brad.

Now, the commanders need to get informed and bring the ships and troops home. They need to know the orders they've received came from the biggest criminal organization in our nation's history.

They might ask themselves: How will I explain my participation in a nationalist socialist war to my children and grandchildren? Then, there are the courts.

Lets see some common sense from the big guns.

I said upthread...

"Palast indicated they were turned over to Conyers and the Judiciary Committee. Now... why do people insist on implying that he hasn't done that?"

Fun speculation after listening to comments on this on Palast's site:

Given: What certain types are desperately trying to get Palast to do is publish all of the emails... so the perps can know what they're up against and begin spiking the investigations.

But this conjecture is helpful only if Palast did indeed forward the emails. And would Conyers acknowledge they had been received? I'd think so... after they'd been through an initial review. There would be no reason to deny it after Palast's statement.

So... would past Tuesday (05-25-2007) with no confirmation at all of handover be an appropriate time to commence evisceration proceedings on the fellow?

MR PALAST! ACT NOW! SEND ALL OF THIS TO THE HOUSE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE!!!

Make copies of EVERYTHING you have on the GOP caging and send it registered return mail (with insurance!) to every member of the HJC! Have ALL OF IT admitted as EVIDENCE! Perp turned Prosecuter indeed!

Those on this board can send emails too!

Here is the list:
http://judiciary.house.g...CommitteeMembership.aspx

Let's all get this to Conyers et. al. NOW! Mr. Palast, YOU have the Smoking Guns! The one thing the GOP absolutely HATES is the "F" word: FACTS.

imbillorightsmanandiapprovethismessage

For those of us who think Palast isn't very trustworthy, how about posting these actual emails and the actual Excel files, or at least PDFs thereof. It's really not very persuasive to put up virtually unreadable images that obviously capture only a small portion of an email or file.

Thank you # 71 Stephen Pitt --- Good judgment on your part. Some of these comments have come from mentally out of step people. If the shoe fits, then you are one of them.

Sorry---
Thanks Stephen --- you are spot on!!

... John Doe said...

"For those of us who think Palast isn't very trustworthy, how about posting these actual emails and the actual Excel files, or at least PDFs thereof."

Unfortunately it is possible that doing that prematurely could foul an actual investigation... assuming one is launched.

Given the current distrust of congressional democrats and the very real CMS media hatchet job aimed at any Palast article a solution to this would have to be in two parts, I think:

Palast indicated the emails were already going to the HJC... so give Conyers some time to review them and then announce that the committee has them.

If Conyers says that the emails were received then that's that for the "ain't no emails" crowd.

If Conyers says that no such mails were received then Palast is toast... unless he produces the emails.

If Conyers says that the emails were received but the investigation is aborted or strangely muted thereafter... then Palast must decide whether to produce the emails on his own.

Repeated calls to publish the emails before the HJC has a chance to review them would engender a good deal of suspicion as to the motives behind such calls, I think.

By the limited data released so far an investigation by the HJC would be automatically triggered by the contents of the emails so publishing the emails prematurely and fouling an investigation just getting underway would do no one but the perps any good.

But as far as I can determine there should be nothing to prevent Conyers from acknowledging the receipt of such emails... after they've had enough time to review them.

For those who missed the Palast interview at Buzzflash, go to the site, click search and type Palast Interview, under articles.
Voila! It's there. In it's entirety.

#64:

"These local registrars are predominantly Democrats and in the last election in Florida were 100% Democrats."

LOL

You better inform Karl Rove he needs to start paying some attention to Florida then. He must have completely forgot about Florida last time.

Always remember that anybody can claim to be a Democrat. That does not make it so. Have you noticed any of the many neoCon "Democrats" who have been roaming the web and the media lately?

With reference to comment #69, the task of purging Florida's voter roles of convicted felons was outsourced to private companies and, of course, the companies who had the lowest bid were the ones who "economized" by obtaining a list of those who had been CHARGED with felonies without undertaking the additional effort and expense of checking whether those CHARGED had been CONVICTED. This was one of the ways in which the rethugs stole at least a hundred thousand votes from Gore.
Of course, in the media's promised recount of the disputed ballots using six possible methods of determining which ballots to count, the four in which a consistent method of recounting the ballots was used had Gore winning. The other two used "a variety of standards." Of course the Supreme Court by a five to four vote ordered the vote counting halted and appointed Bush. No one has explained why this coup by five Supreme Court Injustices is in any way different from a coup in which five military generals conducted a seizure of power and order us to stop counting the votes.
As for the person who claimed that caging was not illegal but in fact required by law, one of the previous comments mentioned a court case in which the Republican Party had to promise to never engage in caging again.

I came across an article, written by law professors, that exposes the constitutional illegality of, not only Monica, but also of the entire regime:

One layer below these common structural understandings is a basic axiom that the current administration consistently ignores: Power corrupts, and it is the goal of the Constitution to control and minimize that tendency.
...
We rely on government employees to keep their constitutional priorities in order. They may receive their salary from the government, but nonetheless must remain committed to democratic and constitutional principles, and insist that their state employer lives up to those same ideals. When government is of the party, by the party, and for the party, we lose the internal monitoring of the state provided by independent citizens.
...
The American constitutional system trusts the people first; our confidence in government is derivative of our confidence in the citizenry. Under this constitutional order, it is not surprising that confidence in government depends in part on the reality that government needs to enlist and employ the labor of citizens to do its job.

"We the People" not only recognizes the sovereignty of the popular will; it also affirms that "We the People" provide the skill and effort that makes government work. When government operates through "We the [Political] Party," rather than through the citizenry, a hugely important basis for trusting government is lost.

(Some Larger Constitutional Lessons from the United States Attorneys' Firings, emphasis added).

"For those of us who think Palast isn't very trustworthy"

Who's "US"????????????? Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity? Or do you have a rat in your pocket?

Lee Nason says, "Palast is again taking paranoia to the limit. His description of "caging" is assigned improper actors and his claim that the practice is illegal is untrue."

I would say, if you 100% target minorities, that sounds illegal to me!!! And let's face it, that's exactly what the party that has ZERO blacks (name them!) in it, is doing!

Name the BLACK Republicans in the House and Senate...let's be REAL here! And stop this crap of trying to shift the subject! The party with ZERO blacks is trying to disenfranchize BLACKS!!! You can say all you want, "Greg Palast blah blah blah"...and "the registrars blah blah blah" and try to shift the subject...

ZERO BLACK REPUBLICANS!!!!!!!!!!!!! Why would they WANT blacks to vote?????????????????

The Republicans had that one black guy, that they kept showing from different camera angles at the 2004 RNC conventions, remember? Trying to make it seem like there were different black guys there...

Am I correct, that there are ZERO black Republicans in Congress? How come this isn't widely publicized?

Are the Republicans tossing a shutout here? Correct me if I'm wrong...

Wasn't there a black Republican once..."Watts" or something like that? Anybody name the last black Republican?

#82 - More likely it's a gerbil in his pocket . . .

If Rove, or anyone else, destroyed (deleted) emails, it would be a federal crime? According to none other than Sensenbrenner:

"We are here in part to reconstruct a meeting we should have been able to watch," Sensenbrenner said. "I believe that this tape, which was produced by NASA employees with NASA equipment, was government property and there are criminal penalties for destroying government property."

Sensenbrenner said that if Rep. Brad Miller (D-N.C.), the subcommittee's chairman, writes a letter requesting the Justice Department investigate the matter,
he would be willing to sign it. After the hearing, Miller told reporters he is considering making such a request of Justice.

NASA General Counsel Mike Wholley said that he regretted destroying the recordings and was sorry for the embarrassment and distraction his actions have caused the agency. But he also said that he believed he was acting in accordance with federal records law when he broke in half and threw five DVDs in the trash that had been brought to him by NASA Chief of Staff Paul Morrell.

(NASA Article, emphasis added). It is not difficult to extrapolate that emails originating from White What House staff likewise are government records.

Big Dan #82-85

According to this Wikipedia article you are correct.

There are no republican African Americans in the current (110th) Congress.

Precisely what is it about "caging" that makes it a federal crime?

As Brad and Greg probably know, the fed lives at sites like this. It is a fact the State Dept, Justice Dept, NASA, even the World Bank Group, and many other D.C. governmental and military entities hang out at my site. I print each unusual visit and have a considerable stack of who's who, even Justice friendlies. So, they know.

This story goes on my index in plain sight. Any patriot who has a website-regardless of the number of traffic hits-needs to get this story up now. The Internet continues to be a boil on the dark side's collective ass.

When the time is right, we lance.

The trouble with uncovering bad things is that there must be a critical mass of electorate ready to become 'galvanized' over the uncovering of said things. Bad things by themselves are not enough. How many Americans would pour out into the streets if George Bush announced tomorrow he planned to remain in power indefinitely? What buildings would they burn? What centers of power would they target first? Walmart headquarters? The RNC? Disneyworld?

The outrages and criminality are there. But there's a countervailing apathy and general cluelessness that sorts of snuffs it all out. Throw two fuzzballs together and you just get a bigger fuzzball.

DGRIP #89, you can read up on the illegality of "caging" voter lists here.

Read a contemporaneous analysis of how Republicans use the caging technique to keep minorities from voting (a federal crime, naturally) in this 2004 Washington Post article.

Oh c'mon PEOPLE! The GOPhers had ONE BIG BLACK MAN in Ohio Government in 2004!

Who could forget
KEN BLACKWELL?????
Blackwell on Countdown 11-29-04

BLACKWELL: And we‘re very, very proud of it and we have the most scrutinized election system in the United States. And we are we have met every test. Every test, we have made. And I‘m very proud of the 50,000 co-workers and election officials who delivered a free and fair election.
~snip~
OLBERMANN: Last question, sir. Can you refute or confirm one of the Internet‘s favorite stories that no one seems to have gotten an answer, that you had a meeting with President Bush on the day of the election in Ohio?

BLACKWELL: That‘s just hogwash, absolutely zero, not true. And it‘s the sort of mythology that grows out of, you know, a lot of people with a lot of time on their hands and the imaginations of Jonathan Swift.

But it goes with the territory. Like I said, we had 45,000 square miles of geography, 88 counties‘ board of elections, 50,000 folks that ran a great election on Election Day. We had a record turnout of voters in Ohio. We had record registration. And I think the facts speak for themselves.

iirc, if you check elsewhere on BradBlog or use The Google there is evidence that Blackwell DID meet with gwb et al on 2004 Election Day (story about the GOP server running OH election "results"), not to mention the MYSTERIOUS "terror threat" at the Warren County BoE. AND Blackwell's Diebold contract was NEVER scrutinized (also reported on BradBlog). LIAR.

THANK THE STARS JENNIFER BRUNNER IS OUR SoS NOW!

(Oh yeah, Lynn Swan ran as a GOPher for PA Gov last year too. They are out there. The Black Communities everywhere just don't buy the CRAP they're sellin'.)
/rant

imbillorightsmanandiapprovethismessage

The Palast caging lists are racist in nature... but would be illegal anyway regardless of race:

42 U.S.C. 1971
TITLE 42 > CHAPTER 20 > SUBCHAPTER I > Sec. 1971
(B) deny the right of any individual to vote in any election because of an error or omission on any record or paper relating to any application, registration, or other act requisite to voting, if such error or omission is not material in determining whether such individual is qualified under State law to vote in such election;

Since the Republican caging lists were deliberately "designed to fail" large numbers of people who had legitimate reasons for not responding to the caging letters the lists were, and are, highly illegal.

The fact that the lists in question targeted predominately black areas is just another item of culpability for the Republicans... the fact that black people tend to vote Democratic is no reason to single them out for illegal attacks on their voting rights.

But the Department of Justice should have taken action at the very first hint of the words "caging lists" and "voter registrations" being used in the same context...

... but objective testimony has confirmed that the Voting Rights section at the DoJ has been gutted and politicized, and the people responsible for the caging lists Palast received have turned out to be the people running the White House and the Department Of Justice...

... can you hear that hollow laughter?

I went to the House Judiciary Committee's website. I went to their e-mail contact page and I filled out that form with a link to the Palast article and also the text of the article. There is a place to report *Waste, Fraud, and Abuse,* so I did the same there. Here are the links to those two pages (please join me in writing - a large number of messages will hopefully draw their attention):
General Contact:
http://judiciary.house.gov/contact.aspx

Report Waste, Fraud, and Abuse:
http://judiciary.house.gov/reportfraud.aspx

... Beverly Alexander said...

"... to report *Waste, Fraud, and Abuse,*"

And no, you should not start out your message with "I'd like to report a Republican administration..."

(Although it'd actually be relevant in this case...)

Look at the BLACKS they DID have: Condi Rice and Ken BLACKwell!!!

And neither were in Congress, and one of them was appointed, not elected.

WOW! I can name 2 current/former BLACK Republicans, and LOOKEY WHO THEY ARE! Rice and Blackwell! One was appointed, and one is no longer in office, and NEITHER were in Congress!!!!!!!!!!!!

According to Dredd's link above:

THERE ARE 40 BLACK DEMOCRATS IN CONGRESS...

THERE ARE ZERO BLACK REPUBLICANS IN CONGRESS!!!!!!!!

40-0!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

NO WONDER THE REPUBLICAN PARTY IS SUPPRESSING BLACK VOTERS!

Okay...I have to ask...why has not one Democratic member in the Senate, the House, the DOJ or any where for that matter..not even Keith Olbermann (champion of Justice)..not a one involved in these hearings...not Schumer, not Leahy, not Conyers...not a one has mentioned this, investigated this or breathed a word of this....WTF? What do we do to get some one to listen....a suicide bomber?

John Conyers met with Greg the other day and has copies of the e-mails. The problem is nobody gives a damn what Conyers does. Here's what we need to worry about, I pulled these off Sourcewatch because they were more concise but all of these executive orders can be found at the white house site.

EO 10990: "allows the government to take over all modes of transportation and control of highways and seaports." [9]
EO 10995: Federal seizure of all communications media in the US.
EO 10997: Federal seizure of all electric power, fuels, minerals, public and private.
EO 10998: Federal seizure of all food supplies and resources, public and private and all farms and equipment.
EO 10999: Federal seizure of all means of transportation, including cars, trucks, or vehicles of any kind and total control over all highways, seaports and water ways.
EO 11000: Federal seizure of American people for work forces under federal supervision, including the splitting up of families if the government so desires.
EO 11001: Federal seizure of all health, education and welfare facilities, both public and private.
EO 11002: Empowers the Postmaster General to register every single person in the US.
EO 11003: Federal seizure of all airports and aircraft.
EO 11004: Federal seizure of all housing and finances and authority to establish forced relocation. Authority to designate areas to be abandoned as 'unsafe,' establish new locations for populations, relocate communities, build new housing with public funds.
EO 11005: Seizure of all railroads, inland waterways and storage facilities, both public and private.
EO 11051: Provides FEMA complete authorization to put above orders into effect in times of increased international tension of economic or financial crisis (FEMA will be in control incase of 'National Emergency').
You can find all of these on the White House web site www.whitehouse.gov - search for executive orders.

Let the rednecks get a look at this and all hell is going to break loose. Unless tehy are recruited as brownshirts and get to get their guns - somebody should send this to the NRA - can you imagine not only taking a southerners guns, but his trucks too? Oh man.

I live in Arkansas and the Palast Exclusive: "The Goods on Goodling and the Keys to the Kingdom" prompted me to send a [not so diplomatic] webmail to my congressmen and woman--one being Sen. Mark Pryor [D]. I never heard back from them--other than a bot reply from one [Ross-D].

Just now I went to this page:

http://www.sourcewatch.o....php?title=Congresspedia

and noticed it said that Tim Griffin, the infamous Bushman mentioned in Palast's interview, has resigned from his post as federal prosecutor in Arkansas. I googled it and found these two articles from Arkansas:

http://www.arktimes.com/...7/05/its_official_4.aspx

http://www.nwaonline.net...news/053107arfedpros.txt

So, it's true. Griffin has resigned. Is it coincidence that it comes at this time? After Palast outed him so well? It does make one feel like one small step for We The People has been made, but having lived here in Arkansas for all but 5 of my [almost] 46 years, I have grown more cynical than most United Statians.

Is this really going to produce something positive in the long run? Or will this be the end of it--Griffin resigns, case closed? I know this--I think I'm even more cynical today than I was yesterday. The cause? It begins with the fact that I subscribe to receive breaking news emails from an Arkansas paper located in another part of the state, a part where my oldest son lives. Their emails purport to be "Breaking News" but...they sent me nothing about this. All I received from them was an "article" glorifying, of all things, Wal-Mart!

===
"In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends."

- Martin Luther King Jr.

Ah! I attempted to contact Arkansas' representative Boozman [R] in regards to his chief of staff's strictly voluntary [ignorance? arrogance? all of the above and then some?].

Boozman is not "my" representative, but statements made by his COS concerning Tim Griffin were just too disgusting to ignore.

RE:
Matt Sagely, Boozman's chief of staff , said Wednesday he learned from the White House that Griffin would resign Friday and be replaced by Duke. Sagely said he was sure Griffin's decision was strictly voluntary.

"I don't think it had anything to do at all with the administration saying, 'Yeah, we need to appoint an interim and you need to be gone by June 1," Sagely said. "I think as we're working through the process of his replacement, he's just been out and doing what he should do and that is talking to people about jobs and trying to find his next step.

"He's a guy that knows a lot of people and is going to do very well after this," Sagely said.

http://www.nwaonline.net...ews/053107arfedpros.txt]

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Why was I surprised that in my attempt to contact Boozman I was directed to a page with the following??? I AM an Arkansan, after all! [emphasis mine]

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"Many organizations are using automated programs to send messages to Congress, many of these automated messages might be considered spam. Your Representative prefers not to receive messages from such automated programs. To prevent this practice we ask that you answer the question below. When you enter the correct response it ensures that the message is not coming from an automated program and helps your Representative respond to you as quickly as possible.

What is eight minus one?

If you are unable to provide a correct response but still wish to contact your Representative please call our office at 202-225-4301.

http://www.house.gov/htbin/wrep_findrep
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"In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends."

- Martin Luther King Jr.

I wonder if Ms. Goodling didn't really understand what caging is. They probably don't teach that in Bible school. I couldn't really read all of Palast's emails above but it seemed like Griffin was telling her they weren't what they are. So she was being "honest" that she thought they had something to do with "marketing" or whatever it is she said in her testimony. She might just be too stupid to realize what she said when she dumped out the caging issue in her testimony. Unfortunately for us, congress seems to be just as stupid. But, good work for Palast. Hope Conyers can carry the day.

If Obama does not appropriately show Conyer presidential statemanship support and if he does not step up to the plate on this issue he will demonstrate he is but a shadow of man. If the Clintons (Bill included) capitalize on this still young/early "issue" the democratic nomination will be in the bag.