Victory for the effort to save the ballots from the 2004 presidential election in Ohio!
Late yesterday, September 7, U.S. District Judge Algernon L. Marbley issued an order to all 88 Ohio Board of Elections (BOEs) to protect the ballots as evidence in the King Lincoln Bronzeville Neighborhood Association et. al. v. J. Kenneth Blackwell case.
In his decision, Marbley ordered all Ohio BOE's "to preserve all ballots from the Presidential election, on paper or in any other format, including electronic data, unless and until such time otherwise instructed by the court." Plaintiffs in the King Lincoln case contend that certain election records including unused ballots needed for auditing have already been destroyed. Plaintiffs contend that Ohio Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell violated the civil rights of various inner city African American voters during his administration of the 2004 presidential election. The ballots are needed in order for the plaintiffs to establish their claim that there was an ongoing pattern and practice of targeting and disenfranchising African American voters.
In his decision, Marbley ordered all Ohio BOE's "to preserve all ballots from the Presidential election, on paper or in any other format, including electronic data, unless and until such time otherwise instructed by the court." Plaintiffs in the King Lincoln case contend that certain election records including unused ballots needed for auditing have already been destroyed. Plaintiffs contend that Ohio Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell violated the civil rights of various inner city African American voters during his administration of the 2004 presidential election. The ballots are needed in order for the plaintiffs to establish their claim that there was an ongoing pattern and practice of targeting and disenfranchising African American voters.
Spinning the troop levels in Iraq
September began with 140,000 American troops in Iraq -- 13,000 more
than in late July.
Almost 30 months have passed since Time magazine’s mid-April 2004 cover story, “No Easy Options,” reported that “foreign policy luminaries from both parties say a precipitous U.S. withdrawal would cripple American credibility, doom reform in the Arab world and turn Iraq into a playground for terrorists and the armies of neighboring states like Iran and Syria.”
Back then, according to the USA’s largest-circulation newsmagazine, “the most” that the president could hope for was that “some kind of elected Iraqi government will eventually emerge from the wreckage, at which point the U.S. could conceivably reduce the number of its troops significantly. But getting there requires a commitment of at least several more months of American blood and treasure.”
Almost 30 months have passed since Time magazine’s mid-April 2004 cover story, “No Easy Options,” reported that “foreign policy luminaries from both parties say a precipitous U.S. withdrawal would cripple American credibility, doom reform in the Arab world and turn Iraq into a playground for terrorists and the armies of neighboring states like Iran and Syria.”
Back then, according to the USA’s largest-circulation newsmagazine, “the most” that the president could hope for was that “some kind of elected Iraqi government will eventually emerge from the wreckage, at which point the U.S. could conceivably reduce the number of its troops significantly. But getting there requires a commitment of at least several more months of American blood and treasure.”
What the fortuneteller's parrot told me
Soon we will launch the last phase of the midterm elections.
Hopes will flare up. Though the numbers are dwindling, some people go
through their whole adult lives thinking that the next Democrat to hunker
down in the Oval Office is going to straighten out the mess, fight for the
ordinary folk, and face down the rich and powerful.
I got off the plane in New York in 1972 at the age of 31 with one big advantage over these naive souls. I'd already spent 20 years seeing the same hopes invested in whatever Labor Party candidate was on the way to 10 Downing Street.
By the time I reached my prep school at the age of 9, the first post-war Labor government was already slipping from power.
I got off the plane in New York in 1972 at the age of 31 with one big advantage over these naive souls. I'd already spent 20 years seeing the same hopes invested in whatever Labor Party candidate was on the way to 10 Downing Street.
By the time I reached my prep school at the age of 9, the first post-war Labor government was already slipping from power.
Saving the ballot evidence from Ohio 2004
This weekend was to be "D-Day" in Ohio. It marked the September 2 deadline after which federal law allows the destruction of ballots from the 2004 election.
It didn't happen, at least on a statewide basis. But the fight to preserve that vital evidence is far from over.
Republican election officials here have been chomping at the bit to shred, burn or otherwise destroy the ballots and other related materials from the dubious vote count that gave George W. Bush a second term. Yet, in several rural southwest Republican-dominated counties, you have to trip over boxes of ballots and election material from earlier elections dating back as far as 1977 in order to see the stickers "Destroy on 9/3/06" on the 2004 ballot boxes.
J. Kenneth Blackwell, the Republican Secretary of State, is running for governor. His dual role as administrator of the election and state co-chair of the Bush-Cheney campaign has raised deep-seated embarrassment and ire throughout the Buckeye State.
It didn't happen, at least on a statewide basis. But the fight to preserve that vital evidence is far from over.
Republican election officials here have been chomping at the bit to shred, burn or otherwise destroy the ballots and other related materials from the dubious vote count that gave George W. Bush a second term. Yet, in several rural southwest Republican-dominated counties, you have to trip over boxes of ballots and election material from earlier elections dating back as far as 1977 in order to see the stickers "Destroy on 9/3/06" on the 2004 ballot boxes.
J. Kenneth Blackwell, the Republican Secretary of State, is running for governor. His dual role as administrator of the election and state co-chair of the Bush-Cheney campaign has raised deep-seated embarrassment and ire throughout the Buckeye State.
New York Times article about saving Ohio's ballots
The destruction of the ballots from the 2004 presidential election in Ohio makes the front page of the New York Times. The Columbus Institute for Contemporary Journalism/Free Press investigations of the 2004 presidential election ballots makes front page news in the New York Times.
Ohio to Delay Destruction of Presidential Ballots
Click here to find out more about the Save the Ballots campaign: Save the Ballots
Call Bob Fitrakis, 614-374-2380 or Cliff Arnebeck, 614-224-8771, or Harvey Wasserman, 614-738-3646 for information about the Ohio investigations of the ballots and the pending federal lawsuit.
More information about New Press book by Bob Fitrakis, Steve Rosenfeld and Harvey Wasserman: What Happened in Ohio? A Documentary Record of Theft and Fraud in the 2004 Election
Ohio to Delay Destruction of Presidential Ballots
Click here to find out more about the Save the Ballots campaign: Save the Ballots
Call Bob Fitrakis, 614-374-2380 or Cliff Arnebeck, 614-224-8771, or Harvey Wasserman, 614-738-3646 for information about the Ohio investigations of the ballots and the pending federal lawsuit.
More information about New Press book by Bob Fitrakis, Steve Rosenfeld and Harvey Wasserman: What Happened in Ohio? A Documentary Record of Theft and Fraud in the 2004 Election
The year the levees broke
New Orleans -- What is the unreported cause of the majority of the 2,000 deaths that occurred after the levees broke last year on August 29? Catch Greg Palast's investigative exposé this Monday on Amy Goodman's Democracy Now! And on Tuesday, watch his one-hour Special on LinkTV. Listings at LinkTV.org.
The Year the Levees Broke
America went through a terrible year. The levees broke in New Orleans. When bodies floated in the streets, the Republican Congress saw an opportunity for more tax cuts and consolidation of the corporatopia they had created for their moneyed donors. The Democratic Party was clueless, written off, politically at death's door.
The year was 1927.
The Year the Levees Broke
America went through a terrible year. The levees broke in New Orleans. When bodies floated in the streets, the Republican Congress saw an opportunity for more tax cuts and consolidation of the corporatopia they had created for their moneyed donors. The Democratic Party was clueless, written off, politically at death's door.
The year was 1927.
The fugitive girl act
Do you remember the Fugitive Slave Act? It criminalized not only slaves
who'd escaped to non-slave states, but also anyone who helped them flee.
That law has troubling echoes in a new law, passed by the Republican Senate
and House, that will make it illegal to transport a girl from a state
requiring parental consent to get an abortion in another one.
The Fugitive Slave Act forced individuals who did not believe in slavery to collaborate in maintaining it. In states that had banned slavery, it compelled law enforcement officials to return escaped slaves to their masters, and coerced ordinary citizens into supporting this process. It isolated slaves from outside assistance, by threatening to imprison anyone who would help them escape.
The Fugitive Slave Act forced individuals who did not believe in slavery to collaborate in maintaining it. In states that had banned slavery, it compelled law enforcement officials to return escaped slaves to their masters, and coerced ordinary citizens into supporting this process. It isolated slaves from outside assistance, by threatening to imprison anyone who would help them escape.
Cow whisperers against the war
AUSTIN, Texas -- I know it's bad form to brag, but I am now a graduate of Texas A&M University, and you can't stop Aggie pride. I became a diplomee of the great institution in College Station after successfully completing the three-day short course in beef cattle this summer. I specialized in forage management and graduated "Quel fromage!" meaning "avec distinction."
It is also true that I was banned from the campus of Texas A&M many years ago after some students invited me to make a political speech. Also Quel Fromage! So you see how far we have all come.
The most amazing part of cow college was meeting the cow whisperer. Think of everything you know about moving cattle from one place to another -- for shots, round-up or loading into trucks for market -- just physically moving a lot of cattle. GEE, GIT ON, GO DOGIE, whistle, whip crack, move 'em out, chase 'em down. Turns out all these years we've been doing it wrong.
It is also true that I was banned from the campus of Texas A&M many years ago after some students invited me to make a political speech. Also Quel Fromage! So you see how far we have all come.
The most amazing part of cow college was meeting the cow whisperer. Think of everything you know about moving cattle from one place to another -- for shots, round-up or loading into trucks for market -- just physically moving a lot of cattle. GEE, GIT ON, GO DOGIE, whistle, whip crack, move 'em out, chase 'em down. Turns out all these years we've been doing it wrong.