Free Republic

An official from the aptly-named group By Any Means Necessary is quoted today in the Omaha World-Herald, on why her group is trying to disrupt the signature-gathering efforts of Ward Connerly, who is leading an effort in Nebraska (and Colorado and Arizona) to pass a ballot initiative that would ban preferences based on race, ethnicity, and sex: "The key to defeating the initiative is to keep it off the ballot in the first place. That's the only way we're going to win.” The Left, as you know, favors democracy, power to the people, and nondiscrimination, except when it doesn’t.

Several scandals in recent years have revealed Congress members may have sought earmarks that were somehow repaying the favor. NYC's reps, including likely Democratic mayoral candidate Anthony Weiner and powerful Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles B. Rangel, opted to not reveal their plans. The current system allows members of Congress to secretly petition the House and Senate Appropriations Committees to instruct agencies to direct federal funds to their districts.

WASHINGTON — Nearly 32 months after a Texas grand jury indicted him for election-law violations, former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay still hasn’t gotten his day in court on one count of money laundering and one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering. More than two years ago DeLay surrendered to a Harris County jail. Even by Texas standards, that lag is an unusually long time for a relatively minor criminal case to remain unresolved. It does take two to two-step: Appeals have been flying from the defendants as well as from Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle’s office. The...

Much more information over here --->>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/23/AR2006052301751.html 

Governor says deal curbs the growth of Indian gamblingOLYMPIA -- Gov. Chris Gregoire is benefiting from more than $650,000 in campaign contributions from Indian tribes that hit the jackpot in 2005 when she killed a gambling compact potentially worth more than $140 million a year to the state. Unlike 22 other states that collect millions from revenue sharing agreements for tribal gambling, Washington gets no money from tribal casinos under the compact that Gregoire renegotiated with the Spokane Tribe. Gregoire backed away from the 2005 agreement that included revenue sharing in an attempt to keep gambling from expanding too quickly...

Analysts used to joke about waiting for the results from cemetery precincts in Chicago before calling elections. In Louisiana, that may be closer to the truth than one might imagine. WBRZ reports on a voter registration scandal that had Democrats submitting thousands of fraudulent enrollments, included George W. Bush and a bunch of dead people:Secretary of State Jay Dardenne said Tuesday he will meet today with a Democrat-affiliated group responsible for a voter registration effort that is inundating East Baton Rouge and other parish registrars with bogus and incomplete applications.Dardenne said his investigators are trying to determine if any state...

It's been 24 years since a Republican candidate for president came out on top in Washington state. Given our longtime blue-state status, what chance does John McCain have of beating Barack Obama here? For that matter, will he even try? So far, the McCain campaign has sent mixed signals. When McCain held a fundraiser in Bellevue — including a $31,000 per person "Victory Dinner" — none of the money raised that evening went to the Washington State Republican Party. Instead, it was divided among the McCain campaign, the national GOP and the state parties in places that both sides view...

Karen Bass, sworn in as Assembly speaker less than a month ago, is facing her first big test of leadership. The events of those ignoble three days in May - when the Assembly scrambled to meet a deadline to pass bills it originated - represented an affront to representative democracy. In one documented case, a member of the leadership team, Assemblyman Kevin de León of Los Angeles, hit the voting switch of a fellow Democrat, Mary Hayashi of Castro Valley, while she was elsewhere in the Capitol. That would have violated Assembly rules even if she had agreed with the...

Relatives of a U.S. congressman indicted on charges of bribery, fraud, and racketeering, have been charged with using charities for personal financial gain, reports the Associated Press The sister, brother, and niece of U.S. Representative William Jefferson, a Democrat from Louisiana, have been charged with conspiracy and fraud. Mr. Jefferson’s sister, Betty Jefferson, an elected New Orleans property-tax assessor; his brother Mose Jefferson; and Betty Jefferson’s daughter, Angela Coleman, are accused of stealing as much $620,000 from charities that were supposed to benefit poor people. They each face up to more than 200 years in prison. Mr. Jefferson has been...

The day after New Year's 1996, operatives for Barack Obama filed into a barren hearing room of the Chicago Board of Election Commissioners. There they began the tedious process of challenging hundreds of signatures on the nominating petitions of state Sen. Alice Palmer, the longtime progressive activist from the city's South Side. And they kept challenging petitions until every one of Obama's four Democratic primary rivals was forced off the ballot. Fresh from his work as a civil rights lawyer and head of a voter registration project that expanded access to the ballot box, Obama launched his first campaign for...

MARSHALL — The Texas Democratic Party and a group of voters have settled a federal lawsuit against state officials over allegations of voter suppression. The agreement reached Wednesday came just before a U.S. District Court trial was to begin in a lawsuit challenging the state and Republican Attorney General Greg Abbott. Gerry Hebert, an attorney representing voters, said the settlement includes the Texas Attorney General's Office agreeing to no longer prosecute what are called hypertechnical violations involving mail-in ballots. In a statement, Abbott proclaimed the settlement a victory in efforts to fight election fraud.

BOSTON (AP) -- The campaign headquarters of Republican presidential contender Mitt Romney was burglarized over the weekend and a television and computers stolen. A campaign spokesman for the former Massachusetts governor described the crime as "a routine burglary" and did not believe it was politically motivated. "Several laptops and a TV were stolen," said campaign spokesman Eric Fehrnstrom. "All the computers are password-enabled and the hard drives are encrypted. The only thing they're good for is parts." The Boston Police Department was called to the scene, an office building overlooking Boston Harbor in the city's North End, but a report...

<p>The Federal Election Commission has fined one of the biggest liberal political action committees $775,000 for using unregulated cash to boost Democratic candidates during the 2004 elections.</p> <p>America Coming Together (ACT) raised $137 million for its get-out-the-vote effort in 17 states in the 2004 elections, but the FEC found most of that cash came through contributions that violated federal limits or were otherwise barred by campaign rules.</p>

Hugo Chavez may have lost both the recall referendum in 2004 and the December 2006 presidential election, according to studies conducted by a distinguished multidisciplinary team in Caracas, Venezuela. The team includes the rector of Universidad Simon Bolivar, Frederick Malpica, and a former rector of the National Electoral Council, Alfredo Weil. Astonishing as it may seem to Americans who believe the contention by Mr. Chavez that he won both elections by a landslide — 58% to 42% in the recall and 61% to 39% in the presidential election — the studies show that since 2003, Mr. Chavez has added 4.4...

It is being compared to Watergate, on a much smaller scale. Two Democrats were caught on tape rifling through a Republican's desk drawer at the Legislative Office Building. For nearly five minutes, on a day late last month, after 5 o'clock, the security camera showed a man going through a desk while a second man watches. The desk belongs to Republican assistant clerk Juliana Simone. A four-day investigation concludes that this was intentional employee misconduct, but not criminal behavior. "I think I'm in the minority party and they just wanted to let me know that and that I should not...

The following are news stories involving potential voting irregularities around the nation. Headlines are changed only to provide more or clearer information. When multiple stories about the same incident appear, I try to post the later ones, supposing the information may be more up-to-date. I make no judgments about the credibility of the accusations, as I consider wolf cries to be newsworthy and I also make no claim to expertise in evaluating credibility of events in distant states. Judge issues injunctions against Democrats for vote-buying; accusations would be of felonies. -- http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1734244/posts Pennsylvania voter (union thug) smashes vote machine --...

Lieberman Web Site Down, Lamont Supporters Blamed Image Tamsen Fadal Reporting (CBS/AP) HARTFORD, Conn. The Joe Lieberman campaign claims it's been victimized by computer hackers who support his challenger Ned Lamont for the Democratic nomination for the U.S. Senate. The senator's official campaign Web site, Lieberman2006.com, is down and has been down since this morning. The site has been hacked and apparently it has been so thorough that the senator's campaign can't even use e-mail.

Yesterday a federal district court in Seattle handed down a decision that undermines the security of your ballot this fall. The case is called Washington Association of Churches v. Secretary of State Reed, and is the brainchild of a New York-based group called the Brennan Center for Justice. If you’ve never heard of them before, don’t feel bad. All through the recounts and lawsuits of the 2004 gubernatorial election, and despite the thousands of legal voters who were disenfranchised by illegal votes and counting errors, the Brennan Center hasn’t once stepped foot into the state of Washington to help bring...

The chairman of the PA Dem party, T.J. Rooney, said today he'll challenge the signatures that Green Party candidate Carl J. Romanelli submitted to join the Senate ballot. A number of those signatures were collected by JSM, Inc. Rooney: “This is a questionable and controversial firm that has a history of fraudulent activity where many signatures, and candidates in some instances, have been thrown off the ballot in various states. We will ensure that this doesn’t take place in Pennsylvania and that the integrity of the electoral process is safeguarded.” Backers of Sen. Rick Santorum donated nearly $60,000 to help...

A prominent Seattle lawyer and a scion of a prominent Seattle family are suing a prominent politician -- U.S. Senate candidate Mike McGavick -- over his lucrative retirement package from a prominent Seattle company, Safeco. The intriguing cast of characters came together Tuesday in a shareholder lawsuit, heavy with political overtones, against Safeco's board of directors and McGavick, a Republican who was its chief executive. It was filed in federal court in Seattle. The complaint said Safeco paid the candidate $28.4 million in early 2006 in an illegal "waste of corporate assets" after he resigned to run against Democratic Sen....

Shareholder sues McGavick over Safeco pay 05:26 PM PDT on Tuesday, August 1, 2006 Associated Press OLYMPIA, Wash. - A Safeco Insurance Co. shareholder sued Republican U.S. Senate hopeful Mike McGavick on Tuesday, claiming the former executive's $28 million payout for leaving the company was fraudulent and wasteful. The claim resembles criticism from Washington state Democrats, who already have filed a federal campaign complaint about what they called McGavick's improper "golden parachute." McGavick has dismissed those complaints, but did not immediately return messages seeking comment on the lawsuit. Safeco spokesman Paul Hollie also declined immediate comment, saying company lawyers were...

Meet Missouri Secretary of State Robin Carnahan. Most will recognize her name; she's the daughter of Missouri's late governor and posthumously elected U.S. Senator, Mel Carnahan. She's also the "Show Me" state's highest election official. Robin Carnahan doesn't merely administer elections. She's hell-bent on preventing them. Her short track record in public office demonstrates the dangers of partisan politicians holding offices on which mere little guys must depend for an honest democratic government. Oh, sure, she recently came up with more than a dozen reasons for counting votes on spoiled ballots in Rolla, Missouri — her decision yielding a one-vote...

(Hartford-AP, June 19, 2006 6:35 PM) _ Republicans in the state House of Representatives have filed a complaint accusing Democratic Secretary of the State Susan Bysiewicz of improperly helping four Democrats get on the November ballot. Republicans filed the complaint today with the State Elections Enforcement Commission. But Bysiewicz denies the accusation. She says Attorney General Richard Blumenthal told her she has the discretion to place the four House of Representatives candidates on the ballot, even though they missed deadlines to file paperwork.The four Democrats include Representatives Mary Mushinsky of Wallingford, Terry Backer of Milford and Claire Janowski of Vernon,...

The chairman of the Summit County Democratic Party was scheduled to be arraigned July 26 after allegations he offered a candidate money to drop out of a Democratic primary. Rob Weyher, 54, has been charged in Salt Lake County Justice Court with one class B misdemeanor count of prohibited elections activity, inducements not to become a candidate. The charge stems from a voice message left at the home of candidate Josh Ewing's employer May 14, offering to contribute money to Ewing if he withdrew from the House District 25 race. A criminal complaint filed in court details what the caller...

A small, weekend item in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer was missed by many, yet it's another example of a dubious trend: liberal Democrats switching between journalism and partisan political positions..... (AND) Election Decision Live Blogging GOP Loses First Round In Gubernatorial Challenge...

A Washington state judge found that more than 1600 votes were illegally cast in the gubernatorial election last year. They were nearly all cast in overwhelmingly Demonrat-controlled regions, and constitute several times the margin of "victory" by the Demonrat candidate, Christinie Gregoire. The judge acknowledged the injury due to the fraud. But, he found that as defined by the Washington State election statute the fraud provided no basis for overturning election. The statute states that the challenging party would have to not only demonstrate that fraud occured, but that the perpetrators of the fraud intended to commit fraud. Merely being...

A judge on Monday upheld Washington's 2004 gubernatorial election, rejecting Republicans' bid to nullify the 129-vote victory of Democratic Gov. Christine Gregoire. Chelan County Superior Court Judge John Bridges denied Republican claims that election errors, illegal voters and fraud stole the election from GOP candidate Dino Rossi. He announced his decision in court, saying the state's election process was flawed but that he was not the proper person to remedy those flaws. "This court is not in the position to fix the deficiencies in the election process," Bridges said. "However, the voters are in a position to demand of their...

A state judge has upheld the election of Washington Governor Christine Gregoire. In turning back the Republican challenge to the Democrat, Judge John Bridges says there was no evidence of fraud in last fall's election. The judge did find there were more than 1,600 illegal votes, but he says it's up to voters to fix errors in the state's election system. Republicans have said they will appeal to the state Supreme Court.

OK, this thread may be partially vanity...but it looks like breaking news based upon what I'm reading on the soundpolitics web site. Go there and read it for yourselves...but it looks like the county jdge isn't gonna allow a new election. This looks bad for democracy. Check it out and let me know what you think.

Live thread, discuss.

SATURDAY, JUNE 04, 2005 12:00 AM Georgia state senator convicted on 127 federal corruption charges Associated Press AUGUSTA--A federal jury found Georgia state Sen. Charles Walker guilty Friday of using his once-powerful position for personal gain, including skimming profits from a charity football game. Walker, the Senate majority leader from 1996 to 2002, was convicted of 127 of 137 counts, including mail fraud, conspiracy, campaign finance fraud and tax fraud.He left the courthouse surrounded by lawyers and family members, without speaking to a horde of reporters. He then got into a black sport utility vehicle and sped off. "Justice has...

AUGUSTA — A federal jury found state Sen. Charles Walker guilty Friday of using his once-powerful position for personal gain, including skimming profits from a charity football game. Walker, the Senate majority leader before losing re-election in 2002, was convicted of 127 of 137 counts, including mail fraud, conspiracy, campaign finance fraud and tax fraud. He left the courthouse surrounded by lawyers and family members, without speaking to a horde of reporters. He then got into a black sport utility vehicle and sped off. Richard Goolsby, the prosecutor, said: ‘‘Justice has been served.’’ No sentencing date was set for the...

The Wisconsin Supreme Court won't hear former state Sen. Brian Burke's request to dismiss charges against him stemming from a probe into allegations of illegal campaigning. Burke, a Milwaukee Democrat, was charged with 13 felony counts in connection with the investigation, including misconduct in office, falsifying per diem payments and destroying records. Prosecutors say he used state employees to run his campaign for attorney general in 2002. He is set to stand trial in late October. His attorneys contend Wisconsin law on using state resources for political activity is unconstitutionally vague. They asked the Supreme Court last week for a...

Vote fraud trial halted after puzzling testimony By Michael Shaw Of the Post-Dispatch 06/03/2005 The judge in the federal vote fraud trial of five East St. Louis Democrats sent the jury home early on Friday as lawyers puzzled over how to handle testimony from an FBI informer that was patently false. Under cross examination, prosecution witness Dannita Youngblood repeatedly claimed that she was not interviewed by a federal prosecutor and an FBI agent a few weeks prior to trial, despite voluminous documents and reports to the contrary. Youngblood has testified during the past two days about vote buying in East...

Thursday Update on the East St. Louis Voter Fraud Trial...Former Belleview "Racist" Mayor is in the spotlight in today's testitmony.Dannita Youngblood 30, testified during the trial of five Democratic politicians in East St. Louis that one of the defendants, her former East St. Louis city hall boss Kelvin Ellis (who operated a prostitution ting from City Hall), told Kern during the October call that the price to pay a voter would have to be increased. In October, Kern (the former Belleville Mayor) was the Democratic candidate for the chairman's job.

WENATCHEE, Wash. - The judge hearing a challenge to Washington state's 2004 gubernatorial election agreed Tuesday to let Republicans introduce evidence that Democratic-leaning King County recorded several hundred more votes than it could account for. Republicans allege errors and possible fraud in the county, which includes Seattle, helped Democrats steal the election for Christine Gregoire, who beat Republican Dino Rossi by 129 votes out of 2.9 million cast. "The evidence is overwhelming that there was unbelievable neglect in King County and, we believe, outright fraud by high-ranking King County officials," GOP attorney Dale Foreman said Monday. Democrats had tried to...

Sandy Berger is caught cramming top-secret intelligence documents down the front of his pants. Dan Rather is caught using forged documents to try to influence a presidential election. John Kerry slanders a million of his "band of brothers" in bogus testimony before Congress and then continues to lie for the next 30 years, claiming that in 1968 he was sent by Richard Nixon (who wasn’t president yet) to Cambodia on Christmas eve (which never happened), hearing the Vietnamese "sing Christmas carols" (the Vietnamese are Buddhists and don't celebrate Christmas) and being fired upon by the Khmer Rouge (which didn't become...

Harrisburg – What do a bar, a vacant funeral home, an abandoned rowhouse and a Democratic Party headquarters have in common? They're all places that Philadelphia residents will be forced to vote in this year's primary election. Even after the illegitimacy of sixty-three polling places was brought to the attention of the Philadelphia County Board of Elections in 2004, the city's Democratic establishment continues to look the other way when it comes to providing a legal, safe, and fair vote. “This year's recently released list includes a whopping one-hundred and twelve polling places that are either illegal, inaccessible, or could...

NASHVILLE - State Sen. John Ford sharply criticized Wednesday both a state board that fined him $10,000 earlier in the day and Gov. Phil Bredesen, who said he will talk to the TBI about Ford's contacting him on a TennCare contract. Ford said the Registry of Election Finance was applying "a double standard" by levying a penalty against him for using $15,320 in campaign funds to pay part of his daughter's wedding expenses last year. He said the "stupid" decision will be appealed. Ford said Bredesen had made "two or three statements about me that are totally untrue. "I'm not...

Springfield , MO - Former Greene County Democratic Central Committee Chairman Steven Stepp has been sued in Federal Court for conspiracy to deny civil and political rights and interference with the right to equal access at a public political event. On his order, the Springfield Police Department handcuffed and detained Claire McCaskill supporters at a Greene County Democratic Event in 2003. Stepp is joined in the lawsuit by co-defendants Springfield Police Department and Choice Hotels. Choice Hotels is the parent company of the Clarion Hotel in Springfield as described in the law suit. According to the Civil Suit, Stepp was...

NASHVILLE (AP) -- The Tennessee Registry of Election Finance has found Sen. John Ford guilty of fraudulently using political campaign funds. The vote was 4-3. At a hearing Wednesday which Ford didn't attend, the Registry also fined him $10,000 for using campaign money on his daughter's wedding. The Memphis Democrat told the election finance board the spending was legal because roughly one-third of the wedding attendees lived in his Senate district. This marks the first official sanction against Ford in a recent swarm of ethical allegations. One of Ford's lawyers, Ed Yarbrough, said he would talk to his client before...

WASHINGTON — A top presidential fund-raiser for the Rev. Al Sharpton was convicted yesterday in a massive Philadelphia pay-for-play corruption trial. Sharpton was not implicated in the case, but the tapes did prompt the FBI to look into whether he'd failed to report any campaign donations, as the just-convicted La-Van Hawkins claimed. Hawkins, a fast-food millionaire, was found guilty of wire fraud, for funneling cash to ex-city Treasurer Corey Kemp, and of lying to the grand jury. He claimed to have helped raise $140,000 for Sharpton in exchange for certain favors. Hawkins and Philly powerbroker Ron White were caught on...

Updated: 03:24 AM EST Sen. Edward M. Kennedy got hefty tax breaks on his $4.5 million Washington, D.C., mansion for at least two years - even though he never met the basic residency requirement for the deductions. While Kennedy resides in Massachusetts, he received property tax credits in 2003 and 2004 on his home in a tony Washington neighborhood that were meant only for homeowners who call D.C. their principal residence. Of 22 senators who took the deduction, Kennedy stood to save the most money in the coming tax year - about $7,700 off the tax bill for his $4.5...

A Senate rider inserted in an emergency appropriations bill in the dead of the night which would close a rare window into political foul play at the Internal Revenue Service was quietly removed Tuesday in Senate-House negotiations. That offers full disclosure of a major scandal that has been percolating for a decade. The rider would have de-funded the investigation begun in 1995 of then-Housing Secretary Henry Cisneros by Independent Counsel David Barrett. The amendment was sponsored by three highly influential Democrats, purportedly to stop leakage of federal money in a run-on program and end persecution of a no-longer-prominent Democratic politician....

MIAMI — Former Broward County elections supervisor Miriam Oliphant said today she will sue Gov. Jeb Bush, claiming race was a factor in his decision to remove her from office amid allegations of negligence and a botched 2002 primary. "My civil rights have been violated and my constitutional rights have been violated by the state of Florida," Oliphant said. Oliphant and her attorney, Ellis Rubin, announced the plans for a federal lawsuit one day after the state Senate voted 32-7 along racial lines to uphold Bush’s 2003 decision to suspend Oliphant, who is black. Oliphant’s supporters in the Senate argued...

An exclusive NewsChannel 5 investigation has discovered that millions of dollars -- your money -- went to companies with ties to a very powerful lawmaker. And he may not want you to know what's being done with it. How Memphis came to be known as home of the blues isn't much of a mystery.But what happened after it came to be home to millions of your tax dollars? That, it turns out, is a mystery -- even to the man who hands over the money."That's a question we ask," says Matt Kisber, commissioner of the state Department of Economic and...

In late 1996, Rep. John Boehner, R-Ohio, engaged in a conference call with other Republican congressmen, including then-Speaker Newt Gingrich. Their conversation was illegally wiretapped by two Florida Democrats, Alice and John Martin, who, when caught, were tried and fined $500 apiece. Before they were caught and fined, these two wiretappers actually took their purloined tape recording to Washington, D.C., where they gave it to a then-member of the House Ethics Committee, Washington state's Democrat, James McDermott of Seattle. McDermott leaked this private conversation to the New York Times and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution – neither of which newspapers were ever...

Dems, Repubs enter dodgeball face-off by Elizabeth Skalka Contributing Writer A fierce dodgeball game between the College Democrats and Republicans got out of control last night at the Palladium gym after the Republicans claimed the Democrats cheated to secure their victory. Tensions ran high as accusations were spit across the court and players grew increasingly agitated. Sarah Chambers, social chair for the College Republicans, accused the College Democrats of recruiting suspected basketball players to serve as "ringers," better athletes who are not necessarily College Democrats. "They were cheating," Chambers said. "If you look at the [recorded] tape of the game...

NASHVILLE - Sen. John Ford joined all his Senate colleagues in giving final legislative approval Monday night to ethics legislation touted in some respects as the strongest in the nation. The Memphis Democrat voted after declaring the law would not apply to his much-questioned consulting fees. The 33-0 Senate vote sends the bill to Gov. Phil Bredesen, who has indicated he will sign it into law. The House passed the bill 92-3 last week. Under the bill, it becomes a crime from July 1 hence for elected officials, including those in state and local governments, to accept consulting fees from...

In Nevada, Reid Is the Name to Know Members of one lawmaker's family represent nearly every major industry in their home state. And their clients rely on his goodwill. By Chuck Neubauer and Richard T. Cooper, Times Staff Writers June 23, 2003 WASHINGTON — It was the kind of legislation that slips under the radar here. The name alone made the eyes glaze over: "The Clark County Conservation of Public Land and Natural Resources Act of 2002." In a welter of technical jargon, it dealt with boundary shifts, land trades and other arcane matters — all in Nevada. As he...