BradBlog: Rep. Bob Ney of Ohio's Connection To Electoral Fraud

[SharonRB]

I looked and didn't see anything on this article linked from RawStory to BradBlog. Sorry if it's a dupe, but I wanted to make sure it got out there. Enjoy!


The Soon-to-be-Indicted Rep. Bob Ney of Ohio's Connection To Electoral Fraud
The Dots Connect Between Abramoff, Ohio 2004 Election Smokescreen and Ney's Former Staffer Revealed to be on Diebold's Payroll While Working for White House Law Firm
All the While as HAVA -- America's 'Election Reform' Bill -- is Used for Political Payoff in the Bargain...


There's been a great deal of speculation over the last several days, particularly in the light of Jack Abramoff's recent guilty pleas, concerning the connection of Congressman Bob Ney (R-OH) to Election Fraud in Ohio, and indeed, vis a vis his stewardship and authoring of the Help America Vote Act (HAVA) back in 2001 and 2002. The heavy-handed tactics he has taken since then in order to keep the flawed act from being changed in any way over the years, along with the great lengths he's gone to in order to keep the nation's eyes off of massive electile dysfunction in Ohio and elsewhere since 2004 may finally soon get the attention it all properly deserves.

<snip>

His direct connection to the HAVA Election Reform bill passed in the wake of the 2000 Florida Election Debacle and his various extraordinary efforts to specifically block amendments to the bill and to smokescreen attempted investigations into his home state's conduct during the 2004 Election Debacle, has been less widely reported. Until now.

While Common Cause quietly reported in December of 2004 that Diebold -- the much-beleagured-of-late American Voting Machine company -- paid as much as $275,000 to Abramoff's firm, Greenberg Traurig for lobbying work, The BRAD BLOG has now found additional details that begin to shed new light on Ney's personal connections to Diebold lobbyists.


More at the link:

http://www.bradblog.com/archives/00002261.htm

[stop the bleeding]

1. do you hear that ???

That is the sound of drums beating

[SharonRB]

2. I hear them, I hear them....

Actually, I think it's more like a drumroll.

[stop the bleeding]

3. for us yes, for them it is more like a death march

:popcorn::popcorn::popcorn::popcorn:

[SharonRB]

4. Very true.

I can't believe it's taken this long to connect the dots, but someone is finally learning how to play the game correctly.

[movonne]

14. They just didn't want to connect the dots.....

[SpiralHawk]

15. This Winter I hear the drumming. Tin soldiers and BushCo coming

Four dead (metaphorically speaking) in O-hi-o.


* With apologies to Crosby, Stills & Nash

[Judi Lynn]

5. God, you just have to wince reading this!

From the bradblog link:

Such personal connections include those with Ney's former chief of staff turned lobbyist, David DiStefano who has been working on behalf of Diebold, Inc. and at least one other Voting Machine Company, as a registered lobbyist in the House going back to at least 2001. One of DiStefano's online bios crows about his having "an insider’s edge to hard-to-reach political officials." That "insider's edge" has proven to have been a very worthwhile investment for the Voting Machine Companies who'd purchased access into Ney's political office.

Congressional lobbying records reveal that Diebold, Inc. has paid at least $180,000 to DiStefano and eventually his partner, Roy C. Coffee, to lobby for the "Help America Vote Act" and other "Election Reform Issues" in Congress since 2003. Another Electronic Voting Machine Company, AccuPoll, Inc., also paid DiStefano some $70,000 to lobby for HAVA on their behalf in 2002, though that relationship was apparently terminated once the legislation was passed by Congress.

In turn, Ney's former employee DiStefano and Coffee themselves have given nearly $20,000 to Bob Ney's campaigns dating back to 2002.

The connections of DiStefano and Coffee don't stop at Congress, however. Both lobbyists now work out of the new Washington office of the Texas-based law firm of Lock, Liddell & Sapp LLP -- the firm of George W. Bush's White House Counsel Harriet Miers. And Coffee, himself, had previously worked as a senior aide to the then-Governor Bush back in Texas.
(snip/...)

Thank you so much,SharonRB. Here's hoping they can't cover this up again.

[SharonRB]

7. You're very welcome, Judi Lynn

I was shocked no one had posted it before I did. I must have caught it pretty soon after it was put out there. Earlier, RawStory had a "developing" story.

It's amazing stuff...maybe we'll finally be able to prove the fix was in.

[november3rd]

10. This is like a huge stink bomb

There's all this essence of sulfur congesting the scene, but who notices it in the inferno of Iraq, NSA wiretaps, Plamegate, DeLay/Abramoff, and Alito's hearings? This voting connection may be more than the law enforcement system, the public, and certainly the media, can absorb.

[BadGimp]

6. Everyone needs to read this article!

[SharonRB]

8. Vote it up so it gets to the front page!

[stop the bleeding]

9. Has someone emailed John Kerry with this yet??

I mean it is kind of relevant to what went on in Nov/04.

Or is that a waste of time, I am not sure what Kerry would say about this, personally H. Dean was always my man - Hell I liked him more after the scream.


kkkrraaaaaahhhhhh!!!!!

[Zorra]

11. Thanks. Ney truly deserves life in prison without parole. n/t

[texpatriot2004]

12. Thanks Brad nm

[BradBlog]

16. You're welcome Tex ;-) (nm)

[mod mom]

13. Heres the link to GD discussion:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=364&topic_id=99604&mesg_id=99604