From the FBI to Ohio county prosecutors, GOP-connected lawmen are seeking to scare new voters

[babylonsister]

Republicans Abuse Prosecutorial Powers to Intimidate Voters

By Steven Rosenfeld, AlterNet. Posted October 17, 2008.

From the FBI to Ohio county prosecutors, GOP-connected lawmen are seeking to scare new voters.


As the presidential election comes to a close, the Republican Party -- and its allies in law enforcement at the FBI and at county levels in Ohio -- are announcing voting-related prosecutions that civil rights advocates say are intended to intimidate voters, despite prosecutorial rules that bar these disclosures before an election.

The foremost example was Thursday's leak to the media by top FBI officials of a new investigation of ACORN, a low-income advocacy group which registered 1.3 million new voters in swing states in 2008. The Associated Press reported "senior officials" confirmed the FBI investigation, saying they "spoke on condition of anonymity because Justice Department regulations forbid discussing ongoing investigations particularly so close to an election."

"The reports by unnamed sources within the FBI that they have begun an investigation of ACORN is patently inconsistent with the DOJ prosecution manual," said Gerry Hebert, a former Justice Department Voting Section Chief who now runs the Campaign Legal Center in Washington.

"Whether they are prosecuting or not, it is clearly intimidation," said Jeff Gamso, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Ohio. "That is what press reports do. You intimidate people into not going to the polls and not voting."

The FBI leak has counterparts at the county level in Ohio, raising the same voter intimidation concerns.

more...

http://www.alternet.org/democracy/103398/republicans_abuse_prosecutorial_powers_to_intimidate_voters/?page=entire

[tom_paine]

1. Yes, this is a criminal Bushiganda scheme, performed "legally", just like the Nazis did.

That's why it's hard to get excited about this Potemkin "elecetion" BECAUSE THIS IS WHERE THE REAL BUSHIE POWER IS.

And unless Obama and the Democratic Leadership come to understand what they face, which is not just another political party but the literal re-assemblage of the "Nazi Coalition" updated and subtlized for modern Amerikan consumption.

Until we can DeBushify the executive agencies, and it is certain the Bushies have already taken steps, like reclassifying Bushies as civil employess in mid-stream so when the Bushies leave their criminal henchpersons remain, to make that much more difficult. Until we can DeBushify the criminal influences that have now been institutionalized in our nation at every level, we are not safe.

Forces like this, which the Nazis and Bushies both purposefully released for personal gain, ae so powerful and reptile-brained that they may have to burn themselves out before we can move past it.

We may, like the 1930s Germans, be forced to ride this thing to the end. Anyone who deosn't like it had better get off the Nazi-Bushie merry-go-round before the Deputized Freepers With Guns show up to stop anyone from getting off.

History shows, there is probably a 70% chance that some form of Right-Wing Death Squads will reappear in this nation, with Nazi-Bushie government "approval" within the next 50 years and probably MUCH sooner.

[annabanana]

2. The damage that the politicization of the Justice Department has done

is just beginning to be seen nationwide.

This is, perhaps, THE MOST IMPORTANT bushmess that has to be attended to asap during the next administration.