Replies to post #102352 on Tornado Alley (PROG)

[StephanieVanbryce]

He is not an honest man, as a matter of fact he's a liar. I expect nothing less from fox AND the whacktards
who continuously spew their hate for Holder/Obama AND anything democratic . Fox news is noted for inciting violence AND racism.



........ONE more bitter bigoted racist, of course you know that he did not pursue the Bush-era DOJ case with all most the exact allegations against the minutemen -- EXCEPT one of 'them' carried a gun. SEE ? it's o.k. to carry a gun to a voting place - IF you are a WHITE MAN.. BUT don't you DARE carry a stick (if you are a Black man) YOU should be locked up & maybe hanged....Just another bitter bigoted man - Who only HATES BROWN People .. it's the same old story, over and over again - IF you're WHITE - YOU'RE RIGHT ! ...

[decouverte d Elbe]

Geez..they couldn't even count the real votes in Florida in 2000 (or how Jeb Bush kept many Democrats off the voter rolls, and "overlooked" many discrepancies in the counting efficiency),and look what that did to this country. We still have huge anomalies when people do vote, because of voting machines that are gamed..so I need to worry about a case that Bush dropped, that Fox Noise recycled as part of it's own daily dose of biased coverage..c'mon.. this was an all-black precinct from what I've learned..the only intimidation was that the men stood there..didn't hear about one threat, or one complaint by a voter..or of anyone that decided not to vote..
This is how the Right loves to change the subject..revive a dead issue..and demonize, while never accounting for the major (in this case voting fraud) complaints against the GOP or the RightWing.

Never saw THIS story on FOX..ACTUAL PROVEN VOTER FRAUD!!

[UPDATED] Clay County, KY Election Officials Found Guilty of Election Fraud, Vote Buying
Convicted high-ranking officials include a circuit court judge, county clerk and school superintendent
Each face up to 20 years in broad conspiracy that included manipulation of electronic voting machines...
All eight defendants in Clay County, Kentucky's election fraud trial have been found guilty today by a federal jury. Six of those eight were high-ranking election officials, including the county clerk, a circuit judge and the school superintendent. The conspirators were charged with having manipulated federal elections in 2002, 2004 and 2006 by buying and selling votes and manipulating electronic voting machines.

According to AP, each of the now-convicted felons could face up to 20 years in prison for what prosecutors had described as a conspiracy to manipulate elections for decades in the rural, heavily Republican county.

In additional to federal racketeering, several of the defendants were also convicted of charges that included mail fraud, extortion and laundering money used to buy votes.

Supporters of unverifiable electronic voting, such as election officials and voting machines companies, had long argued that, though manipulation of such systems was possible, nobody had actually ever done so. While that dubious argument was difficult to independently verify one way or another --- since the private vendors make public oversight of such systems virtually impossible by blocking citizen inspection and oversight of such systems due to claims of "trade secrecy" --- the denialists arguments are no longer valid.

Furthermore, the verdict underscores what many critics of e-voting have long argued: the greatest security threat to such systems come from election insiders, not from the voting public and dubious claims of "voter fraud".

We recently detailed the testimony of one of the witnesses in the case who described how she was trained by the county's chief election official, Clerk Freddy Thompson (one of those convicted today), to change votes cast by voters on the county's ES&S touch-screen voting systems after they'd left the voting booth. The witness, Wanda White also detailed how she was instructed to change her own voter registration from Republican to Democratic so that she could serve as a Democratic precinct official.

The ES&S iVotronic touch-screen systems secretly manipulated by the cabal of election officials in Kentucky to change voter's votes, are used in a total of 18 states, including Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, Indiana, Kansas, Missouri, Mississippi, North Carolina, New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, Wisconsin and West Virginia.

And, just for good measure, we'll take this opportunity to remind readers, yet again, that the community organization ACORN --- who has long been used as a red-herring by the Republican Party to suggest the existence of massive Democratic "voter fraud" --- has never been charged with, or found guilty of aiding in the illegal casting of a single vote. Ever. Anywhere. No actual evidence has ever been presented in support of such a charge either.

Nonetheless, a recent survey by the the non-partisan polling outfit, Research 2000 found that one in five (21%) self-identified Republicans believe that ACORN stole the 2008 election for Barack Obama. Another 55% are "not sure" if they did or not.


* * *

UPDATE 3/26/10: Lexington Herald-Leader's Bill Estep, the local reporter who has owned this story for the past year, offering top-notch coverage every step of the way, offers some excellent details on the convictions today along with background on the entire sprawling conspiracy, including the $3.2 million the conspirators have been found liable for "based on the salaries and contracts they were able to get as a result of illegal acts."

Yes, it was a huge money-making proposition for the folks involved, and this federal prosecution only covered the elections from 2002 to 2006. At one point during the trial, defendant R. Cletus Maricle, formerly the Circuit Court Judge, admitted to having bought votes in 1983 (but claimed he hadn't done so since).

Estep also notes there could be more related indictments in the future. "The verdict raised the possibility that more people could be charged with vote fraud in the county," he writes. "Prosecutors and witnesses at the trial identified a number of others, including former and current public officials, who allegedly took part in buying votes."

We'll recommend Estep's coverage in full, but here are a few items of note worth flagging here from his report:

A bit about how the vote-machine rigging worked (since the AP report we linked to above hadn't offered details)...

In 2006, with the FBI a persistent presence in town, Maricle and others tried a new vote-fraud tactic that involved fewer people than buying votes — stealing votes, the indictment said.

The county had new voting machines that year that required people to push two buttons after making their choices — one to review choices and the second to record them.

That created opportunity for a scam in which corrupt precinct officers duped people into thinking they had voted after pressing the first button, then switched the votes, according to trial testimony.

Thompson, Jones and Stivers helped "school" her in how to do that when she worked as a precinct officer in May 2006, Wanda White testified.

On how widespread the election fraud had become in Clay County...

Testimony at the trial indicated that vote-buying has been chronic and widespread in the county, to the point many people saw nothing wrong with it.

After Eugene "Mutton" Lewis, a convicted drug dealer who said he'd bought votes for decades, described a candidate giving him $1,000 and asking for help, a defense attorney asked whether there weren't ways to help a candidate besides buying votes.

"Not that I know of," Lewis responded.

And finally, Estep's report ends on a hopeful note for democracy in the county which has been racked by years-long federal investigations and multiple prosecutions of high-ranking officials for narcotics trafficking, witness intimidation and election rigging in what had become an entirely political machine-owned-and-run corner of the state...

Manchester Mayor Carmen Webb Lewis said there are a lot of good people in Clay County. Election corruption had caused many to become disillusioned with politics, and even to stop voting, but federal agents' work to root out corruption is changing that, she said.

One sign is that there are people running for office this year who wouldn't have before, she said.

"That is kind of uplifting. I think it's wonderful," she said of the investigation, "and so many people do"

http://www.bradblog.com/?p=7765

Dylan Ratigan

[decouverte d Elbe]

Or this voter fraud news that Fox largely ignored

[Alex G]

dick,, is that all you have? is repeating the lies of Fox News and batshit crazies such as Bachmann?

jeeze, you sure are gullible


http://mediamatters.org/research/201007160048
Fox baselessly links Obama and Holder to New Black Panthers case, but their key witness says otherwise

Fox News figures have used J. Christian Adams' unsubstantiated allegations to suggest that President Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder were involved in the Justice Department's decision in the New Black Panthers case. However, Adams himself testified that he had no "indication" that the decision involved anyone "higher up" than an acting assistant attorney general.

[fuagf]

dickmilde, this deals with the NBP and another case, and looks to be yet another example of Fox bias ..

Fox News overlooked voter-intimidation allegations against Minutemen
July 19, 2010 12:06 pm ET — 27 Comments

In contrast to Fox News' repeated hyping of voter-intimidation charges against members of the New Black Panther Party during the 2008 election, a search of the Nexis database indicates that Fox News' top shows did not report on similar allegations that members of the Minutemen harassed Hispanic voters at an Arizona polling center in 2006. .. more in .. http://mediamatters.org/research/201007190022

NOW The last two comments which appear to me to be a TKO to the bottom one ..
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by commonsense0818 (July 19, 2010 6:21 pm ET)

Yet another attempt by Media Matters to try and prove they have even the slightest relevance in American society, however falling flat on their face once again. First off, charges were filed against the Black Panthers for their obvious voter intimidation. The Black Panthers didn't even show up to their own hearing, giving the judgment to the DOJ without even having to argue the case. After getting their judgment, the DOJ dropped most charges and gave a somewhat slap on the wrist to the individual who was bearing the baton (He can't go to that same polling place until 2012, but he can go anywhere else). In the Arizona case, however, there were never any charges filed. Why? Because there wasn't hardly any evidence that supported the allegations (Notice their use of the word "allegedly"). Actually, there were more witnesses that contradicted those allegations, hence why no charges were ever filed. So why would these allegations require National Media? Answer: They wouldn't, not unless whoever reported on the story wanted to be the next Dan Rather. It also explains why NONE of the other major media outlets reported on the Arizona case either (including MSNBC and CNN). Why doesn't the author mention that? Obviously it must have slipped the author's mind (Yeah right!)
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To me on all i have seen, pearlene_scott1602, looks the winner by TKO over 'commonsense0818'... haven't included emphasis ..
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by pearlene_scott1602 (July 21, 2010 11:14 pm ET)

First off, charges were filed against the Black Panthers for their obvious voter intimidation.

Interesting?

It was the Bush DOJ who CHOOSE to make a CIVILcharge NOT a criminal charge against the NBP with violating Section 11(b) of the Civil Rights Act of 1965.

After reviewing the matter, the Civil Rights Division determined that the facts did not constitute a prosecutable violation of the criminal statutes. The Department did, however, file a civil action on January 7th, 2009, seeking injunctive and declaratory relief under 11(b) against four defendants.

The complaint alleged that the defendants violated Section 11(b) because they attempted to engage in and engaged in both voter intimidation and intimidation of individuals aiding voters.

Section 11 (b) of the Voting Rights act is rarely used and difficult to try.

In fact, we can find records of only three cases filed by the government under Section 11(b) since its inception.

The standards for proof are high. And, as in every case, the question to be addressed is whether the evidence is sufficient to sustain the burden of proof. And on that question, reasonable minds can differ and can look at the same set of facts but draw different conclusions regarding whether the burden of proof has been met.

The Black Panthers didn't even show up to their own hearing, giving the judgment to the DOJ without even having to argue the case.

Department had a continuing legal and ethical obligation to ensure that any relief sought was consistent with the law and supported by the evidence.

After getting their judgment, the DOJ dropped most charges and gave a somewhat slap on the wrist to the individual who was bearing the baton (He can't go to that same polling place until 2012, but he can go anywhere else).

The maximum penalty for conviction on a charge of voter intimidation under federal guidelines is a fine and/or no more than one year in prison.

Section 11(b) does not authorize any other kinds of relief, such as criminal penalties, monetary damages, or civil penalties.

In the Arizona case, however, there were never any charges filed. Why? Because there wasn't hardly any evidence that supported the allegations (Notice their use of the word "allegedly"). Actually, there were more witnesses that contradicted those allegations, hence why no charges were ever filed

Really? If a nightstick is considered a weapon WHY wouldn't a loaded GUN be considered a weapon by the Bush DOJ?

Any evidence?.... Really?

Diego Bernal, a staff attorney with the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund (MALDEF), said the trio was trying to intimidate Hispanic voters. "A gun, a camera, a clipboard before you even get to the polls - if that's not voter intimidation, what is?" he asked.

Bernal said his group encountered the men at the Precinct 49 polling place at South 12th Avenue and West Michigan Street and began documenting the scene with their cameras. "There was an interesting period where they were taking pictures of us taking pictures of them."

Seems like you can make your exact same case with the Bush DOJ? I mean, could it be the Bush DOJ didn't want to anger the rabid White anti-immigration who they rely on to get elected?

And last, but not least -- vigilantes

On Election Day, a posse of three men in Tucson, Ariz., proved that the Wild West still lives.

The group, which was three strong, and allegedly composed of two anti-immigration activists, Russ Dove and Roy Warden, carried a camcorder, a clipboard -- on which, they said, was information about a proposed law to make English the state's official language -- and a gun. While one man would approach a voter, holding the clipboard, another would follow, pointing the video camera at them. The third would stand behind, holding his hand to the gun at his hip in what activists on the other side called classic voter intimidation tactics in a precinct one local paper had previously declared the bellwether of the area's Hispanic vote.
It's not the first time Dove and Warden have been accused of this type of act. Dove, who is a convicted felon and former militia member, patrolled Arizona's polls in 2004 as well, and Warden has publicly burned a Mexican flag (for which he was charged with arson) and acknowledged that he sought a concealed-carry permit for a gun, partly in hopes of enticing a local police officer to attack him and force Warden to use deadly force in self-defense.

http://mediamatters.org/research/201007190022

You have to agree, i hope, that all in there gives a more complete picture of the NBP case than your Fox video did.