Guest blogged by David Edwards
As our readers know, The BRAD BLOG has been a leading source for investigations and reports into the nefarious (and possibly illegal) actions of high-level GOP Operatives that have established a tax-exempt, 503(c)(3) organization called the American Center for Voting Rights (ACVR). The group, since its creation, has released false and misleading information intended to advance GOP plans to disenfranchise millions of voters via legislation calling for national voter registration databases and a demand for photo IDs at the polls.
Increasingly, the mainstream corporate media and independent media sources have caught on to the “dirty tricks” being used by these GOP operatives though the cynically named ACVR.
We were pleased to see a recent article, penned by Dimitri Vassilaros, in the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review titled: ‘Study’ is political fraud. Vassilaros writes:
The organization’s 368-page study “Vote Fraud, Intimidation & Suppression in the 2004 Presidential Election,” which was released last week, indicated that Democrats were the instigators in every case from Alabama to Wisconsin — except two.
It also said that the two complaints regarding Republicans had no merit.
The “findings” about Democrat wrongdoing are not surprising considering that the three public faces of the nonpartisan group are very partisan Republican operatives — including one who claims to be a sounding board for senior White House adviser Karl Rove.
Not surprisingly, Vassilaros discovers that the Republican State Committee of Pennsylvania has values similar to the organizers of ACVR…
“Quite frankly, I do not know who did the report,” said Eileen Melvin, state GOP chair.
And most disturbing is that Mrs. Melvin admits she will use studies from other organizations that she knows virtually nothing about to support the party’s positions.
“I did not know it existed prior to the study’s release,” said Josh Wilson, the state committee’s media maven, about the ACVR.
Mr. Wilson also was unconcerned when informed about the staunch, well-connected Republican operatives running it.
“We stand by the report,” he said. “To our knowledge they are nonpartisan. The report satisfies us.” The Republican state committees in Washington and Wisconsin also used that study in news releases, Wilson said. “There likely were others.”
Did we read that correctly? Eileen Melvin, chairperson of the Pennsylvania GOP, admits that she doesn’t know who did the report, yet, to her knowledge and satisfaction, “they are nonpartisan”! The callous, blatant and in-your-face twisting of logic and facts is simply appalling.
In another recent article on Alternet, Evan Derkacz examines the GOP’s motivation for using the phony voting rights group. The article, titled “Fraudulent allegations of fraud” says…
…
In a post on Bradblog, Joseph Cannon ties corrupt GOP lobbyist Jack Abramoff to the already-bogus Republican operation called the American Center for Voting Rights, which alleges Democratic vote tampering. The post lays out the whole convincing case against the ACVR.
Now this prompts the observation: Like preemptively accusing someone else of farting while you are the culprit, this corrupt group — called “a fraud” by the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review in their editorial entitled, clearly enough, “ACVR is a Fraud” — doesn’t this smack of the GOP laying the groundwork for neutralizing allegations of voter fraud in future elections?
Knowing that most media will just play the he said/she said game and fail to reveal the group’s provenance, will they be girded against any public outcry by articles that, in a shortened version look like this: “Group claims voter fraud by GOP, other group claims voter fraud by Dems. My, isn’t partisanship getting worse and worse? What, oh what, shall we do about the divide in this country?”
Fortunately, little by little, the Dems are coming forward and calling out these Republican front groups for what they are.
Good.
The BRAD BLOG continues to investigate fraudulent ACVR claims and ‘dirty tricks’. In recent days, guest-blogger Joseph Cannon published “Indicted GOP Moneyman Tied To ACVR” and Brad Friedman, creator of The BRAD BLOG, reported his ACVR findings to the nationally broadcast news show, INN World Report.
For more information on the “non-partisan” tax-exempt ACVR 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.
When do we get to see this article on the front page of the NY Times or the WaPo? Gotta keep pushing!
Kudos to Dimitri Vassilaros of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review! Thanks ever so much!
David,
Thanks for posting this article. I tried to find something new to add to this information, but came up mostly frustrated. A Google news search on the topic only turned up the article you posted, articles from BB, and the usual ACVR spin. The only connection I got is the reminder via evote.com that Santorum is up for re-election, with a quote from Eileen Melvin.
Santorum vs. Casey, GOP Considers PA Race Crucial
—snippet–
“Senator Santorum is the target across the nation of so many folks for all the wrong reasons,” Eileen Melvin, the new Pennsylvania Republican Party chair, from nearby Somerset County told EVOTE.COM.
—–
The only positive I can think of is to email the author of the article, thank him for writing it, and pointing him to various links at Brad Blog. Heck, he probably got his information from Brad Blog articles!!!! Where else would he find it??? I’ll have to ask when I email him ;-).
Maybe you could update your article with a “call to the 6 or 7”, asking them to email Dimitri Vassilaros at dvassilaros@tribweb.com with their own views on this important issue.
VG
Voting rights in America is an out and out joke!!!!!
The republicans screw up every chance they get!
Even Kerry?Edwards is scared shitless about getting involved!
Meanwhile, black boxes bulging with Kerry votes float down the Cleveland River all the time! By now, hundreds of black boxes are lying at the bottom of Lake Erie!
Anybody wanna go scuba diving???
Thank you, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review! Gotta write to them now, too! (hey, that rhymes, hehe)
And needless to say, a big thank you to Brad, our tireless warrior, who I hear is interrupting his well-earned vacation to go to a certain little Texas town.
(li’l hint there for ya, George)
Well, it’s about time. Thanks Dimitri Vassilaros and Evan Derkacz for reporting on this, and helping to get it out there.
I’m still waiting for the ACVR fraud group to produce some proof, such as videos, affidavits, witnesses, or any thing other than allegations, accusations and lies.
Looks like there is no point in asking the GOP to consider the source.
Still no word on whether the information contained in the report is wrong! Has anyone read the report? We can’t allow partisanship to blind us to our own faults. Both sides should root out this bad conduct. I am convinced by police reports and court orders that dems behaved badly in 2004. If we ignore it, our ideals are compromised.
Brad, I’ve called you out on numerous posts to defend your statements that the compilation of facts in the ACVR report are untrue. You keep claiming that the report is "disinfo" or a fraud. You’ve made your feelings about the group clear, but I have to assume, at this point, that you cannot dispute the contents of the actual report.
Nana: I see you have not looked at the ACVR report yet. Affidavits, police reports, admissions by the actual wrongdoers, transcripts, indictments and the findings of judges are attached as exhibits to the report. What you should be asking is for counter-evidence that the wrongdoing reported by ACVR did not occur.