Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

The media is now beginning to question the hiring of Michael Vu as the second in command of elections in San Diego County. Vu, who quit under fire from his job as the elections director for Cuyahoga Co. Ohio, has a poor record. Under his supervision absentee ballots were never sent to thousands of voters, voters were removed for no reason from the voter registration rolls, the county election budget was taken into the red, and two of his senior assistants were convicted of manipulating the recount of ballots in 2006 and received sentences of 18 months in prison. Vu refuses to speak with the media but the county supports his hiring and says that Vu has acted honorable and professionally.

Links to that story (including video) and other notable voting news stories all below...

RELATED NOTE FROM BRAD: Back in April I wrote an article for ComputerWorld on the Vu situation in San Diego, titled "San Diego Registrar Goes from Worst to Worster to Worstest". Due to a technical problem at CW the story never ran. So I've gone ahead and posted it here, backdated to April 12th (when it was supposed to have run), just for the historical record, if you're interested in my take on it at the time.

Following up on Greg Gordon's Sunday piece on former DoJ operative turned recess-appointed FEC chair Hans von Spakovsky, McClatchy has now posted the emails referred to in the article in full [PDF].

As you'll recall, the point we focused on when we covered Gordon's article was the apparent attempted strong-arming, suggested by the emails, of U.S. Election Assistance Commission (EAC) chair Paul DeGregorio. Von Spakovsky was attempting to influence the EAC's reports and positions on GOP claims of massive "voter fraud" and the effects of legislation for Photo ID restrictions at the polls.

Von Spakovsky was concerned about the EAC's position and the "proper balance" (code word) being brought to bi-partisan reports on "voter fraud" and Photo ID, both of which eventually failed to give evidence of GOP claims of massive Democratic voter fraud. Such claims were being used by Bush's operatives at DoJ and out in the "grass roots" by their boy Thor Hearne and his "non-partisan" front group, the American Center for Voting Rights to game elections and media, and push for Photo ID laws (which have been found to be unconstitutional time and again.)

Both reports would eventually be altered and/or buried.

BRAD BLOG readers will also recall the many reports filed here concerning the partisanship and/or incompetence of the EAC, the White House controlled federal body which supposedly oversees our nation's electoral system. These emails highlight many of the claims we've made about inappropriate influence by the White House on the failed commission.

One thing which catches our eye in the emails right away is that von Spakovsky's emails were sent to the Republican members of the commission including DeGregorio, Donnetta Davidson (now EAC chair), and Tom Wilkey (EAC Exec Dir.), but not to the Democratic members. (Ed Note: See 5/24/07 UPDATE at bottom of article on this point.) We've covered both Davidson and Wilkey, and the failings of each, in some detail here at The BRAD BLOG in the past.

The notes were also sent to Republican aides of Sen. Christopher Bond in Missouri (home of the ACVR's Hearne), as well as Doug Lewis of the Election Center, a voting machine industry front group, which "the Dean of the DC press corp," WaPo's David Broder, recently referred to in a column as his favorite expert on elections, forgetting to mention that he's an industry/Republican shill. Can someone please put Broder out to pasture at this point?! And can the media stop quoting Lewis as if he's a disinterested, non-partisan "expert" on elections?!

Little time for the moment to report on the new specifics found in the emails, so we'll encourage you to give them a quick read (just 5 pages) and leave your thoughts here in comments. As time allows, we'll update this item with our own thoughts if possible.

But one quick point that we haven't highlighted enough lately: Voter Fraud is the term used to describe voters gaming the system on a retail level by voting twice, etc. It's extremely rare, as bi-partisan reports have shown time and again, despite GOP claims (that includes the EAC's own buried and altered reports that von Spakovsky hoped to influence).

Election Fraud, on the other hand, is the defrauding of elections through the administration of those elections, from inappropriate voter roll purges to gaming of voting equipment, etc. Evidence strongly suggests that the GOP's unevidenced claims of a "voter fraud" epidemic by Democrats may well have been forwarded after 2004 in order to deflect from the now-well-documented evidence showing GOP election fraud in Ohio and elsewhere.

Hope that reminder helps to clarify.

UPDATE 5/24/07: McClatchy's Greg Gordon writes to say that he believes that all of the commissioners, not just the Republican ones, were CC'd on the emails in question, but that those CC's somehow ended up on a second page and didn't get included when they created their PDF's of the actual emails. Due to the holiday weekend, unfortunately, he won't be able to try to find them in order to check for sure until next week at earliest. But he wanted us to note that there is a question about whether or not all of the EAC commissioners were actually CC'd, and to note his recollection that they were, at least on some of the notes. We'll update further if we can learn definitively one way or the other.

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

When counties are left to make their own decisions many of them take the right road. Harrison Co. Mississippi is replacing their Diebold TSx DREs with optical-scan machines. Three counties in Iowa have also decided to come together so they can bargain as one with Diebold for optical-scan machines and AutoMark. And when one goes looking for heroes they only need to look at Texas State Sen. Mario Gallegos. Gallegos had a liver transplant earlier this year. The State Senate is deciding whether the voters in the state need to have a Voter ID. The only way to block the legislation is for all of the Democrats to vote alike (they will) and to be available for a vote. Sen. Gallegos had a hospital bed set-up in an office less than a hundred feet from his desk on the floor. The bill has been blocked so far....

A letter sent to White House attorney Fred Fielding today by top U.S. House Judiciary Committee members offers "one last appeal" for voluntary cooperation in the U.S. Attorney firing probe, or else a "compulsory process" will begin.

The letter, sent to The BRAD BLOG by committee chair John Conyers (D-MI) and the chair of the Subcommittee on Commercial and Administrative Law, Linda T. Sánchez (D-CA), takes the White House to task for their "rebuff of efforts by the Judiciary Committee to obtain voluntary cooperation" in their investigation "concerning at least nine U.S. Attorneys in 2006 and related matters."

The letter may be downloaded below.

"Even without a single document or witness interview provided by the White House," the letter charges, "it is clear that the White House played an important role in the events concerning the U.S. Attorney controversy."

By way of example, the two House chairs detail Karl Rove's admission that he intervened with both the White House Counsel's Office and the DoJ concerning the firing of New Mexico's U.S. Attorney David Iglesias.

"It is becoming increasingly clear that we will not be able to complete our investigation absent full and complete cooperation from the White House," they write, before pointing out that "it would be constitutionally irresponsible to accept your 'all or nothing' limitations" for nothing more than off-the-record interviews without transcripts or public questioning.

"If the White House persists in refusing to provide information to the House Judiciary Committee, or even to discuss providing such information, on a voluntary basis, we will have no alternative but to begin to resort to compulsory process in order to carry out our oversight responsibilities," the letter concludes.

No explanation of what such a "compulsory process" might include is offered in the letter.

The two-page letter also includes a copy of an email message from Kyle Sampson, Alberto Gonzales's former Chief of Staff, discussing strategy for the firings of U.S. Attorneys last November. The complete letter sent to today to Fred F. Fielding, Esq., Counsel to the President, may be downloaded here in full [PDF]

Guest Blogged by Arlen Parsa

{Ed Note: An error in this report was later discovered while working on a follow-up to it. The illegality of the Bush military pay raise proposal as described in the report below, is based on a 1999 law which phased out the pay formula that Bush failed to meet, by fiscal year 2008. Lawmakers are in the process of restoring that provision, even while another law also keeps the legality of Bush's proposal in doubt. The full details and explanation for the error, after combing through a soup of defense authorization provisions, are explained in our follow up report. The BRAD BLOG regrets the error.}

Recently the Bush Administration and Democratically-controlled Congress were at odds over how much to pay US soldiers serving in the most dangerous places in the world: Iraq and Afghanistan. Congress said that the troops should get a raise of 3.5%, while the Administration said any raise higher than 3% was not deserved. Administration officials even bluntly said the White House "strongly opposes" giving the troops that extra 0.5%.

Although Democrats have been arguing for the 3.5% raise, what neither they, nor any news organization seems to have thus far noticed, is that the Administration's meager compensation plan would be, in fact, illegal.

Increases in military salary are traditionally determined by increases in average civilian salary, according to a method of measurement called the Employment Cost Index. Regardless of the actual dollar increase in salary, the base pay for service-members must be at least 0.5% above the corresponding civilian pay because of a Defense Authorization Act which Congress passed in 1999.

But according to Bureau of Labor Statistics numbers, the Bush Administration's proposed raise of only 3% for active-duty troops in Iraq and Afghanistan is actually less than the average increase in civilian wages from 2006 to 2007 (3.3%), instead of the required 0.5% more than the average civilian wage (which would be equal to 3.8%).

If Congress passes the funding plan that the Administration has proposed, they will, in effect, be illegally depriving the troops of the minimum pay raise guaranteed to them by the earlier law. The move would save the Bush Administration millions and could cost new US Army recruits (who are the least effected by the proposed pay raise) a few hundred dollars annually.

Still, some service-members might take comfort from the fact that the issue at hand is a raise in salary, not a decrease, as the Bush Administration and the Department of Defense had previously tried to pull off in 2003, until they got caught red-handed attempting to stiff U.S. troops back then as well...

McClatchy Newspaper's excellent Greg Gordon moves the ball forward again on the Bush White House's insider politicization of the DoJ to achieve electoral advantages via gaming of phony "Voter Fraud" claims and the pursuit of voter suppressing Photo ID laws at the polls.

His article covers the inside moves of the Bush-appointed operative Hans von Spakovsky after he was assigned to the DoJ's voting rights unit, and the games he played in the post, including an anonymously published essay on "Voter Fraud" and Voter ID laws; overriding of career civil rights attorney recommendations against a Georgia Voter ID law (while refusing to recuse himself, despite his past service as a Georgia official), a law which was later found by a federal judge to be unconstitutional and akin to a Jim Crow-era poll tax; and attempts to influence the U.S. Elections Assistance Commission (EAC)'s studies on Voter Fraud and the effects of Photo ID at the polls.

Last year, Von Spakovsky was recess-appointed by Bush to head the FEC, though he will face what could be an interesting Congressional confirmation hearing in the Senate on June 13.

Aside from the many familiar faces (at least to BRAD BLOG readers) who come into play in the story, from Georgia to Arizona to Missouri, one aspect of Gordon's report is a bit of a surprise and so particularly catches our notice...

If the GOP can, in the course of selecting their own Presidential nominee, use a fictional TV show to highlight dangers, real or imagined, that face America, so can we point to a fictional networkwide election hacking scenario as recently seen on a popular TV show. Fictionalized or otherwise, the premise behind this TV hack is based on a real and documented vulnerability of electronic voting machines and underscores the dangers they pose to American democracy.

The following compilation of a few scenes from last week's HEROES on NBC demonstrates a very real scenario: the ability of a single person to hack an election via inappropriate access to a voting machine --- the type of access regularly granted to election officials, voting machine company employees, and poll workers allowed to take voting machines home for "sleepovers" prior to elections.

While the inappropriate access by this particular person in the following clip is obviously a fantasy, the premise underscoring the scenario is anything but --- at least if you're one of those reality-based folks who still believe in the expertise of scientists, peer-reviewed university studies and reports by the Government Accountability Office (GAO), etc.

Enjoy...

(Thanks to Alan Breslauer for the smart edit, and to BRAD BLOG emailer and HEROES fan, Corey K. for the heads up!)

On their sales page for Dr. Laura's book, Parenthood by Proxy: Don't Have Them if You Won't Raise Them (later repackaged as Stupid Things Parents Do to Mess Up Their Kids), the rightwing "news" outlet WordNetDaily writes:

Looks like the faux doctor, one-time exhibitionist (graphic link very not safe for work!), American Patron Saint of Hubris, and her kid's mom, may not have done such a bang-up job in that "essential task of teaching them right and wrong" after all. The Salt Lake Tribune is reporting that her son, Deryk, now stationed with the U.S. Army in Afghanistan, is "under investigation for a graphic personal Web page that one Army official has called 'repulsive.'"

The site, believed to be Deryk's, reportedly featured "cartoon depictions of rape, murder, torture and child molestation; photographs of soldiers with guns in their mouths; a photograph of a bound and blindfolded detainee captioned 'My Sweet Little Habib'; accounts of illicit drug use; and a blog entry headlined by a series of obscenities and racial epithets" and was shut down on Friday.

Color us stunned.

"Yes . . . FUCKINGING Yes!!!," Dr. Laura's adorable little bunchkin began one of his blog entries on the site, according to the Trib. "I LOVE MY JOB, it takes everything reckless and deviant and heathenistic and just overall bad about me and hyper focuses these traits into my job of running around this horrid place doing nasty things to people that deserve it . . . and some that don't."

And in other Rightwing Hypocrisy news this weekend, former family values champeen and South Dakota state Rep. Ted Klaudt was arrested Friday "on felony charges that include eight counts of rape involving foster children and former legislative pages." The story is appalling enough that we don't even wish to go into details here, so be forewarned if you choose to click on the link.

Beyond that, go take on the day!

Guest blogged by DES

On the road this weekend, so little time to offer a summary or ad graphics, but below you'll find the most notable of notable stories posted last week to The BRAD BLOG. From more news of Ann Coulter's felony voter fraud, to exclusives on the U.S. Attorney purge from Greg Palast and another from Brad on the worm which took down Early Voting in Sarasota's 13th district last year, to the continuing unravelling of the GOP 'Voter Fraud' scam and the crooks and liars of the ACVR and the legal firm, Lathrop & Gage, behind it all. A quick review of the following will get you all caught up for whatever tumult is undoubtedly set to follow this week as the wheels continue to come off at a breakneck pace...

John Fund is an evil, unrepentant liar who despises democracy and the very American values that it represents. Other than that, he's swell.

At left is the Wall Street Journal's editorialist/propagandist, lying to America on Friday night's Real Time with Bill Maher. Actor and well-informed progressive Bradley Whitford deserves credit for attempting to call "bullshit" (literally) on Fund's garbage, but it sure would be nice if Maher had someone on who could really speak to the insidious (and successful) GOP "voter fraud" scam meant for nothing more nor less than to keep legitimate voters from being able to cast a vote, as revealed more clearly than ever by the U.S. Attorney Purge scandal. Fund is one of the original architects, or at least a ponyboy for that despicable scam.

(Hint: I live about 7 minutes from where Real Time tapes each week, and would be happy to counter the previously-debunked horse manure that Fund was allowed to spread, virtually unchecked, last night.)

Important Note: Before you view the video, I should point out that Fund's reference to the Baker/Carter Commission's recommendation for Photo ID restrictions at the polls should be taken in context with the fact that that privately-empaneled commission was created by the same fraudsters who created the GOP's American Center for Voting Rights (ACVR) scam as we originally broke here and followed up here, and which RAW STORY subsequently busted wide open here.

As we all reported at the time, that Baker/Carter scam was meant to do little more than give "respectable and official blue-ribbon" credence to the Photo ID scam they were beginning to perpetrate back in its nascent stages. The scam was perpetrated by the same operatives who secretly created and ran the commission in the first place, in order that folks like Fund (who, naturally, was called to give testimony to this phony commission) could later cite some sort of official elder-statesmen blessing of their disenfranchising Photo ID conspiracy which they've been using to con an otherwise gullible media/electorate.

Here's what a fuming John Conyers had to say about Fund's Baker/Carter commission testimony as we reported it in April of 2005, not long after live-blogging the entire hearing:

(Thanks to BRAD BLOG's video ace, Alan Breslauer for the stomach churning video clip!)

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

New Jersey is taking a small step toward ensuring the voting machines their citizens use are reliable and work as advertised. The state Attorney General has asked New Jersey Institute of Technology scientists and students to test printing systems that will be required on all voting machines used in the state after next January. Activists have pointed out, correctly, that this new development does not go far enough and they turn to California for proof. California has begun a top to bottom inspection and testing of all voting systems used in the state.

Links to that story, and many more, all follow below...

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

The arrogance of some election officials is stunning. Voters in Alameda Co California disputed election results from a 2004 initiative. A group of voters asked for all records from the machines. The county denied that request. The group went to court and a Superior Court Judge found in favor of the voters and instructed the county to turn over all information from the election, including information from the voting machines. The county has continued to refuse to turn anything over, to the extent of sending the machines back to Diebold. The county now faces sanctions and fines. Why would they refuse a court order? What does the county have to hide?...

I may have more thoughts on this article a bit later, but for now, allow me to just recommend it.

Loyola Election Law professor Rick Hasen outs, in some detail, the shameful case of democracy-hater Mark F. "Thor" Hearne (former Bush/Cheney national general counsel) and his entire Rove-orchestrated ACVR "voter fraud" scam over at Slate today, in a piece titled: "The Fraudulent Fraud Squad - The Incredible, Disappearing American Center for Voting Rights".

After more than two years of the story being "chronicled indefatigably" here at The BRAD BLOG, as Hasen is kind enough to point out/link to, his article summarizing the rise and fall of one of this century's most insidious assaults on American values under the guise of the ACVR GOP front-group fraud comes not a moment too soon.

Let's see if the rest of the MSM catches onto it, and if they're able to advance the story a bit to finally begin peaking under the filthy stained ACVR sheets to figure out who was really pulling the strings behind the scam...not to mention funding it.

As mentioned, perhaps more later on this, as I'm currently in the middle of a thing or two, but wanted folks to catch --- and read --- Hasen's critical exposé, as the breadth of the full story is finally told somewhere other than here(!), and before it gets too late on a Friday.

For more information on the "non-partisan" tax-exempt ACVR "Voter Fraud" scam and the snakeoil salesmen who invented it, Bush/Cheney '04 National General Counsel Mark F. "Thor" Hearne and RNC Communications Director Jim Dyke, please see BRAD BLOG's full Special Coverage of the "American Center for Voting Rights" at https://BradBlog.com/ACVR. Your donation to The BRAD BLOG in order to help us continue this investigation and many others, is much appreciated!

UPDATE: We have now sold out of copies of signed FOOLED AGAIN books, but hope to offer more such premiums to BRAD BLOG readers in the near future! Of course, we still welcome your donations to help us continue our work here. Thanks to all for your support!

Congratulations to Mark Crispin Miller, whose FOOLED AGAIN: The Real Case for Electoral Reform will be released in an all-new, updated paperback edition next week!

Mark's added a monster 100 page update to bring things up to date since the 2006 election and tells me that he's drawn heavily from The BRAD BLOG's reporting in the new chapter. Haven't seen it yet, but I'm told one is on the way and I'm looking forward to it.

(UPDATE: My copy just arrived, and a quick thumbing through the new chapter, "Afterword: State of Denial" reveals all manner of cool stuff, like the Clint Curtis/Tom Feeney story, San Diego's Busby/Bilbray voting machine "sleepover" debacle, the ACVR, the Holt Bill, RFK Jr. entering the issue, and more, much of which has never made it into print until now! More thoughts on it all after I get to read the new stuff in full.)

To help launch next week's new release, he and his publishers have made a number of personally signed copies available as premiums for BRAD BLOG contributors! As usual, it's first come, first served, so please act now to get your own signed, updated copy of this landmark book while helping out one of your favorite blogs (that would be us!) at the same time!

To get your own signed copy as soon as they're available, choose one of the options below...

1) All new Monthly Subscribers of $20 or more (use the blue form at right to sign up quickly), or;
2) A One-Time $50 or more Online Donation (click here), or;
3) A One-Time $50 or more Snail Mail donation (send to: Brad Friedman, 7095 Hollywood Blvd., #594, Los Angeles, CA 90028 - Please specify "Fooled Again" on check or note)

Thanks in advance! As well, a huge thanks to Mark and his publishers for their generous support of The BRAD BLOG!

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

Today, like yesterday, the majority of the news is from Pennsylvania. Voting machine problems were scattered and long lines seemed to be prominent in some counties even with a turnout of less than 30%. The excuse for the long lines is being blamed on the large number of write-in candidates but the fact is that election officials just didn’t put out enough DREs. In Florida Gov. Crist has announced that he will sign the VVPB bill next Monday. Maryland’s Gov. O’Malley signed that state’s VVPB bill this morning. And, back in Florida, it is important to note that the reports about the “Slammer” worm are in no way linked to the reports of any security vulnerabilities reported by the FSU team.

The stories mentioned above, and many more, are all linked below...