Where are active "voter-fraud" cases being prosecuted. Let's shine the light on the credibility of the prosecution.

Let's just start calling it Low-income Voter Suppression (or "Voter Suppression" for short) and be done with it. Don't use voter fraud, the same way we shouldn't be using the "death tax" or "pro life." (Instead of pro-life, something like governmental reproductive control would be good, except that's too long of a phrase).

I must say -- I find this surprising. (seriously).

I felt certain that Bogden would have gotted fired for investigating then Rep- now Gov Jim Gibbons.

Are these allegations accurate, the the "problem district" was because of lack of voter fraud cases, rather than too-aggressive investigation of Gibbons?

Please enlighten us!

(Code: green -- as in: Gibbons got lots of green from eTreppid, a contractor, which is why Gibbons is under investigation)

Great idea! Let's call it "bloodless coup."

Back in 2005/6 media picked up on the fact that Karl Rove was receiving a "homestead" deduction on his Washington, DC $1.3 million house, but claimed a 2 room cottage in Ingram, TX for voting purposes, despite never having lived there.

Supposedly the local Kerry County Sheriff did a comprehensive "investigation"

The irony is not lost on the fact that Karl, in pursuit of "voter fraud" was most likely a fraudster himself.

Democracy Now ran a story on the fired US Attorneys scandal that featured an in-depth interview with Greg Palast.

Iglesias was the Navy advocate played by Tom Cruise in "A Few Good Men" ( the Republicans fired him? is that chutzpah or what?)

Palast claims to have 500 of the missing RNC emails; some of them implicate Rove in a massive conspriracy to deny voter rights. Palast estimates that 3 million voters were illegallly denied the right to vote in 2004, including many African-Americans serving in Iraq. Iglesias has fired a lawsuit against the Commander in Chief (W) for firing him while he was serving 30 days in the Navy as part of his duties -- a violation of Federal law.

Could TPM give this interview some coverage?

So karl's grand plan was to what? Tie up Democrats in key districts by slathering them with bogus lawsuits? So what would Kyle Sampson and these other Stooges received if this hadn't blossomed to the disaster it currently represents? Have the Federalist society folks become a Starr chamber kinda thang? Is it me or does Karl kinda have that Sith Lord aura around him?

Fine.
Why don't we call it what it is:

1. Malicious Prosecution

2. Conspiracy

3. Obstruction of Justice

(Not necessarily in that order, although with Karl and the "Loyal Bushies", it's hard to tell where one leaves off and another begins.)

Codeword: black, as in Karl's everlasting soul...

Notrol

Do we have a Frank Luntz equivalent in the liberal ranks? Reframing the term "voter fraud" is way overdue. If I were smarter I'd suggest something, but after coming up with "democracy thwarting"... well there is room for improvement. Voter obstruction? Voter input nullification? Wealthy assholes organizing to prevent poor people from voting to tax their wealth? Frank! Frank?
JF

I think it's so much more than just vote fraud. Follow the money many of the fired US attorneys were investigating...military contracts, Medicare & Medicaid fraud, etc., etc. It's not just Karl Rove that's being protected...it's the entire corrupt system our government has become...it can only remain corrupt if the DoJ doesn't do its job.

...Palast claims to have 500 of the missing RNC emails...

Interesting.

Here's what Palast said on Sunday on Cspan's Book TV show: "I know because I have Karl Rove’s emails. No kidding. He and his team aren’t the sharpest knives in the drawer. They sent copies of their plans to GeorgeWBush.ORG instead of GeorgeWBush.COM addresses — and, heh heh, they ended up in my in-box."

?? So, does TPM have copies? Has Palast shared the e-mails? And, hmmm, does that make sense? Palast has to be on Rove's radar and he'd be a fine pick to launder crap. Rove really sent out stuff that will implicate Rove? Call me uncovinced.

Code: spade

Palast's claim is that the Rove e-mails he has were mistakenly sent to georgewbush.org, which is a parody site, rather than to georgewbush.com, which was one of the RNC's accountability-proof e-mail safe harbors. The owner of georgewbush.org then reportedly sent them to Palast.

harpo:

The DC code mandates that if you live in DC over 180 days of the calendar year then you must pay DC income tax. The only getting around this is for the President, Vice President, active duty military, Members of Congress, and staffers for Members of Congress from their home states working in the personal offices of the Members.

There is NO exemption for Executive Branch appointees - Cabinet Members, Presidential senior staff or otherwise.

If Rove is avoiding DC taxes by claiming Texas residency and somehow getting away with it, he's breaking the law.

Also, keep in mind that he used to run a tens-of-millions-of-dollars fundraising firm before he came to the White House. That firm, which he sold in 1999, has made its biggest revenues since GWB came to office.

I refuse to believe that Rove is not receiving kickbacks from his old company. The guy is not one who'd be content with $161,000 in government salary when he could be making $25,000,000 in the private sector. NO WAY.

I think the Texas cottage and the voting thing figures into his kickback plan.

The caging that Palast talks about in Florida and Ohio was going on in Nevada, too. Among the e-mails that wound up in http://2004.georgewbush.org/deadletteroffice/index.asp was one containing a spreadsheet titled "Douglas County Voter Fraud Master Spreadsheet.xls" with the names and addresses of voters in Douglas County, NV, who apparently didn't return their caging cards.

I don't know of a better term for "voter fraud", but what the GOP has been doing is voter suppression.

trank: "why would these fraud cases matter unless they could be publicized before the elections to counter election fraud allegations against the GOP and keep the base from wondering/wandering, getting them riled up, etc?"

They wanted to be able to hold up some cases of voter fraud to justify a big push for photo IDs for voter registration. Think of the photo IDs as being another kind of 'poll tax'--extra hoops to jump through, in case waiting in line for several hours isn't enough to deter you from voting.

I think it's time to stop using the term "voter fraud" and substitute "vote suppression".

Please correct me if I'm wrong, perhaps I just haven't read carefully. If I understand correctly, the original intention of Rove, Myers, et al was to fire all 93 prosecutors. Has anyone asked why they were considering firing all of them? Not, why they decided not to do it, which we know - it would look bad, call too much attention to what they were doing, etc....but WHY were they planning to fire all of them? It begs the larger question of what this situation is all about

Tyn

I read an article over the weekend (sorry don't recall where) which was reporting Repub worries that having to obey the law making it mandatory to have a paper trail for voting machines was going to make for all sorts of logistical problems.

Another attempt to muddy the waters. As Jane above has noted.

Rove et.al. were using the publicity over alleged Demo 'voter fraud' to try, and so far successfully in the MSM, to cover up their own massive voter suppression. I think they have overreached themselves, being that the cases prosecuted so far are so painfully thin compared with the 3 million or so voters who were denied the right to vote, but the MSM has been painfully slow to take this seriously.

I hope the suit that Iglesias is taking against GWB for trying to fire him for showing up for military duty is the straw that breaks the camel's back. Iglesias is the real life model for the military prosecutor in "A Few Good Men". Maybe Tom Cruise will speak up for him!

Isn't Rove known for attacking perception problems head on?

Why is he attacking supposed Democratic "voter fraud" in swing states so hard? Is it because it muddies up the water for his own Republican voter fraud in swing states?

Sholom and Notrol are on point with their comments. Concerning Bogden,I'd like to add a few words: Yucca Mountain.

New York is the only state which has not yet complied with HAVA, that is, has not changed the mechanics of voting. Voting groups are making an effort to persuade the state to mandate the use of paper ballots. Readers in NYC, the Hudson River Valley and Albany might want to attend a voting forum at SUNY, New Paltz on June 1st at 7:00 pm. Greg Palast will be speaking and speakers and panelists will include leading election integrity writers and analysts as well as election officials from New York and New Hampshire.
For more information go to: www.re-media.org

Former Spector staffer Brett Tolman is identified as having put the Patriot II provision into the conference report that gave the DOJ power to appoint "interim" US Attorneys.

Tolman was apparently rewarded by being appointed as US Attorney for Utah.

Tolman reportedly edged out D. Kyle Sampson who was also in the running for that post. I guess that Tolman's skulduggery was greater than that of Sampson's to enable him to get that brass ring?

Vintage Commander Guy...

[2001] Man with No Mandate
http://www.consortiumnews.com/2001/010901a.html

Security code: seem. As in "things are not always as they seem."

Slideguy -- we DO know the name of the Specter staffer. Having trouble finding it through the search engine here at TPM, so instead here is a link to Specter's explanation, offered during a hearing:

http://time-blog.com/swampland/2007/03/re_the_next_big_problem_at_the.html

"The first I found out about the change in the PATRIOT Act occurred a few weeks ago when Senator Feinstein approached me on the floor and made a comment about two U.S. attorneys who were replaced under the authority of the change in law in the PATRIOT Act, which altered the way U.S. attorneys are replaced. [...]

"I then contacted my very able chief counsel, Michael O'Neill, to
find out exactly what had happened. And Mr. O'Neill advised me that the
requested change had come from the Department of Justice, that it was handled by Brett Tolman, who is now the U.S. attorney for Utah and that the change had been requested by the Department of Justice because there had been difficulty with the replacement of a U.S. attorney in South Dakota..."
(because DoJ suddenly and temporarily cared about violating separation of powers.)

BTW, Kyle Sampson was seriously angling for that U.S. Attorney position in Utah, but apparently Tolman was more of a "loyal Bushie" than Sampson.

Where did Tolman get the idea? Did he talk to others about it? If yes, who?

Hmm. It occurs to me that election fraud has always been the rove/bush backbone; they used it in Florida to get him in, and in Ohio to keep him there. It follows that they would want to permanently implement the process, and have in fact come very, very close to accomplishing this goal. Ideally, every appointee should be investigated until all politically motiviated appointments have been ferreted out. Not gonna happen. Code: round, as in what goes a round comes around

Just John @9;29

The "Immaculste Deception" seems like a good entry in your search to find a name for the growing investigation.

We must, however, begin cleaning house at DOJ.

The Guam/Fred Black DOJ USAtty firing still goes unnoticed at TPM. I don't get it!
Here's a link: http://www.epluribusmedia.org/features/2007/us_attorney_fred_black.html

Posted by: ewastud
Date: May 14, 2007 12:50 PM

Interesting info about Cheney and the DC Madam. I just checked the website you had mentioned and saw this posted:
May 14, 2007 -- WMR has received additional credible information on the patronage of Vice President Dick Cheney, while he was President and CEO of Halliburton in the mid to late 1990s, of the DC Madam's escort service. We can also report that Cheney's involvement in the DC Madam saga has now attracted the attention of the so-called "mainstream media."

That would be a heck of a scandal if it turned out to be true.

"Back in 2005/6 media picked up on the fact that Karl Rove was receiving a "homestead" deduction on his Washington, DC $1.3 million house, but claimed a 2 room cottage in Ingram, TX for voting purposes, despite never having lived there."

Yup - you can look it up at anywho and there's his address and phone number.

Anyone from that area ever seen him around? Another shining example of our administration doing whatever it takes to avoid/evade the laws of the land in search of self enrichment.

The following quote, from an article on a group of former ambassador's call for the removal of recess-appointed ambassador to Belgium, Sam Fox, reiterates this executive branch's view of government service:

"Conant said Fox "is well qualified and doing a good job representing the president in Belgium." (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070511/ap_on_go_pr_wh/ambassador_swift_boat)

American ambassadors, like USAs, do not represent the president. They represent this country through its government. A statement like this could only be made by someone who's, deliberately or not, confusing the president with the government of this country. This could be accurately done by, say, the North Korean ambassador, who would legitimately merge representing the leader, Kim Il Sung, with representing nation. In a dictatorship like that one, they are assumed to be one and the same.
It would be more likely that this was an innocent slip of the tongue if it weren't for that Gonzales speech in which he told the USAs that they worked for the White House.