Election Reform, Fraud, & Related News Thursday, April 5, 2007

[livvy]

My apologies for the later than usual post today. I'm officially on Spring Break, and I insisted that my pack of dogs allow me to sleep in this morning. Ahhhh.....felt good! Now enough about me, and onto business... The Thursday thread is now open!

Wait, just one more thing about me. Here's a pic of my "great grandpuppy". I just got it this morning. His name is Tator Tot. Everybody say "Awwww!", then move along...




Welcome to the Thursday Open Thread

Although all members are welcome and encouraged to post to the Election Reform, Fraud, and Related News any day of the week, it is especially important for people to do so on Thursdays. All interested parties should contribute their ideas, and related articles, commentaries, political cartoons, and so forth.

So, you are not only welcome and encouraged to participate, you are needed to make this Open Thread work.

Please:

1. Post stories and announcements you find on the web. Google terms like “paper ballots”, “election reform”, or “campaign finance reform”. Don’t forget your local newspapers.

2. Post stories using the new Spring 2006 Edition of "Election Fraud and Reform News Directory" listed here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x407240

3. Re-post stories and announcements you find on DU, providing a link to the original thread with thanks to the Original Poster, too.

4. Start a discussion thread in other forums, and add the link to your post in the Open Thread.


Don’t forget to recommend for the Greatest Page. Now how often do you get to recommend your own posts?

Be the Media for open, transparent, and accurate elections!

[livvy]

1. Attorney Iglesias Says His Naval Reserve Duty Led To His Firing

Ex-U.S. Attorney Iglesias says his Naval Reserve duty led to his firing

By James W. Brosnan
Thursday, April 5, 2007

WASHINGTON — Former U.S. Attorney David Iglesias has filed a complaint with a federal ombudsman agency that he was fired because of the time he spent away from his office on Naval Reserve duty.

Justice Department officials have never directly claimed Iglesias, of New Mexico, was fired because of the more than 40 days a year he was away on Reserve duty, but a memo prepared for Justice Department officials testifying before Congress said Iglesias was "perceived to be an `absentee landlord' " who relied on then-Assistant U.S. Attorney Larry Gomez to run the office.

Federal law bars employers from denying any benefit to employees because of their National Guard or Reserve obligations.

The Office of Special Counsel, which also investigates whistle-blower cases, says it is investigating Iglesias' claim. The office can order reinstatement and back pay.

>more of the story here:
http://www.abqtrib.com/news/2007/apr/05/ex-us-attorney-iglesias-says-his-naval-reserve-dut/

[livvy]

2. Great letter to the Editor: Iglesias Pulled Through Dirt For Being Disloyal to *

Iglesias pulled through dirt for being disloyal to Bush

Posted: 4/5/07
Editor,

I find it disgusting seeing honorable public servants like David Iglesias swift-boated by hawks like columnist Scott Darnell.

U.S. attorneys are political appointees, but their oath requires them to preserve, protect and defend the U.S. Constitution. They don't serve at the dictate of the president. A personal phone call at home - rather than at the office, where all phone calls are recorded - by a senator or representative to a federal employee asking about sealed indictments before a close election constitutes pressure.

The only thing that separates the U.S. from any other third-rate banana republic is the rule of law.

The Republican National Committee's strategy in 2004 was to work with state parties to identify and challenge questionable voters at the polls, or as the GOP talking point went, prevent voter fraud. Darnell was the New Mexico chairman of the College Republicans and ran political field operations for the Bush/Cheney campaign in 2004. Sen. Pete Domenici was the New Mexico chairman for the campaign.

>more of the letter here:

http://media.www.dailylobo.com/media/storage/paper344/news/2007/04/05/Opinion/Iglesias.Pulled.Through.Dirt.For.Being.Disloyal.To.Bush-2825657.shtml

This site requires registration, but I think you can access it on a one time basis through this google link:
http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=t&ct=us/1-0&fp=46153d71300e1b7b&ei=YRIVRo-9I5eGoALtkcDjAw&url=http%3A//www.dailylobo.com/news/2007/04/05/Opinion/Iglesias.Pulled.Through.Dirt.For.Being.Disloyal.To.Bush-2825657.shtml&cid=0

[livvy]

3. SF: Interim U.S. Attorney Says He's Not a Candidate For Permanent Job

SAN FRANCISCO
Interim U.S. attorney says he's not a candidate for permanent job

Bob Egelko, Chronicle Staff Writer

Thursday, April 5, 2007

The Justice Department lawyer who succeeded the fired Kevin Ryan as chief federal prosecutor for coastal Northern California said Wednesday he's not a candidate to remain in the job for the rest of President Bush's term.

"I'll be here until the completion of the appointment process,'' Scott Schools, named interim U.S. attorney in San Francisco by the Justice Department last month, said in his first meeting with reporters.

He gave no estimate of how long it would take for a successor to be nominated by Bush and confirmed by the Senate, but said he hasn't applied for the post. A recent federal law, which congressional Democrats are seeking to repeal, allows Schools and other interim appointees to stay in office until they are replaced by Senate-confirmed prosecutors. The previous law limited their tenure to 120 days.

Ryan, a former local prosecutor and judge who was appointed U.S. attorney by Bush in 2002, announced his resignation in January and left Feb. 16.

More of the story here:

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/04/05/BAGGVP36CJ1.DTL&type=politics

[livvy]

4. MT: Senate Panel Votes To Keep Same-Day Voter Registration

Article published Apr 5, 2007
Senate panel votes to keep same-day voter registration
By MATT GOURAS
Associated Press Writer

HELENA — A plan to repeal same-day voter registration, backed by Republicans, was tabled by Democrats in a Senate committee Wednesday.

Same-day voting is widely supported by Democrats, who say problems that cropped up in the first year same-day registration was used can be fixed before 2008. They say it led to higher turnout.

Secretary of State Brad Johnson and other Republicans have blamed same-day voter registration for long lines, and some have said it could lead to voter fraud.

Many local election administrators also wanted to end same-day voting, saying it caused problems in 2006 and made it hard to maintain accurate lists of who had already voted.

>more of the story here:

http://www.greatfallstribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070405/NEWS01/704050322/1002

[livvy]

5. Partial Re-Post and link to discussion started by Land Shark

The "Never Give Up, Never Give in Attitude": Is it harmful for our Legislative Efforts???

Compromise is the mother's milk of politics. But there are exceptions.

When we move into the area of RIGHTS, a so-called "compromise" of a right is nothing less than the VIOLATION of that same right.

Have we considered whether rights, fundamental rights, or fundamental principles of democracy are involved in election reform? If so, an exception applies because rights are a different animal, one that can not be compromised in any significant way.

With rights, you get the whole enchilada, even if others don't like it. In fact, if others not liking or other things weighing against it result in denial of the right, it was never a right in the first place.

Rights are inherently things that TRUMP other considerations. Thus, there's no need to give in, No need to compromise with rights, because the proper view is that rights destroy their opposition. In fact, giving up could properly be considered abject surrender, given that rights are supposed to in the end prevail.

Rights are also things that invalidate legislation offending them, in court. (Hey: Never give in, never give up!)

There is an orderly and logical PROCESS that we all, as Americans, are obligated more or less to go through when examining legislation, especially involving important things like elections. STEP ONE is to consider the Constitution and what other rights and fundamental values are involved. Some of us are still stuck on step one. If we fail to fully consider step one rights, we end up inevitably eroding or violating those rights, in small or large part, because we are not properly considering them, much less giving them their proper and full weight.

Read the rest and join the discussion in this post by Land Shark here:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x470225

[livvy]

6. Opinion: The Lessons of Dred Scott

CHARLES J. OGLETREE JR. AND JOHANNA WALD
The lessons of Dred Scott

By Charles J. Ogletree Jr. and Johanna Wald | April 5, 2007

ONE HUNDRED fifty years ago -- on March 6, 1857 -- the Supreme Court issued a landmark decision that haunts us today. In Dred Scott v. Sandford the court found all "negroes," even free ones, exempt from the rights, privileges, and immunities afforded to US citizens by the Constitution. Chief Justice Roger Taney, writing for the majority, concluded that blacks "had no rights which the white man was bound to respect."

Today, we view the ruling as a travesty and stain on our history. At the time, the decision, though hardly universally repudiated, did stun and anger many people. It mobilized abolitionists and accelerated the march toward civil war. We can now point to a series of legal decisions and laws affirming the nation's commitment to basic rights for all: the passage of the 14th Amendment in 1868 granted blacks equal protection under the law, the Supreme Court's 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision repudiated the doctrine of "separate but equal" schools, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 outlawed discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin, and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 enabled African-Americans across the nation to exercise the right to vote.

However, a careful read of the nation's history reveals a pattern more accurately described as an ebb and flow than a steady current drifting toward full equality. No sooner do we grant rights and privileges to certain groups than we begin the process of revoking and curbing them. Yes, blacks were granted the right to vote in 1868. Then, poll taxes and intimidation kept most from exercising that right, particularly in the South, before 1964. Today, one in 12 blacks has been stripped of the right to vote because of laws denying this basic privilege to people convicted of a felony. Increasing voter identification requirements recently passed in several states will likely further suppress the votes cast by people of color there.

Yes, Brown legally abolished the odious "separate but equal" schools. However, since the 1980s, schools for Latino and black students have grown more segregated as federal courts chipped away at the legal foundation supporting desegregation. This spring, the Supreme Court may even outlaw locally crafted voluntary measures designed to prevent segregation, rending the promise of the Brown ruling a fatal blow.

The rest of this is here:

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2007/04/05/the_lessons_of_dred_scott/

[livvy]

7. Opinion: Feds Choose Wrong Way To Protect Voting Rights

Feds choose wrong way to protect voting rights
Thursday, April 5, 2007
BY MICHAEL WALDMAN
AND JUSTIN LEVITT
THE WASHINGTON POST

As Congress probes the firing of eight U.S. attorneys, attention is centering on who knew what, and when. It’s just as important to focus on why, such as the reason given for the firing of John McKay of Washington state: failure to prosecute the phantom of individual voter fraud.

Allegations of voter fraud — someone sneaking into the polls to cast an illicit vote — have been pushed in recent years by partisans seeking to justify proof-of-citizenship and other restrictive ID requirements as a condition of voting.

But the notion of widespread voter fraud, as these prosecutors found out, is itself a fraud.

Firing a prosecutor for failing to find widespread voter fraud is like firing a park ranger for failing to find Sasquatch. Evidence of fraud by individual voters is painfully skimpy.

>the rest of this piece is here:

http://www.cantonrep.com/index.php?ID=346399&Category=14&subCategoryID=

[L. Coyote]

8. OHIO SoS to Take Possession of 2004 Ballots. IT AIN'T OVER YET!!

L. Coyote Thu Apr-05-07 09:41 AM
Discuss at: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x582783
OHIO SoS to Take Possession of 2004 Ballots. IT AIN'T OVER YET!!

Edited on Thu Apr-05-07 09:41 AM by L. Coyote
Big developments in the Ohio 2004 story include:

1.) Ohio AG Marc Dann himself acting as lawyer for SoS Brunner
2.) Court order that SoS preserve 204 ballots
3.) Ohio GOP Chairperson/Cuyahoga BOE Chairperson Bob Bennet loses again, and must face the court.

Real progress in investigation of 2004 irregularities is definitely in process now.

==========================

Two big victories boost Ohio's election protection movement
by Bob Fitrakis & Harvey Wasserman
April 5, 2007 - http://www.freepress.org/departments/display/19/2007/25...

In a victory for election protection activists, Ohio's powerful GOP Chair Bob Bennett will be forced to face a public hearing on his removal as Chair of the Cuyahoga (Cleveland) Board of Elections. And in a second triumph, Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner has agreed, as part of a legal settlement, to take possession of the ballots and other key documents from the disputed 2004 election that gave George W. Bush a second term in the White House.

As the new Secretary of State, Brunner has now agreed to a joint motion as defendant in the King-Lincoln suit. The motion effectively transfers the custody of "…all ballots from the 2004 presidential election, on paper or in any other format, including electronic data,…" from the counties to Ohio Secretary of State's office.

Ohio Attorney General Marc Dann's office is representing Brunner.

In a Memorandum in Support of the Joint Motion, the parties state: "To lessen the burden on the respective boards of elections and to provide a central repository for records, the parties are jointly requesting that an order be entered in this matter requiring the 88 county boards of elections to transfer to the custody of the Secretary of State all ballots from the 2004 presidential election…."

..... much more = EXCELLENT COVERAGE .....

[livvy]

9. ME: Anti-War Ads Blast Collins For Vote

Anti-war ads blast Collins for vote
Thursday, April 05, 2007 - Bangor Daily News

BANGOR — A television ad that calls on Republican Sen. Susan Collins to vote to end the war in Iraq and takes her to task for supporting President Bush’s policies there was unveiled Wednesday by the Maine People’s Alliance and a group called Americans United for Change.

The ad was immediately attacked by a spokesman for Collins and a Republican leader in Maine as a distortion of her record. Critics also said the ad campaign was more about the 2008 election than escalation of the Iraq war because it targeted only those Republican senators who Democrats believe are vulnerable.

"Americans United for Change is going to run targeted ads in the districts of vulnerable pro-war senators and Congress members," a posting on the organization’s blog states.

The groups sponsoring the ad are part of a national coalition called Americans Against Escalation in Iraq, based in Washington, D.C., that funded the $100,000 buy in Maine. The ads are to appear on television stations around the state through the middle of next week while Congress is in recess.

>more of the story here:

http://bangordailynews.com/news/t/news.aspx?articleid=148319&zoneid=500

[livvy]

10. BradBlog: Diebold Whistleblower Stephen Heller's First Live Broadcast...

BLOGGED BY Brad Friedman ON 4/5/2007 1:24AM
Diebold Whistleblower Stephen Heller's First Live Broadcast Interview
On Felonies, Diebold, Paper Ballots, Secret Software, Lies, George W. Bush and More
COMPLETE AUDIO/TEXT TRANSCRIPT NOW POSTED...

I recently interviewed whistleblower Stephen Heller, while guest hosting Cynthia Black's Action Point on Air America/Nova M Pheonix.

It was Heller's first live broadcast interview and his wife Michelle Gregory also joined us for a bit. A documentary film crew was on hand to capture the event.

Heller is the Los Angeles actor who stole incriminating documents while working as a temp at Diebold's powerful law firm Jones Day and turned them over to Bev Harris of BlackBoxVoting.org who, in turn, gave them to Ian Hoffman at the Oakland Tribune where many of them were published. The documents showed that Diebold had illegally installed uncertified hardware and software in California during the 2004 primary, which led to the decertification of their touch-screen DRE voting systems in the state.

Incredibly, Heller was many years later --- notably, long after the 2004 Election --- charged with three felony counts. He eventually pled guilty in a deal to one of the charges, as he discussed during our interview, to protect his family. As well, he was given the assurance that he'd serve no jail time and the charges would likely be removed entirely from his record after a year or so.

>more at the link below:

http://www.bradblog.com/?p=4353

[livvy]

11. OH: Elections-Panel Chief Loses Bid To Stop Hearing On His Ouster

Elections-panel chief loses bid to stop hearing on his ouster
Thursday, April 5, 2007 3:45 AM
By Mark Niquette and Joe Hallett
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

Ohio's attorney general and secretary of state personally went to court yesterday to fight for the right to remove Robert T. Bennett from the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections.

But about the time a hearing was concluding in Franklin County in the two Democrats' favor, Bennett, who also is chairman of the Ohio Republican Party, was making it clear that he is prepared for a bare-knuckles political fight to keep his seat on the board.

"I think you're going to be seeing that this is going to be ratcheted up from here on out," Bennett said during a conference call with reporters.

"I did not choose this battle."

>more of the story at the link below:

http://www.columbusdispatch.com/dispatch/content/local_news/stories/2007/04/05/bobhear.ART_ART_04-05-07_E7_JG69VLJ.html

[livvy]

12. OH: Dann Visits Democrats: Makes Promise to Fight Corruption in Columbus

Dann visits Democrats
Makes promise to fight corruption in Columbus


By MICHAEL ARTHUR
Associate editor Ripley
Thursday April 05, 2007

EORGETOWN - Battling government misuse and the powerful influence of special interest dollars was a key point of Ohio Attorney General Marc Dann's address to the Brown County Democratic Club at the organization's Spring Dinner March 30. Speaking to a substantial group of local Democrats and supporters, Dann discussed his impression of the way state business has been conducted and a variety of specific issues under debate in Ohio, including state bond work, individual transitioning from work to welfare, predatory lending practices, election practices and cooperation among law enforcement agencies.

The audience responded affectionately to Dann, who was adamant on each topic he discussed that the Attorney General's office over the next term will attempt to promote vast reform the way Ohio's state government is administered.

"What I saw when I came to Columbus horrified me," said Dann, who defeated popular then State Auditor Betty Montgomery in November's election. Dann said the influence of political action committees, or lobbyists, is worse than he expected when he took office.

"Government was being operated for the benefit of lobbyists, for the benefit of special interests."

>more of the story at the link below:

http://www.newsdemocrat.com/main.asp?SectionID=1&SubSectionID=1&ArticleID=122951&TM=316.434

[livvy]

13. 'Toon Break

I'll try to post some more articles later.

[EFerrari]

14. Great toons! K&R

[livvy]

15. Ex-Presecutor Talks To Special Counsel

Ex-prosecutor talks to special counsel
By JENNIFER TALHELM Associated Press Writer
News Fuze
Article Last Updated:04/05/2007 03:03:49 PM CDT
WASHINGTON- New Mexico's former U.S. attorney, David Iglesias, is talking with the government's independent counsel about whether Justice Department officials violated federal law when they fired him late last year.

A deputy in the Office of Special Counsel, which protects federal government whistleblowers, first contacted Iglesias in early March as part of an inquiry into whether his firing may have violated a law that protects military reservists from discrimination.

The special counsel's staff also is examining possible violations of laws designed to protect whistleblowers and prohibit political activity by government employees, Iglesias said in an interview this week.

Iglesias said he has authorized an investigation, but there are no formal charges pending. The process is in its very early stages, he said, adding: "It's too early to tell whether will result in a legal claim."

>the rest is at the link below:

http://www.twincities.com/national/ci_5601621?nclick_check=1

[livvy]

16. The Myth of Voter Fraud

The myth of voter fraud

Author: Michael Waldman and Justin Levitt


People's Weekly World Newspaper, 04/05/07 15:43

As Congress probes the firing of eight U.S. attorneys, attention is centering on who knew what, and when. It’s just as important to focus on “why,” such as the reason given for the firing of at least one of the U.S. attorneys, John McKay of Washington state: failure to prosecute the phantom of individual voter fraud.

Allegations of voter fraud — someone sneaking into the polls to cast an illicit vote — have been pushed in recent years by partisans seeking to justify proof-of-citizenship and other restrictive ID requirements as a condition of voting. Scare stories abound on the Internet and on editorial pages, and they quickly become accepted wisdom.

But the notion of widespread voter fraud, as these prosecutors found out, is itself a fraud. Firing a prosecutor for failing to find wide voter fraud is like firing a park ranger for failing to find Sasquatch. Where fraud exists, of course, it should be prosecuted and punished. (And politicians have been stuffing ballot boxes and buying votes since senators wore togas; Lyndon Johnson won a 1948 Senate race after his partisans famously “found” a box of votes well after the election.) Yet evidence of actual fraud by individual voters is painfully skimpy.

Before and after every close election, politicians and pundits proclaim: The dead are voting, foreigners are voting, people are voting twice. On closer examination, though, most such allegations don’t pan out. Consider a list of supposedly dead voters in upstate New York that was much touted last October. Where reporters looked into names on the list, it turned out that the voters were, to quote Monty Python, “not dead yet.”

>The rest is here:

http://www.pww.org/article/articleview/10856/1/366

[livvy]

17. Lawyer Compares Criticism of Justice Official To McCarthyism

Lawyer compares criticism of Justice official to McCarthyism
POSTED: 12:00 p.m. EDT, April 5, 200

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The lawyer for a Justice Department official who has invoked the Fifth Amendment over the firings assailed congressional criticism of her decision Wednesday, comparing it to the abuses of former Sen. Joseph McCarthy.

A spokesman for the House Judiciary Committee called the comparison "bizarre and overheated" and questioned whether the official, Monica Goodling, has legal grounds to take the Fifth.

Also Wednesday, one of the fired prosecutors said that a federal watchdog agency is investigating whether he was punished for missing work to serve in the Navy Reserve.

Goodling, the counselor to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and the Justice Department's White House liaison, announced last week that she would invoke her constitutional right against self-incrimination rather than answer questions about the firings.

Her lawyer, John Dowd, said Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty has accused Goodling of misinforming him about the issue before he testified about it earlier this year -- an allegation he said Goodling denies.

>the rest is here:

http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/04/05/fired.attorneys/

[livvy]

18. OpEdNews: Do Election Integrity Activists Want a "Perfect" Reform Bill?

OpEdNews

April 5, 2007

Do election integrity activists want a "perfect" reform bill?

By Jody Holder

Do election integrity activists want a "perfect" reform bill? The term "perfect" or "perfection" is a distractive term from the main issues. What is "perfect" is relative to what is the goal and how to attain it. When it comes to elections in our country the perfect election would
result in the winner of the majority of votes being sworn into office. That will supposedly be a result of the citizens choosing their representatives by a deliberative process, the person best suited for the job. In the real world that does not happen very often. No human endeavor involving hundreds of thousands of people, multiple jurisdictions and laws, can ever arrive at "perfection".


There is a major difference between the secret act of voting and the
secret process of counting those votes. Making the process of counting
completely transparent does not mandate that we lose the secrecy of how we voted. If the counting process is completely transparent and subject to citizen oversight in a timely manner, it will result in challenges when the process is subject to abuse or manipulation by those conducting it. Most states have evolved election related laws that have been created as reactions to abuse of the process. Unfortunately, almost all of those laws are under the civil code, not the criminal code, and there are inadequate consequences if the law is not followed. Many of the laws connected to the needed checks and balances for checking the accuracy of the count are ambiguous, weighted towards the expediency of those administering the election, and unfriendly to any citizen or candidate challenging the results.

There was a reason that the California legislature chose to codify an
audit "to assure the accuracy of any automated count." At some time it
recognized that electronic means of counting votes was subject to error or manipulation. The weakness of the law was in ignoring the fact of the
human side of the process. Election officials for many reasons would tend to resist any exposure that their electoral process was not deserving of the public's complete confidence. That is why we are continuously told that the election went without hitch. We know better now, not because those elections officials have started being honest, but because activists had to dig for the truth.

No human led process is or can be perfect. That is why our form of
government was developed on the model of checks and balances. Our
electoral process also must be based upon checks and balances, which is only possible with a completely transparent process. Any reform must have that as its standard. Anything less subverts our form of government. A secret vote and an open process for counting that vote are not in opposition, for they serve the same purpose, that the citizens know the government serves by the consent of the governed.

A wee bit more is here:

http://www.opednews.com/maxwrite/page.php?a=33046

[livvy]

19. With Senate on Break, Bush Appoints Officials

With Senate on break, Bush appoints officials
The three, including a contentious regulatory director, most likely would not have been approved by lawmakers.
By Joel Havemann
Times Staff Writer

April 5, 2007

WASHINGTON — President Bush on Wednesday appointed as his top regulatory official a conservative academic who has written that markets do a better job of regulating than the government does and that it is more cost-effective for people who are sensitive to pollution to stay indoors on smoggy days than for government to order polluters to clean up their emissions.

As director of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs at the White House Office of Management and Budget, Susan E. Dudley will have an opportunity to change or block all regulations proposed by government agencies.

In a flurry of nominations and appointments, Bush also named a researcher at the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank in Washington, as deputy director of the Social Security Administration. Andrew G. Biggs has been an outspoken proponent of converting Social Security benefits into self-directed retirement accounts, which Bush favors but Democrats have stopped cold. Bush nominated Biggs to that post in November, but the process stalled in February when the Senate Finance Committee refused to hold confirmation hearings because of his views on privatization.

And as ambassador to Belgium he installed Sam Fox, a St. Louis businessman and GOP fundraiser who contributed $50,000 to the Swift Boat veterans' controversial campaign against Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.) in the 2004 presidential race. The White House actually withdrew Fox's nomination to that same job last week in the face of strong opposition from the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

>The rest is here:

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-recess5apr05,1,2712598.story?track=rss&ctrack=1&cset=true

[livvy]

20. State Dept. Won't Rule Out Paying Swift Boat Donor Ambassador

State Department won't rule out paying Swift Boat donor Ambassador
Michael Roston
Published: Thursday April 5, 2007

Update: RAW STORY has received the letter from several Senators to the GAO requesting an opinion on the legality of the President's actions

The Department of State will not rule out paying a salary to Sam Fox, the major Swift Boat Veterans For Truth donor who was recess appointed as US Ambassador to Belgium by President George W. Bush yesterday.

"That's not something we're allowed to get into," Lesley Phillips, a State Department spokeswoman, told RAW STORY when asked whether or not the millionaire businessman would be paid for his services.

>snip of more details

Part of the letter sent by Dodd, Kerry, and Casey

The Honorable David M. Walker Comptroller General Government Accountability Office 441 G Street, NW Washington, DC 20548

Dear Mr. Walker:

We write to request that the Government Accountability Office examine a particular aspect of the legality of the Bush Administration’s recent recess appointment of Mr. Sam Fox as Ambassador to Belgium. We view the recess appointment of Mr. Fox as a clear abuse of the President’s recess appointment power, but additionally think that Mr. Fox may be barred from taking the position of Ambassador, since the government is prohibited from accepting the voluntary services of an individual under 5 U.S.C. § 1342. We would, therefore, appreciate your formal opinion on this issue.

By way of background, on January 7, 2007, the President nominated Mr. Sam Fox to be Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the United States of America to Belgium. A hearing on his nomination was held by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Tuesday, February 27, 2007. The Senate Committee had placed Mr. Fox’s nomination on the agenda for a Business Meeting on March 28, 2007. Shortly before the Business Meeting convened, however, the President withdrew the nomination of Mr. Fox from the Senate.

The Senate then went into recess on March 29, 2007. On April 4, 2007, while the Senate was in recess, and after Mr. Fox’s nomination had been withdrawn, the Bush Administration recess-appointed Mr. Fox as Ambassador to Belgium.

>more



http://rawstory.com/news/2007/State_Department_wont_rule_out_paying_0405.html

[livvy]

21. A Narrow Window for Recess Appts.

April 5, 2007, 2:11 pm
A Narrow Window for Recess Appts.

By Carl Hulse

Senate Democrats were caught off guard by the Bush administration’s recess appointments this week. And part of the reason was that lawmakers are just not accustomed to being on recess this year.

The current Easter break is only the second official respite of 2007 for the Senate, which is under new Democratic management. And, in contrast to the House, the Senate is taking just a week off and will be back next Tuesday. So the recess window was not very wide open.

Yet the White House, which is hitting the Democrats for leaving town without finishing the Iraq spending bill, had no qualms about using that same recess to install three disputed nominees, further angering lawmakers already unhappy with the administration for the aborted effort to put federal prosecutors in office without confirmation.

The White House might not have many more recess opportunities. Once it returns, the Senate is scheduled to be in session for seven consecutive weeks before breaking for Memorial Day, followed by another month in the run-up to the Fourth of July. But if Democrats become unhappy enough, they could conceivably discontinue recesses altogether.

>more

http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/04/05/a-narrow-window-for-recess-appts/

[livvy]

22. Florida Restores Felon Voting Rights

Florida Restores Felon Voting Rights

April 5, 2007
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Filed at 3:36 p.m. ET

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) -- Most Florida felons will regain voting and other civil rights more quickly after completing their sentences under changes approved Thursday by the governor and the state clemency board.

All but the most violent felons can now avoid waiting for a board hearing, a process that sometimes takes years.

Along with regaining the right to vote, felons can now more quickly serve on juries and get licensed for many occupations, a key concern of activists. The right to have a firearm still wouldn't be automatically restored.

Felon civil rights drew attention after the disputed 2000 presidential election, when many non-convicts were purged from voter rolls because of rampant errors in the state's prison database.

Florida was one of three U.S. states along with Kentucky and Virginia that require ex-felons to take action to restore their civil rights no matter how long they've been out of prison. Other states have waiting periods before restoration; most restore rights automatically when felons complete their sentence.

Under the change, which takes effect immediately, Florida officials will automatically begin the rights-restoration process for felons when they finish their sentences. People who previously completed sentences but are still awaiting restoration of their rights will still have to apply on their own because most are not tracked by the state after their release.

>more


http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/us/AP-Felons-Rights.html?ref=politics

[L. Coyote]

23. OHIO Brunner: new rules detail the identification voters will need

New voter ID rules
Posted by Mark Rollenhagen April 05, 2007 16:30PM
Categories: Breaking News
http://blog.cleveland.com/openers/2007/04/new_voter_id_rules.html

Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner Thursday afternoon issued new rules that detail the identification voters will need to cast ballots in the May election and how they can vote absentee or provisionally.

The 16-page directive also bars the use of direct recording electronic voting machines for provisional voting in elections after the primary that will occur May 8......

....

read the full directive on the secretary of state's Web site.

http://www.sos.state.oh.us/sos/electionsvoter/directives/2007/Dir2007-06.pdf

[Kurovski]

24. And now Tater Tot can frolic on the Greatest Page.

K&R!

[FogerRox]

25. #6, fly you sucker fly......

[livvy]

27. Ever seen a Bouvier puppy at play? Fly, they do! Thanks for the...

:kick:

[livvy]

26. Grrrrrwrufff, grrwrufff....

Translation: Thanks!