Earlier today - 4AM to be exact - Nassau County, New York police apprehended Republican Committee person Peter Guardino, Assistant to Oyster Bay Supervisor John Venditto, in the act of stealing signs of Democratic County Legislator David Mejias. At the time of his arrest, Guardino was in possession of 223 Democratic campaign signs unlawfully removed from private property. He is being held at the 8th Precinct in Hicksville facing charges of possession of stolen property.
Nassau Democratic Chairman Jay Jacobs stated "The Violation of Free Speech and Democracy by the GOP camp is disgraceful!"
Press inquiries can be directed to Mike Santeramo of the Nassau County Democratic Committee at 516-445-5584
Today is election day here in New York and across the state, attorneys and activists are fanning out to make sure the right to vote is respected. Members of the New York Democratic Lawyers Council will be inside polling stations observing the voting, outside on the lookout for intimidation and electioneering, and in boards of election with our eyes open and ears to the ground.
Why do we do this, you ask? More after the fold...
Read More »Over on the main blog, Stephanie Taylor relates conservative pundit Ann Coulter's personal fantasy to disenfranchise every woman in the country.
"If we took away women's right to vote, we'd never have to worry about another Democrat [sic] president. It's kind of a pipe dream, it's a personal fantasy of mine, but I don't think it's going to happen."
I can just hear Susan B. Anthony rolling in her grave.
It's interesting that Ms. Coulter is willing to disenfranchise just over half the US population in order to achieve her party's political goals.
Democrats or Republicans, we all should share a common set of beliefs around participatory democracy, democracy that our Founding Fathers fought and died for 200 years ago and that our brave men AND WOMEN in uniform put their lives on the line to defend every day.
Point of fact, Ms. Coulter - if we took away every woman's right to vote, it's not a Democratic American president that we'd loose, it would be our American Democracy, period.
Since that day, the Republican Party has also wrapped itself in the dust of the Twin Towers. But hardly stunned and shocked, it has systematically and with focused purpose used those events to further an ideological agenda that is at odds with what America is supposed to be. Warantless wiretapping, lying to the world and the American people to bring the country into war, politicizing the machinery of our security (Brownie, you did a heck of job!), compromising the Department of Justice, and eroding voting rights. Diplomatically, our relationships are in tatters and our commander in chief an embarrassment to the country rather than a beacon for the world. And weve lost over 3,700 of our finest men and women in uniform fighting in Iraq.
Like those office workers covered in dust 6 years ago, its easy to look around and not recognize where we are, not understand whats happened or how we got here. In many ways, our country has become a ghost of its former self. We lost a lot on 9/11, but weve lost an awful lot since, too.
This morning's Washington Post contains an Opinion piece by Tova Wang on the Election Assistance Commission's December 2006 report entitled "Election Crimes - An Initial Review and Recommendations for Future Study." Ms. Wong, a Democracy Fellow at the Century Foundation whose work was cited as part of the basis for the report, writes:
After submitting the draft in July 2006, we were barred by the commission's staff from having anything more to do with it.…
[A]fter sitting on the draft for six months, the EAC publicly released a report -- citing it as based on work by me and my co-author -- that completely stood our own work on its head.
Consider the title. Whereas the commission is mandated by law to study voter fraud and intimidation, this new report was titled simply "Election Crimes" and excluded a wide range of serious offenses that harm the system and suppress voting but are not currently crimes under the U.S. criminal code.
We said that our preliminary research found widespread agreement among administrators, academics and election experts from all points on the political spectrum that allegations of fraud through voter impersonation at polling places were greatly exaggerated. We noted that this position was supported by existing research and an analysis of several years of news articles. The commission chose instead to state that the issue was a matter of considerable debate. And while we found that problems of voter intimidation were still prevalent in a variety of forms, the commission excluded much of the discussion of voter intimidation.
The type of editorial license Ms. Wang describes enters clearly into the realm of distortion and truth spinning, the likes of which you'd expect from Fox News or a White House Press Conference, not a body established to restore trust and fait in the electoral process after the troubled elections of 2000. This type of revision(ism) doesn't just fail the authors, it fails democracy and us all.
So, some of us are wondering what the former Attorney General will be doing with his time after leaving his post. Noted satirist Andy Borowitz offers his thoughts.... Link
Gonzales to Spend More Time Eavesdropping on His Family
‘Domestic Surveillance Begins at Home,’ Former A.G. Says
Attorney General Alberto Gonzales resigned today, effective immediately, telling reporters that he wanted to spend more time eavesdropping on his family.
Mr. Gonzales, a champion of domestic surveillance and warrantless wiretaps while in office, said he was “totally stoked” about turning his prying eyes on his own family.
“Domestic surveillance begins at home,” Mr. Gonzales said at a White House press conference. “That means nobody in my family is above suspicion, not even the little ones,” an apparent reference to Mr. Gonzales’ children.
Standing by Mr. Gonzales’ side, President George W. Bush praised his former Attorney General, singling out his “courage” for ramping up his domestic spying program on his own family.
“If every head of every household was as willing to eavesdrop on his own family as my man Alberto is, we wouldn’t need a Homeland Security Department,” Mr. Bush chuckled.
Mr. Gonzales was noncommittal when a reporter asked him a question about the role that waterboarding and other forms of torture might play in his interrogation of family members.
“Nothing is off the table,” he said.
And while Petraeus talks up the surge, the Iraqi government is collapsing in on itself. The largest Sunni faction quit the Iraqi government, leaving a government of national unity without, well, national unity...
What relevance for the good General? As the New York Times puts it:
The Sunni Arab bloc’s withdrawal, announced at the beginning of a monthlong break by Parliament, is another serious blow to hopes that Iraq’s feuding political parties could pass legislation sought by Congress as evidence of progress by Sept. 15.
That is the date on which Gen. David H Petreus, the commander of American forces in Iraq, and Ambassador Ryan C. Crocker will present their official assessment in Washington.
Wonder how they'll finesse that one.
Stephanie Taylor writes over at the DNC's main blog about a recent study in California showing the vast vulnerability of the State's electronic voting machines.
As a voting rights activist, I think the more people take the time to learn the issues and understand them, the more two things will become clear:
1) We need an auditable paper trail, ie paper ballots.
2) Keeping our democracy safe and secure is a responsibility that belong to us ALL!
The right to vote is our most fundamental tool to safeguard our liberty - let's protect it at every turn!
This evening's broadcast of NOW on PBS will look at allegations of voter caging in the 2004 campaign.
Was there a White House plot to illegally suppress votes in 2004? Is there a similar plan for the upcoming elections? This week NOW examines documents and evidence that points to a Republican Party plan designed to keep Democrats from voting, by targeting people based on their race and ethnicity with key battleground states like Ohio and Florida of particular interest. "It was a partisan, discriminatory attempt to challenge voters of color," Eddie Hailes, a senior attorney for The Advancement Project, a civil rights group, told NOW.
Folks, this is an important one to watch. Voter caging is a reprehensible practice that undermines our most powerful political and civil right, the right to vote. This is the nuts and bolts of what our colleagues on the other side of the political party divide get up to on election day and the substance of what Democratic election protection efforts need to confront.
Happy watching!
The Wall Street Journal (that's right, the Wall Street Journal!) reports that the numbers are in, and Democrats hold a commanding lead over Republicans in fundraising...:
With more than a year to go before the 2008 elections, Democratic candidates have raised $100 million more in campaign contributions than Republicans, putting them on track to win the money race for the White House and Congress for the first time since the government began detailed accounting of campaign fund raising three decades ago.
You know, after 30 years, it's nice to be in the lead.
Making its way around the internet is news that the Department of Justice has refused to make John Tanner, the Department’s Voting Section Chief, available for Congressional questioning. The Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties had specifically requested Mr. Tanner for the purpose of getting to the bottom of a whole host of issues that came before the Voting Section under Tanner’s tenure, specifically, Georgia’s much maligned and subsequently overturned voter ID law. In a letter to Alberto Gonzalez, Representatives John Conyers and Jerrold Nadler stated:
“We are disappointed by this decision. Brad Schlozman and Hans Von Spakovsky, both former senior Department of Justice officials who served in the CRT, recently testified before the Senate and stated that Mr. Tanner played a key role in the Department’s decision to approve the Georgia Photo Identification law.”
“…We believe that his testimony is therefore necessary for the Committee to fulfill its oversight obligations.”
“We therefore ask that you make Mr. Tanner available to the Committee for testimony specifically concerning the activities of the Voting Section. We are postponing the July 17th hearing with the expectation that we will receive the full cooperation of the Department in this matter.”
The Voting Rights Act requires Georgia and eight other states, mostly in the South, to submit changes in voting rules to that might impact minority groups for Justice Department “pre-clearance.” The Voting Section staff team recommended denying “pre-clearance” of the law because it was likely to discriminate against black voters. Mr. Tanner rejected that finding and issued the go-ahead.
DoJ - when you say that out loud, it sounds like "dodge."
We were joined by New York State Democratic Committee Chair June O'Neill and her Co-Chair Dave Pollak to honor newly elected New York State Senators Andrea Stewart Cousins and Craig Johnson. In November of last year, the New York Democratic Lawyers Council fielded over 200 attorney pollwatchers in Westchester County to protect the right to vote from Republican challenges. In the frigid cold of February, we mobilized over 100 members in defense of the right to vote on Long Island - yes, Long Island - because, as our friends from across the aisle demonstrate, the price of liberty is eternal vigilance.
A huge thank you to all who attended!
My friend Bobby Link shot me an e-mail about this earlier today. It seems that as bad as the allegations of DOJ-sanctioned voter sppression are, it's good to know that Democrats are standing up and demanding accountability.
Senators Kennedy and Whitehouse have called on the Justice Department to investigate allegations of illegal voter suppression tactics by Republican political operatives during the 2004 elections, including former Karl Rove aide Tim Griffin, an interim U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Arkansas.
“It is very disturbing to think that Department officials may have approved the appointment of a United States Attorney knowing that he had engaged in racially targeted vote caging,” the senators wrote.
Recall, Fred Thomson has reportedly hired Griffin as a campaign consultant. Hmm.... I wonder what his GOTV plans will look like, a challenge list?
Newsday reports today on Rudy Giuliani's decision, in May 2006, to step down from the Iraq Study Group, the bi-partisan effort to develop a way forward for US policy in Iraq.
You'd think that America's mayor and a serious Presidential candidate would have placed everything on the backburner to form and shape a common response to what the Administration has engineered into the foreign policy and national security challenge of the hour, if not the decade. Instead, Giuliani had other priorities:
On one day the panel gathered in Washington -- May 18, 2006 -- Giuliani delivered a $100,000 speech on leadership at an Atlanta business awards breakfast. Later that day, he attended a $100-a-ticket Atlanta political fundraiser for conservative ally Ralph Reed, whom Giuliani hoped would provide a major boost to his presidential campaign.
So there you have it - money over national security, conservative ideologues over what's right for America. Rudy Giuliani's priorities are clear.
In our opinion, the track record on voting suppression of one of the nominees, Mr. Hans von Spakovsky, could potentially turn back the clock on fifty years of progress.During his tenure at the Justice Department, Spakovsky overrode the recommendations of the department’s staff professionals and approved a regressive law in Georgia that required voters to provide photo identification. Called "a voter suppression tool worthy of the Jim Crow era" by the New York Times, the courts blocked the law. He also pushed Justice to approve Tom DeLay’s Texas gerrymandering — the same plan the Supreme Court ruled was in violation of the Voting Rights Act.2008 starts today - American's wont be able to vote openly and freely if men like Spakovsky are in charge. Remember, when everyone votes, Democrats win - obviously, when Republicans keep eligible voters from the polls, we are all less free.
Over on the DNC Blog, Michael Link posted an interesting stroy about Fred Thompson's latest campaign hire, Tim Griffin. Recall, Griffin withdrew his nomination as a regularly appointed, Senate confrimed US Attorney in favor of an interim appointment to that post, many theorize, to avoid answering questions about his role in a 2004 Florida caging operation.
This is a clear shot across the bow to Democrats - we need to be prepared to anticipate and counter Republican caging efforts in every election, from dog catcher to President, because clearly, the Republican Party is gearing up. Once again, more proof that we're the party of the voter participation, and they're the party of voter suppression.
Stephenie Taylor posted on the DNC's website about the Congressional Democrats defeated a proposal by Senator Mitch McConnell (R-KY) that would have required all voters to show photo identification in order to vote. If this had passed, it would have been disasterous. DNC Voting Rights Institute Chair Donna Brazille is quoted as saying:
"The American people were the real winners last night when Democrats stood up and defeated Republican Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s harmful amendment. The Republican Party continues to play politics with the most fundamental right in our Democracy, the right to vote. The American people went to the polls and spoke loud and clear about their desire for change in November. Just because Republicans dislike what Americans are saying doesn’t mean they can block voters’ access to the ballot box. Democrats believe that democracy works best when all legally eligible voters can exercise their right to vote. And we believe that we should be working to make it easier and not harder for Americans to vote and have their vote counted."
This defeat of this measure is a great victory for voting rights. The defeat of this photo ID measure - and who introduced it - once more shows the American people that the Democratic Party is the party of participation and the franchise, and that the Republican Party is the party of suppression and disenfranchisement.
It's a great shame that in 2007, we Democrats must still fight to protect that most fundamental of rights, the right to vote.
Stephanie Taylor wrote about this on the DNC's blog, citing the Huffington Post.
The council found a severe staff shortage and holds Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice partly responsible. The State Department needs 1,100 more employees, especially since recent staff additions have gone to fill jobs in Iraq, Afghanistan and other difficult posts, the report said.
It's easy to blame the Secretary for this shortage and the poor state of State - but let's not forget the blame that needs to be put at the feet of the President and the former Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld.
The President's agenda has put the brave men and women who serve this country in an untennable position - supporting and defending policies that fundamentally undermine our national interest, such as the Iraq War. Recall the spate of resignations in early 2003. It goes without saying that were it not for this misguided adventure, there wouldn't be the need for these unaccompanied posts.
The former Secretary of Defense wholly disregarded and pushed aside the State Department's "Future of Iraq" plan for reconstructing and rebuilding Iraq, insisting Defense take the lead. Now, State has to come in and clean up the mess.
We owe the Foreign Service Officers who give so much for our country a great debt of gratitude - without them, we would truly be lost.
It' Monday again, which means it's time for fresh revelations about the lengths the Bush Administration will go to in order to undermine our Democracy. This time, it's the Washington Post that breaks the news...
Voter-Fraud Complaints by GOP Drove Dismissals
Nearly half the U.S. attorneys slated for removal by the administration last year were targets of Republican complaints that they were lax on voter fraud, including efforts by presidential adviser Karl Rove to encourage more prosecutions of election- law violations, according to new documents and interviews.
Of the 12 U.S. attorneys known to have been dismissed or considered for removal last year, five were identified by Rove or other administration officials as working in districts that were trouble spots for voter fraud -- Kansas City, Mo.; Milwaukee; New Mexico; Nevada; and Washington state. Four of the five prosecutors in those districts were dismissed.
Of course, the balance of election day data points clearly to the fact that more votes are suppressed than errantly cast - intimidation is still a problem, especially when a certain party's operatives actively collect challenge lists of Democratic base voters. Almost makes you want to start organizing the voter protection effort TODAY, doesn't it...?
Amazing what approval rates in the 20's will do... While Republican law makers are reading the President the riot acto over the lay of the land in Iraq, our Chief Diplomat's efforts are concentrated elsewhere.... Seems but Foggy Bottom isn't focusing on Bagdad, as the Wall Street Journal reports:
Rice Launches Wolfowitz Defense
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has launched a behind-the-scenes campaign in defense of World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz against calls he relinquish his job.
...
Over the last week, Ms. Rice "spoke with several European foreign ministers about her positive impression of Paul Wolfowitz and the job he is doing at the World Bank," said State Department spokesman Sean McCormack.
It seems this Administration's failure to prioritize the national security interests of the United States know no bounds...
Posts
