Blogged by Steven Heller at Bradblog
7.17.08
"At a press conference this morning in Columbus, Ohio, Cliff Arnebeck, lead attorney for the plaintiffs in the case of King Lincoln Bronzeville v. Blackwell, announced that he is filing a motion to 'lift the stay in the case [and] proceed with targeted discovery in order to help protect the integrity of the 2008 election.'
...This case has the potential to put some of the most powerful people in the country in jail, according to Arnebeck, as he was joined by a well-respected, life-long Republican computer security expert who charged that the red flags seen during Ohio's 2004 Presidential Election would have been cause for 'a fraud investigation in a bank, but it doesn't when it comes to our vote...This entire system is being programmed in secret by programmers who have no oversight by anybody,' the expert charged, as Arnebeck detailed allegations of complicity by a number of powerful GOP operatives and companies who had unique access both to the election results as reported in 2004, as well as to U.S. House and Senate computer networks even today.
...Arnebeck said 'We think [Rove] is an individual who has been at the center of both the use of corporate money to attack state Attorneys General and their elections and candidates for the Supreme Court and their elections in the states, and also in the manipulation of the election process...We anticipate Mr. Rove will be identified as having engaged in a corrupt, ongoing pattern of corrupt activities specifically affecting the situation here in Ohio.'
...The King Lincoln Bronzeville v. Blackwell case was filed on August 31, 2006. At issue was 'whether the rights, privileges, and immunities guaranteed to Plaintiffs by the Civil Rights Act, and the First, Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution have been violated by the past and ongoing conduct of Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell in connection with past elections in Ohio.'"
Much more at Velvet Revolution.
Thursday, July 31, 2008
Ohio Case Investigating Election Fraud Moves Forward
Monday, July 28, 2008
A Love Child?
Edwards is more hip than I thought. Here's Rielle Hunter, the supposed mother of his extra-curricular family.
Whining is not Presidential
Nice article by Kirsten Powers here about the ineffectiveness of whining as a campaign strategy.
"And what if the media really turned its glare on McCain? Perhaps they'd give more time to his claim this week that there's an Iraq-Pakistan border or his confusion about when the surge began. Or his reference last week to "Czechoslovakia," which is no longer a country.
Really, McCain should be thankful the press isn't paying much attention to him when his campaign clearly doesn't have its act together."
Here's the video of the "Iraq-Pakistan" border remark.
Tuesday, July 8, 2008
Factcheck.org
Factcheck.org is an awesome site. And I use awesome in the same context as Bush when he called the Pope's speech "awesome."
They break down the ads for you fact by fact, so you can see how the candidates are lying. Here they break down a Republican ad claiming Obama voted 94 times to raise taxes. Turns out some of those votes were for things like helping Hurricane Katrina victims, or raising the minimum wage.
They catch Obama polishing his resume a little here. Obama's ad says, "That's why I passed laws moving people from welfare to work, cut taxes for working families and extended health care for wounded." Factcheck.org points out that it would be more accurate for him to say that he "helped" pass laws, since one of the bills wound up not even having his name on it. Still he was involved with initiating those bills, and they did what he says they did - so if that's the worst thing they can catch him at - it's not bad compared to the outright lies they've got on McCain and the GOP.
Tuesday, July 1, 2008
Character Assasination, or Resume Ressurection?
On June 4th, Yazmany Arboleda attempted to put up a political art installation in a storefront across from the New York Times. You can view some photos of the exhibit about Barack here. And photos of Hillary's exhibit here. Some of the pieces on Hillary are especially sharp (as in cutting). And some of Barack's pieces are especially inflamatory (as in a large black penis on the wall).
According to the New York Times
"New York City police detectives and Secret Service agents briefly detained and questioned an artist on Wednesday morning as he installed an exhibition with the title, 'The Assassination of Hillary Clinton/The Assassination of Barack Obama.' "
The Secret Service emphasized that they didn't shut the exhibit down. They just weren't keen on the word "Assassination" being in the title.
Mr. Arboleda defended himself on The Huffington Post against charges of racism, sexism and media whorism:
"My goal was to create a mirror through which we might perceive the way traditional and online media continues to preach racism, sexism, ageism, and homophobia. I created The Assassinations to better understand how American society communicates and how visual codes appeal to cultural stereotypes, prejudices, desires, and fears. The result has been a maelstrom of dialogue more passionate and pervasive than I ever anticipated."
The original exhibition during the month of March at the Naomi Gates Gallery could be seen by appointment only due to the controversial nature of the work. It seems that appointments did not generate enough of a "maelstrom of dialogue" for Mr. Arboleda, so he re-staged it in a setting more conducive to dialogue (across the street from The New York Times). Artists are to be forgiven if they feel the need to point out the importance of their work to a pre-occupied public that is often too busy to notice masterpieces. Even Walt Whitman wrote and published rave reviews of his own work anonymously.
The Naomi Gates gallery characterizes the work as exploring "the figurative but highly effective attempts by the American populace to assassinate Barack Obama's reputation during his historic candidacy for president... In the all-encompassing installation that explores the themes of sexism, racism, ageism, and religious intolerance, one questions to what end we are willing to go to tear down our leaders in the process of electing them. "
The sarcasm in the exhibit is crueller to Mrs. Clinton, for example placing photos of her under the slogan "Politics as Usual". The sarcasm in the Obama exhibit tends not to be pointed at him, but instead is directed at the media or the larger racial subtext of our culture; like in the room full of nooses with photos of white smiling faces. In one piece there is a slight dig at the "Obama Brand" next to Gap and Budweiser signs, but it's a pretty gentle knock compared to the slam that Clinton takes with "Most Likely to Compromise" next to her yearbook picture.
Arboleda seems like someone who approaches problems creatively, and he re-staged parts the show as a video exhibit:
My boyfriend says that the exhibit is akin to throwing a grenade in a crowded theater, and was not impressed. Although I don't think he saw the video piece.
Sable Verity says that she never called him a racist, but has some other choice words for him:
"...maybe he needs to read up on the laws of this country. Using the word “assassinate” in reference to a presidential candidate or a Senator is a crime. What the hell were the cops supposed to do? Can you imagine the 911 calls that came in on that one?
Can you imagine walking down the street and doing a double take, the words assassinate and Obama in the same sentence, with nooses hanging in the background?
How cute that the concept is nothing more than a metaphore [sic] for Mr. Arboleda. For the rest of us? Yeah, not so much.
Mr. Arboleda, you need a lesson sir. You need to be schooled, as they say, and I am more than qualified for the job. My doors are open to you, 24-7.
Class is in session.
You’re late."
Here is some of Arboleda's earlier work.
Sunday, June 22, 2008
Meet Meghan McCain
Fascinating biographical article about Cindy McCain in Newsweek. Her daughter Meghan blogs here. Here are some of the videos she and her Blogettes have produced. I like this one about her little sister Bridget, who was adopted from Mother Teresa's orphanage, and initially had a cleft palate.
UPDATE: Btw - Obama called and apologized personally to the Muslim women who were barred from sitting behind the podium at his rally.
BONUS: Great article about 3 Republican women being considered as possible running mates for McCain.
Thursday, June 19, 2008
Ethics and Hypocrisy
Obama volunteers offend Muslims in a hypocritical PR move to block them from appearing on camera at a rally.
The New York Times confirms that Michelle Obama made more than $300,000 a year in her job at a Chicago hospital. Buried on page 3:
"Mrs. Obama is on leave from her more-than-$300,000-a-year job."
... and Obama opts out of Public Financing in the general election saying the system, "as it exists today is broken," and that the other side would game it with money from outside organizations.
"...Obama's clear financial advantage over McCain is offset in part by the resources of the Republican National Committee, which has far more money in the bank than the Democratic National Committee. Both national parties can spend money on behalf of the presidential candidates.
Obama said McCain and the Republican National Committee are fueled by contributions from Washington lobbyists and political action committees.
'And we've already seen that he's not going to stop the smears and attacks from his allies running so-called 527 groups, who will spend millions and millions of dollars in unlimited donations,' Obama said.
Obama campaign lawyer Robert Bauer said he had met with McCain lawyers to discuss terms for both campaigns operating in the public financing system, but he said they could not agree on how to limit spending by the campaigns and outside groups heading into the late summer party conventions."
To be fair, it looks like he said he would try to participate, but never actually committed, previously. From the same article:
"In response to a questionnaire in November from the Midwest Democracy Network, which is made up of nonpartisan government oversight groups, Obama said: "Senator John McCain has already pledged to accept this fundraising pledge. If I am the Democratic nominee, I will aggressively pursue an agreement with the Republican nominee to preserve a publicly financed general election."
On his website Obama says that he supports Campaign Finance Reform:
"Obama supports public financing of campaigns combined with free television and radio time as a way to reduce the influence of moneyed special interests. Obama introduced public financing legislation in the Illinois State Senate, and is the only 2008 candidate to have sponsored Senator Russ Feingold's (D-WI) tough bill to reform the presidential public financing system."
John McCain has sent mixed messages about Public Financing of Campaigns, and has used it when he needed it, and discarded it when he needed to raise more. So his support of it seems more pragmatic than principled at this point. Historically he has been a strong supporter, and co-authored the McCain-Feingold bill, the strongest national campaign finance reform legislation passed so far.
John McCain's website doesn't mention Campaign Finance Reform on it's Ethics Reform page. He focuses on limiting earmarks and special interest lobbying saying,
"John McCain would shine the disinfecting light of public scrutiny on those who abuse the public purse, use the power of the presidency to restore fiscal responsibility, and exercise the veto pen to enforce it."
That's pretty vague. The line item veto was declared unconstitutional at the federal level, so what he would do exactly is unclear. Is he really going to veto the budget bills?
His criticism of lobbyists seems to be fluid as well. When his campaign was broke he brought lobbyists on board to raise money, and then fired many of them when conflicts of interest started emerging. And of course there was the infamous New York Times cover story focusing on Vicki Iseman, a female lobbyist they claimed he had a "close bond" with.
