The Cinti. Enquirer failed to investigate the Warren County lockdown here

[roseBudd]

is our chance to rake them over the coals. Fritakis appeared at a candidates forum Wed. and the Enquirer politics blog which allows comments took the opportunity to disparage people like us as conspiracy theorists.

On hand, too, was Bob Fitrakis, Columbus lawyer/talk show host/journalist/political science teacher who is the Green Party's candidate for governor, who thrilled the conspiracy buffs in the crowd with his contention that Republicans stole the presidential election in Ohio for George W. Bush.

The minimalist efforts the Enquirer expended on Warren County.

http://www.enquirer.com/editions/2004/11/05/loc_warrenvote05.html

http://www.enquirer.com/editions/2004/11/10/loc_warrenvote10.html

The blog that I think we should leave comments on.
http://frontier.cincinnati.com/blogs/gov/



Election fraud links, chock full of Ohio material:
http://bushcheated04.com/links.html

[roseBudd]

1. Here is my comment to the Enquirer's politics blog...

The reality is that the Cincinnati Enquirer failed it's most basic duty as the fourth estate when they failed to investigate the bogus terror alert used by Warren County officials to prevent independent observation of the vote tabulation on Nov. 2, 2004. A scoop that literally fell into their laps when their reporter was denied access. This preplanned and duplicitous action was and wholly without merit as an elementary school withing 100 yards of the Board of Elections in Lebanon was not informed.

http://www.enquirer.com/editions/2004/11/05/loc_warrenvote05.html
Warren's vote tally walled off

Alone in Ohio, officials cited homeland security
Citing concerns about potential terrorism, Warren County officials locked down the county administration building on election night and blocked anyone from observing the vote count as the nation awaited Ohio's returns.

http://www.enquirer.com/editions/2004/11/10/loc_warrenvote10.html
Warren Co. defends lockdown decision

FBI denies warning officials of any special threat
Officials at the FBI, which oversees anti-terrorism activities in southern Ohio, said they received no information about a terror threat in Warren County.

[Time for change]

2. The Cinci Enquirer

By failing to follow up on that story, they might have been responsible for allowing the most important election theft in U.S. (or world) history to skate through without being exposed.

[autorank]

3. Wow, I just tried to post the following and got this message:

" Comment moderation has been enabled. All comments must be approved by the blog author."

Oopsie, they knew I was coming;) I would like these questions at least investigated.

So here's my contribution to the Howard Wilkinson blog:



PAUL HACKET’S RACE – QUESTIONS ASKED BUT NOT ANSWERED

Hackett’s race raised disturbing questions that nobody here asked (that I’m aware):
From: http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0508/S00186.htm

“Here are some questions closer to home, questions the Cincinnati press chose not to ask:

Hackett’s percentage by precinct group size:

46.9% in precincts under 100 votes
43.5% in precincts of 100-200 votes
39.6% in precincts of 200-300 votes
34.6% in precincts of 300 + votes

These results raise interesting questions. Why does Hackett do much better in the smaller precincts? Are they more rural than the larger precincts? If so, does this not present a counterintuitive pattern, with the Democrat taking some of the conservative, less populated areas and the Republican winning all of the precincts in the most populated areas?”

Here is what it looks like when it’s graphed: Hackett can’t win a precinct in Clermont above 200 votes.


It’s interesting that there was no difference in turnout across precincts despite the size.

Here is a graphic representation of that even turnout:




There was some funny stuff on election day. With Hackett leading and 91 precincts yet to count, the vote count was stopped in Clermont. It seems “humidity” prevented the last set of ballots to be counted from 91 Clermont precincts. Amazingly, as if by magic, Hackett’s lead evaporated and he lost the race.

Here are some more questions questions never asked by the Cincinnati press about that:

From: http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0508/S00186.htm

“Questions not asked about the vote count stoppage.

The sudden stoppage of vote tabulation in Clermont was reminiscent of nearby Warren County’s Board of Elections citizen-media lockout during vote counting in 2004, which county officials claimed to be the result of a Homeland Security alert. There was no alert.

Was humidity the reason the optical scanning machine count stopped in Clermont, or was there some “intelligent design?” Humidity can impact the ability of optical scan counting machines to process paper ballots. It is not frequently reported and there are clear instructions providing easy remedies (e.g. air condition polling and tabulation facilities). The state of Louisiana made its 2003 RFP for voting machines contingent on tolerating a 98% humidity rate, for example. Air conditioning is reported to be widely available in Clermont County, as are dehumidifiers.

Why were 91 precincts impacted while 100 others were not in the same County?

Information about the locations of the humidity-impacted districts is unavailable. Was each of the 91 precincts without air conditioning? That would be a 48% rate of precincts exposed to conditions that the Board had to know could create problems. For them to announce problems with ballots due to humidity after the fact is remarkable. Certainly, they knew that humidity could be an issue. Just days before the special election there were extensive reports of a serious heat and humidity wave in the Cincinnati area. The regions largest newspaper, The Cincinnati Enquirer had been talking about the heat and humidity days before the election. Surely humidity on Election Day should have been taken into account.

Was there a one-to-one match between precincts with “humidified” ballots and precincts without air conditioning?

If so, why were nearly half of the precincts exposed to humidification? And if this is not so, if some of the 91 precincts with ballot problems due to humidity had air conditioning and some did not, how does the Board explain humidity problems in precincts with air conditioning?

Was Clermont the only part of the 2nd District that was affected by humidity that day and if so, why?

Clermont used optical scan paper ballots. Five other counties used punch card paper ballots, which have a similar or greater vulnerability to expansion or distortion due to humidity. There were no reports of problems in those five counties related to humidity. What is the critical variable that makes Clermont ballots vulnerable to distortion due to excessive moisture? Were precincts all air conditioned in the five counties that used punch card paper ballots? Was there something like an intense thermal inversion going on above the 91 precincts in Clermont County?

Why did the Board of Elections allow precincts to operate that lacked sufficient air conditioning to prevent humidity?

These questions need to be answered given the prior questions raised and documented about Clermont. The Board of Elections operates all year round. There is sufficient time to study manuals, attend vendor-sponsored retreats, and talk to nearby officials. Nearly half of the Clermont precincts had humidified ballots. A failure rate of nearly 50% is totally unacceptable performance for an election and offers the most unflattering commentary on those who are supposed to run it efficiently.”
-------------------------

Who knows? Maybe someday someone able to get the answers will ask the questions.

[roseBudd]

7. Autorank Wilkinson approved your comment, BTW Wilkinson is the original

reporter who covered the humid ballots story. I can't remember if you sent your stuff to him or just to Paul Hackett's office. I know my charcaterization of Wilkinson as a real reporter stuck at a RW rag whose editors won't let him speak truth to power may be naive but it's never too late for the truth to emerge. I thinbk it is definitely worthwhile to snail mail Wilkinson analysis of SW Ohio results.

I also think it is worthwhile to inquire if Warren County Board of Elections member Leslie Spaeth has any connection to GOP operative Merrie Spaeth of Swift Boat fame.

Remember it is Frank Young Emergency Services Director of Warren County who is the person who either was duped by a person or persons pretending to be from the FBI or Homeland Security or is the person who knowingly orchestrated a phony and preplanned but secret terror alert on Nov. 2.

BTW Erica Solvig was not reassigned to Palm Springs. Who wouldn't prefer Palm Springs to Cincinnati?

[autorank]

11. Thank you Howard!!! Now go get the story. Only you can do it!

"Fifteen consecutive victories and 70% of the votes in the last four elections make this nomination exceptionally attractive. Howard Wilkinson of the Enquirer summarized the primary just before the vote: “The race for the 2nd Congressional District started out as a collegial, friendly affair. Now it’s the check-bouncer versus the tax raiser versus the guy who ditched his wife.” Schmidt, “the tax raiser,” prevailed with 31% of the votes, followed by Bob McEwen, “the check bouncer” with 26%, and Pat DeWine, son of Ohio U.S. Senator Mike DeWine and “the guy who ditched his wife,” with 20% (after spending $1.0 million on the primary)."

<snip>

"Only Howard Wilkinson of the Enquirer implied questions. He began his August 2, 2005, analysis by saying, “The apparent win by Republican Jean Schmidt in Tuesday’s 2nd Congressional District election was in no way shocking, but the fact that Democrat Paul Hackett made it a very close election is nothing short of astounding.” Given the announcement of the final count by the time this was written, the use of “apparent win” might lead some to think Mr. Wilkinson has paid attention to the history of the 2004 Presidential election in Southwestern Ohio."

http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0508/S00186.htm

[farmbo]

4. They've cut off critical blog entries...but here's mine:

The Cincinnati Enquirer is the Harry Whittington of the 2004 election.
They showed up to observe the late night vote counting in Warren County, which by law must be open to the public. However, local GOP operatives made up a phony "terror alert"...later disclosed to be a fraud...and the Enquier's intrepid cub reporter was kicked out.
GOP Tech operatives then came in to load up phony results into the state tabulator...keeping the lines open until the big Cuyahoga county Kerry results were covered.

The Enquirer's bold response: the reporter was "re-assigned" out -of-state, and the paper now refers to anyone who poses questions about the fake Warren County terror lockdown as "conspiracy nuts".

Their apology: "We're deeply sorry we accidently stumbled upon the GOP vote flipping operation in Warren County. We promise never to investigate it throughly and we're sorry to have inconvenienced the Warren county GOP operatives who lied about the terror alert.

Gee Mr Rove...can you see it in your heart to forgive us?"

[mod mom]

5. Rosebud, One problem with your summary: we're not conspiracy buffs but

people grounded in the realitybased community. Glad to here you could attend.

Peace.

[roseBudd]

6. That's not my summary that's what the politics blogger from the Enquirer

called the audiences reaction to the Fritakis comments at the candidates forum. I should have put that part in quotes.

I didn't attend the candidates forum. I got a business card handed to me at a fund raiser by the head of the Hamilton County Democratic party. He handed me his business card after I told him I am the liberal version of a Karl Rove. I am going to try to get a meeting with him to tell him my ideas for outside the box GOTV (bus stops, barber shops and beauty parlors) and smearing Blackwell in the African American community.

I am assuming though unnamed that the Enquirer's politics blog is manned by Howard Wilkinson, Greg Korte's and I believe at least one other reporter. Several DUers tried to contact Wilkinson about Warren County and never got an email or a call back.

I just checked the blog and Wilkinson did approve our comments. Yippee! I've always felt like Winkinson could be our Woodward & Bernstein, but maybe his editors didn't let him. Be nice folks, we need some one like Wilkinson in SW OH.

Back to liberal version of Karl Rove shenanigans. I guess I'm just a dirty tricks kind of girl. I handed out a compendium of newspaper articles titled GOP Voter Suppression Technigues and Tactics at Chabot's town hall at the Urban League before he got there.

Republican Voter Suppression Tactics and Techniques

The GOP's Shameful Vote Strategy
Time was when Republicans were at least embarrassed by their efforts to keep African Americans from the polls. Today's Republicans have elevated vote suppression from a dirty secret to a public norm.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A707-2004Oct26.html

The New Poll Tax
Republican-sponsored ballot-security measures are being used to keep minorities from voting
One of the recurring scandals in American politics since passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 is the discriminatory use of so-called "ballot security" programs. These programs are invariably presented as good government measures necessary to prevent voter fraud, but far too often they are actually designed to suppress minority voting -- and for nakedly partisan purposes.
http://www.prospect.org/print-friendly/print/V13/23/mcdonald-l.html

Now They're Registered, Now They're Not
Election Officials Express Dismay at Extent of Misinformation, Variety of Tricks Targeting Voters
Students find their party changed, while residents of several cities report bogus phone calls telling voters their polling location has been changed.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A12514-2004Oct30.html

Democrats call on Blackwell to resign
By limiting where people can cast a ballot on Election Day and confusing county boards of election about the thickness of voter registration forms, Blackwell is creating barriers to eligible voters. Senate Democrats called for the resignation of Secretary of State Ken Blackwell, accusing him of trying to suppress the vote in Ohio.
http://www.lancastereaglegazette.com/news/stories/20041001/localnews/1338143.html

Voters report fake calls
Instructions to change polling place don’t come from board of elections
Franklin County, Ohio residents report suspicious phone calls detailing false precinct changes and absentee ballot requests.
http://www.dispatch.com/election/election-local.php?story=dispatch/2004/10/22/20041022-A1-00.html

NAACP, election officials caution voters of bogus letter
South Carolina officials warn of bogus letter on NAACP letterhead says voters must have a credit check, provide two forms of photo identification, a Social Security card, a voter registration card as well as a handwriting sample.
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/politics/10050609.htm?1c

Franklin County Elections Board Targeted Heavily Democratic Precincts
Analysis shows that the distribution of voting machines to precincts was not random but rather was severely discriminating against Democratic precincts, with nearly one out of three Democratic precincts had less voting machines in 2004 than in 2000
http://www.indybay.org/news/2004/12/1708672.php

Pushing to Be Counted in Fla. Groups Say That Blacks May Not Be Heard at Polls
Black leaders said the scene at the supervisor's office last week was reminiscent of a blocked schoolhouse door at the height of desegregation. They charge that GOP officials are deliberately using the law to keep black people off the rolls and hinder them from voting.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A28107-2004Oct12.html

TV Reveals New Florida Vote Scandal
Republican "Caging List"
GOP denies "caging list" is a plan to disrupt voting in the state's African-American voting districts.
http://www.gregpalast.com/detail.cfm?artid=385&row=0BBC

Something rotten in the state of Florida
Pregnant chads, vanishing voters... the election fiasco of 2000 made the Sunshine State a laughing stock. More importantly, it put George Bush in the White House. You'd think they'd want to get it right this time. But no, as Andrew Gumbel discovers, the democratic process is more flawed than ever.
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/story.jsp?story=566688

Grand jury to reconvene in phone-jamming case
A federal prosecutor said he will reconvene a grand jury in a case involving the jamming of Democratic phone lines in 2002, raising the question of whether more Republicans could be accused.
http://news.mainetoday.com/apwire/D8C6VEF80-236.shtml

Florida scraps flawed felon voting list
The purge of felons from voter rolls has been a thorny issue since the 2000 presidential election. A private company hired to identify ineligible voters before the election produced a list with scores of errors, and elections supervisors used it to remove voters without verifying its accuracy.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2004-07-10-felons-vote-fla_x.htm?POE=click-refer

Peeling back the mandate
Voting rights are once more at the forefront of the civil rights movement
The civil rights movement is regrouping, just as racism is regrouping, and voting rights are still at the forefront. Peel back George Bush’s grinning “mandate” from November and what you find is a shadow world of widespread anti-democratic maneuvering, harassment and deceit, blatantly targeting African-American and other primarily Democratic voting blocs.
http://www.commonwonders.com/archives/col285.htm

Jim Crow returns to the voting booth
Does America have apartheid vote counting system?
The challenge to the vote count is over, but the matter of how the United States counts votes, or fails to count them, remains. The ballots left uncounted, and that will never be counted, are so-called spoiled or rejected ballots -- votes cast by citizens, but never tallied are overwhelmingly from African American precincts. This is the dark little secret of U.S. democracy.
http://www.gregpalast.com/detail.cfm?artid=411&row=0

[roseBudd]

8. DUer comments have been approved, lets try to stay focused on Warren...

That is an Enquirer scoop that reached a national audience when Keith Olberman and Democracy Now picked up on it and interviewed the Enquirer reporter Erica Solvig.

Failure to investigate this story is comparable to Toledo Blade reporter Wenzel failing to tell his editor about a 2004 tip on Coingate and then jumping to the Schmidt campaign....

http://thenexthurrah.typepad.com/the_next_hurrah/2005/07/schmidt_advisor.html

Schmidt Advisor Connected to Noe: It's Even More Money Than Reported
By DHinMI

Atrios is linking to a report about a Toledo Blade editor connected to Ohio Coingate figure Tom Noe who Ohio Republican Congressional candidate Jeannette Schmidt is reported to have paid $60,000 in consulting fees the week he retired from The Blade. But that's not all of the money this guy's received from Schmidt. And there are some questions that should be asked.

First, what we're talking about, the original report from Editor and Publisher:
http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/magazine/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1000991071

The Blade of Toledo, Ohio, is on top of the news- paper world, thanks to its "Coingate" reports (see p. 34). But while the paper is rightly thumping its chest with each new revelation, it's also coming under some scrutiny — not for what it has printed, but for what it may not have. Rumors swirl around a veteran Blade scribe, former political reporter Fritz Wenzel. Nothing at all is proven, but it's worth recalling the dangers — even if it's just in public perception — of jumping from political campaigning to political reporting and back again.

Wenzel, a longtime GOP campaign worker in Oregon, spent 10 years on the Blade politics beat before returning to the world of political consulting in May, virtually the day after he left the paper. One of the key contacts he made along the way was the man now at the center of the Coingate accusations, Tom Noe, a major Republican fund-raiser who attended the wedding of Wenzel's son, P.J., a state GOP employee. Noe's wife, Bernadette, even praised Wenzel during a GOP Lincoln Day Dinner this spring. "It was obvious that was a Republican, he never hid the fact," Dennis Lang, interim chair of the Lucas County Republican Central Committee, told me last month. "But his work stayed in neutral ground."

Not according to the Lucas County Democratic Party, which devoted a page on its Web site to blasting Wenzel for alleged inaccuracy and bias. Suspicions about partisan leanings were further fueled when Wenzel signed on as media strategist for Jean Schmidt, the GOP nominee for an open Cincinnati-area congressional seat that voters will fill in a special August election (she won a primary on June 14). Disclosure records show Wenzel received $30,000 from Schmidt's campaign on May 16, the day his last column for the paper appeared, and three days after he left the Blade. He got another $30,000 from those coffers a week later, according to records. Part of the money went to media buys.


http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2005/10/06/ohio/index_np.html

Did a reporter with GOP ties suppress a story that could have cost Bush the White House?

By Bill Frogameni


President Bush's reelection may have been made possible by a Toledo Blade reporter with close ties to the Republican Party who reportedly knew about potential campaign violations in early 2004 but suppressed the story.

According to several knowledgeable sources, The Blade's chief political columnist, Fritz Wenzel, was told of potential campaign violations by Tom Noe, chair of the Bush-Cheney 2004 campaign for Lucas County, as early as January 2004. But according to Blade editors, Wenzel never gave the paper the all-important tip in early 2004.

[roseBudd]

9. My latest comment comparing Enquirer to Toledo Blade unfavorably

Let's see if this comment gets approved...


The sad reality is that the only newspaper in Ohio doing any investigative reporting is the Toledo Blade. Surely it's not a Gannett vs. Knight Ridder issue. Here is an example of a guest editorial in a Gannett owned newspaper that isn't afraid to speak truth to power about things that matter. The Cincinnati Enquirer fiddles while the US burns literally.

http://www.greatfallstribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060304/OPINION/603040305/1014


U.S. mustn't forget about openness and honesty

snip

Inexorably, the sound of silence is spreading throughout the federal government.

At NASA, political appointees have been interfering with what the agency's scientists — including James Hansen, a leading authority on global warming — can say in lectures, online presentations and press interviews. A review of those guidelines is promised.

Meanwhile, officials at the Environmental Protection Agency continue to insist on screening all contacts with the press by its scientists.

Not even speech as a private citizen escapes the watchful eye of officials.

For example, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs last fall launched an investigation into whether criticism of the administration in a VA nurse's letter to a weekly newspaper in Albuquerque was an act of sedition.

If there are any doubts about the administration's hard-line stance on government-employee speech, its brief in a case before the Supreme Court should dispel them. The case, Garcetti vs. Ceballos, presents the question of whether the First Amendment protects job-related speech, even when it is a matter of public concern. The solicitor general, on behalf of the United States, argues that it does not.

Ironically, while government officials suppress speech and punish criticism by others, they are greatly expanding the boundaries of their own speech.

snip

The Government Accountability Office reported last week that in two and a half years, seven agencies spent $1.6 billion on media and advertising, including government-produced video news releases that both the GAO and Congress labeled "covert propaganda."

These developments, combined with aggressive tactics for withholding information from Congress, the courts, scholars, historians, the press and the people, represent a sea change in the information policies that have sustained and vitalized our democracy for more than two centuries.

This new climate of fear and intimidation is discouraging the very words that drive democratic decision-making in the right direction.

The authors of these policies appear to have thought neither long nor hard about the long-term consequences of such policies. The implications for good government and democracy, as well as the First Amendment, are profound.

A strategy of withholding, manipulating and distorting information to control and defeat our enemies works also to mislead and control allies and citizens alike.

Moreover, we are careening dangerously toward an information environment that not only punishes dissenters and critics but those who are insufficiently laudatory.

As a nation, we should not gaze wistfully toward the tactics of tyrannies and terrorists as a possible model for our own information policies.

To do so would plunge us into a deplorable mistrust of honesty and openness as a way of winning the hearts and minds of our enemies, not to mention the trust and support of our citizenry.

[roseBudd]

10. This comment has been approved, looks like Wilkinson is not shying away

from criticism of the SW Ohio newspaper that is in the best position to investigate the electoral fraud happening in counties like Warren and Clermont.