Election Reform, Fraud, & Related News 04.18.06--Amusing Commentary Day

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* with Colombian President Uribe: After a reporter asked if Uribe STOLE the election, tried to START A WAR with Chavez, and HARASSED domestic critics, he blew up, had a hissy fit: “"The harm isn't to Alvaro Uribe. The harm is to the legitimacy of Colombian democracy, to a country that for the first time is beginning to see a bonanza of investment."

WHO COULD MAKE THIS UP?

Never forget the pursuit of Truth.
Only the deluded & complicit accept election results on blind faith.

Election Reform, Fraud, & Related News April 18, 2006

All members welcome and encouraged to participate.

Please post Election Reform, Fraud, & Related News on this thread.
1. Post stories and announcements you find on the web.
2. Post stories using the "Election Fraud and Reform News Sources" listed here:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x371233
3. Re-post stories and announcements you find on DU, providing a link to the original thread with thanks to the Original Poster, too.
4. Start a discussion thread by re-posting a story you see on this thread.
Please

"Recommend"

for the Greatest Page (it's the link just below).

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1. MD: Republicans say early voting unconstitutional – Gov is a covert Dem,

That’s right, early voting. Now there is something to object to. Make it in the middle of the day so only the professionals and bosses can come. Wait, in VA those people in No. Virginia went 60-35% Democrat. OK, make it so it’s voting on payday so the hourly crowd won’t vote. Wait, 100’s of thousands of Hispanic Americans hit the bricks in DC leaving their jobs. The vast majority of employers accepted this and supported it. Wait, make it so only Republicans can vote…whey, I knew there was a solution.


Early voting law outrages GOP
By JEFF HORSEMAN, Staff Writer
http://www.hometownannapolis.com/cgi-bin/read/2006/04_17-14/GOV
Three voting precincts in Anne Arundel County are among 21 statewide slated to open before Election Day, a move denounced by Maryland Republicans as Democratic political chicanery.

The polling places - American Legion Cook-Pinkney Post 141 in Annapolis, the West County Area Library in Odenton and the Brooklyn Park Senior Center - are in districts that voted for President Bush in 2004 and Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. four years ago.

But county Republican Central Committee member James Pelura said it doesn't matter how the precincts voted.

"Who it benefits is insignificant when you look at the legality of these laws," said Dr. Pelura, who believes early voting violates the Maryland and United States constitutions.

Editorial comment: Is this Republican guy a conspiracy nut or what?

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2. Italy: Berlusconi’s Allies Accept Defeat, Silvio Still Stuck & Stymied

Italy: Berlusconi’s Allies Accept Defeat, Silvio Still Stuck & Stymied
My kingdom, my kingdom, for a horse. Well, this horse won’t race. Sorry, Berlusconi.
Unless you fixed the Supreme Court (oh, God, wasn’t Scalia just over there;), you’re
out of there. Arrivederchi Silvio, bye bye

April 17, 2006 06:43 PM ET

Berlusconi allies ready to accept election defeat

All Financial Times News

Political allies of Silvio Berlusconi, Italy's premier, are backing away from contesting last week's narrow election victory for the centre-left, in the belief that a government led by Romano Prodi will soon collapse.

"We have been united in government, and we will be even more so in opposition," Giulio Tremonti, finance minister in the centre-right government, told La Repubblica newspaper on Sunday.

More than a week after Mr Prodi's narrow win, Mr Berlusconi still has not conceded defeat and appears intent on making the transfer of power to the opposition as complicated as possible.

Mr Prodi is impatient to take office as he wants to make a thorough assessment of Italy's public finances and act quickly to cut the rising budget deficit and public debt.


Translation (loose): "I have no intention of leaving, none.
I won the election. I paid Frank Luntz a bazillion in gold
and he said, he'd take care of things. I am the father of
Italy, it's mother. I'm Premier for life, although people
can come and go as they please. Please, no smoking..."

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3. Colombia: President Accused of Stealing Elections, Lashes Out!!!

Bush pal and protégé Uribe has it all going for him: apparently stole the election, messing with Chavez, kissing para military you know what, and getting rid of “leftists.” Now he’s being investigated and he looks like a big crook. He and Berlusconi can crash and Bush’s Dubai condos for a couple of months until they find new jobs after all three of them get invited to “pursue interests elsewhere.”

Colombian president lashes out at magazine

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/caribbean/sfl-hcolom18apr18,0,4531516.story?coll=sfla-news-caribbean
FRANK BAJAK Associated Press
Posted on Mon, Apr. 17, 2006

BOGOTA, Colombia - It was a most unpresidential spectacle: President Alvaro Uribe upbraiding the editor of Colombia's top news magazine on morning talk radio for rekindling a corruption scandal just weeks before he stands for re-election.

The magazine Semana had doggedly reported on allegations of fraud in Uribe's 2002 election victory, a conspiracy to assassinate leftist and union activists, and the leaking of sensitive information to drug traffickers and right-wing paramilitary groups.

Semana also reported that officials in the state security agency, known as DAS, allegedly plotted to destabilize the government of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.

<snip
>
This topic is so delicate that the reports gave grounds for rendering the government illegitimate," Uribe complained to Santos of the DAS scandal coverage. "The harm isn't to Alvaro Uribe. The harm is to the legitimacy of Colombian democracy, to a country that for the first time is beginning to see a bonanza of investment." This topic is so delicate that the reports gave grounds for rendering the government illegitimate," Uribe complained to Santos of the DAS scandal coverage. "The harm isn't to Alvaro Uribe. The harm is to the legitimacy of Colombian democracy, to a country that for the first time is beginning to see a bonanza of investment."

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4. Colombia: Uribe Accused of Bullying Press, Lashing Out

OK, elsewhere opponents accused Uribe of killing his opponents. What a guy, he’s doing everything and then getting upset when people call him on his “stuff.” Alvaro, name it and claim it. Lets talk it out. But wait, can't he come here and bully our press, shape them up...just a thought.

Opponents accuse Colombia leader of bullying press

Wed Apr 12, 2006 5:15pm ET
http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=winterOlympics&storyid=2006-04-12T211549Z_01_N12309615_RTRUKOC_0_US-COLOMBIA-PRESIDENT.xml

By Jason Webb

BOGOTA, Colombia (Reuters) - Opponents accused Colombian President Alvaro Uribe of bullying the media on Wednesday after he made a fierce attack on a magazine that reported allegations of vote fraud and links between officials and illegal militias.

Leading rivals of the conservative, pro-Washington Uribe -- who are trailing him distantly in polls ahead of the May 28 presidential election -- condemned his attack on news magazine Semana.

The magazine had published an interview with a disgraced ex-member of the Administrative Security Department -- Colombia's equivalent of the FBI -- accusing a former boss of organizing electoral fraud to help Uribe in the 2002 election, maintaining links with far-right paramilitaries and plotting against Venezuela's left-wing president, Hugo Chavez.

In television and radio interviews, the popular but famously short-tempered Uribe dismissed Semana as "frivolous" and portrayed its editor as a high society fop.


http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=winterOlympics&storyid=2006-04-12T211549Z_01_N12309615_RTRUKOC_0_US-COLOMBIA-PRESIDENT.xml

By Jason Webb

BOGOTA, Colombia (Reuters) - Opponents accused Colombian President Alvaro Uribe of bullying the media on Wednesday after he made a fierce attack on a magazine that reported allegations of vote fraud and links between officials and illegal militias.

Leading rivals of the conservative, pro-Washington Uribe -- who are trailing him distantly in polls ahead of the May 28 presidential election -- condemned his attack on news magazine Semana.

The magazine had published an interview with a disgraced ex-member of the Administrative Security Department -- Colombia's equivalent of the FBI -- accusing a former boss of organizing electoral fraud to help Uribe in the 2002 election, maintaining links with far-right paramilitaries and plotting against Venezuela's left-wing president, Hugo Chavez.

In television and radio interviews, the popular but famously short-tempered Uribe dismissed Semana as "frivolous" and portrayed its editor as a high society fop.

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12. Colombian President Deals with Lashing Problem, Promises Clean Vote

It's dress up day in the Presidential Palace in Bogata.



...and look who has come to visit...

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5. Colombia: Uribe Lashes Out Against Bruce Willis

This guy Uribe is intense. Maybe he’s taking some new medicine that is over stimulating him. In any event, it’s OK to insult the press, give Chavez grief, and send a few opponents out of the country…but DO NOT mess with Bruce Willis.

Colombia lashes out at Bruce Willis over drug remarks

Sun Mar 5, 4:04 PM ET
http://72.14.203.104/search?q=cache:ObiujUQ8svgJ:news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20060305/ennew_afp/afpentertainmentus_060305205654+Colombian+president+lashes+out+at+magazine&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=1&client=firefox-a


BOGOTA (AFP) - Colombian President Alvaro Uribe called
Bruce Willis "arrogant" and "ignorant" over remarks the action film star made about Colombia's illicit cocaine trade.

"This is an ungrateful attitude toward Colombia's sacrifices. This is arrogance, ignorance. This is an attitude that shocks the dignity of Colombia," Uribe said.Uribe was referring to comments Willis made in an press conference late February in which he said Colombia's illicit cocaine trade is "killing" the United States, and likened it to terrorism.

"The United States and everyone who cares about protecting the freedoms that the largest part of the free world now has should do whatever it takes to end terrorism in the world. And not just in the Middle East," he said.

"I'm talking also about going to Colombia and doing whatever it takes to end the cocaine trade," the star of the hit "Die Hard" films said, according to a transcript on the Cinema Confidential website


After hearing of the impertinence of a foreign head of state
criticizing him, Willis packed quickly and headed to Colombia
to straighten out Pres. Uribe.

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6. WV: Republican Secretary of State’s Fraud Investigator Charged: Embezzle

This investigator was hired by Republican Secretary Ireland to help the federal prosecutors go after Democrats for “vote fraud.” Now he’s stealing from a Christian Television station. And it’s all about what happened at the Republican Pig Roast sponsored by a Christian Television network…our friend the investigator worked with. “Say … “ nah, not going there.

Ex-fraud investigator charged with embezzlement

Christian TV station in Harrison alleged target
http://wvgazette.com/section/News/2006041722

April 18, 2006 Ex-fraud investigator charged with embezzlement
By Scott FinnStaff writer

The former chief election fraud investigator that Secretary of State Betty Ireland hired and then abruptly fired a year ago is now charged with stealing money from a Christian television station.

John Canterberry of Nutter Fort was charged late last month with embezzling $10,650 from Mountain Angel Christian Television. Canterberry is listed as the nonprofit’s president on its incorporation papers.

<snip>

In September, the television station sponsored a pig roast and music competition with the Harrison County Republican Executive Committee, according to the state GOP Web site. Headline speakers were past Republican Govs. Arch Moore and Cecil Underwood..

Ireland announced the creation of the fraud unit amid several high-profile federal prosecutions involving vote-buying by Logan and Lincoln county residents, including former Logan Sheriff Johnny “Big John” Mendez, workers’ compensation lawyer Mark Hrutkay and former Lincoln County Circuit Clerk Greg Stowers.

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7. WV: Here’s the famous Republican Pig Roast – I’m not making this up!

But they had a “mountain angel” competition too. What’s wrong with little fun? I wonder if the chief election fraud investigator’s role in this little fete could be used to cast doubt on those convictions he’s helping hand up on WV Democrats? This is the actual release. We are truly in the END TIMES. REPENT...you know who you are:evilgrin:

WV: Republican Party

Thursday, September 1, 2005
Harrison County Republican Party
Thursday, September 1, 2005
http://wvgop.org/press/newpress.html (WV GOP dot ORG)
Contact:
Sue McKinney
304-624-5532

For immediate release:

Two former Governors to highlight weekend festival

Pig Roast Will Feature Mountain Angel Statewide Music `

Nutter Fort - Former West Virginia Governors Arch Moore and Cecil Underwood will headline this Saturday's Ol' Time Pig Roast at the Norwood-Clarksburg City Park in Nutter Fort this Saturday, September 3 from Noon to dark.

The public is also invited to the finals of the Mountain Angel Statewide Music competition.

" We look forward to hosting this celebration of political ideas and Christian values" said John Canterberry of the Mountain Angel Christian Television, a sponsor of the event, along with the Harrison County Republican Executive Committee.

Governor Moore is the only governor of West Virginia elected three times to the office. Governor Underwood holds the distinction of having been the states youngest and later the state's oldest governor.

[bleever]

16. Did someone bump my Weirdness knob? It's turned way up.

:)

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8. Belarus: Europe Ratcheting Ups the Pressure on Dictator-Election Thief

Wow, this guy is amazing. He won 85%-15% and had his own exit polls to prove it (does anyone know where Mitofsky was that day?) But there were huge demonstrations, inspiring, filled with pissed off people. But Europe’s “last dictator” won didn’t he. Here’s a lesson in foreign policy. The Russians fixed this election. Unlike their considerable artistic talent, the nation’s government is “ham fisted.” “Vladamir, you don’t steal it by 70%, calm down. 3% is just fine!”

Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.shns.com.
http://www.shns.com/shns/g_index2.cfm?action=detail&pk=EDBELARUS-04-18-06

Barring Belarus

Editorial
The Providence Journal
18-APR-06

The European Union is rightly ratcheting up the pressure on Belarus, making its President Alexander Lukashenko _ often called the "last dictator in Europe" _ an international pariah. Last week, the E.U. imposed travel restrictions on Lukashenko and other top government officials, barring their entry to E.U. countries, in protest of his brutal assault on freedom in his country.

Lukashenko rigged the March 19 Belarusian election _ he "won" with 83 percent of the vote, against his nearest challenger's 6 percent _ and his henchmen beat and detained political opponents and foreigners. His government is also suspected in the disappearance of four opposition members in 1999 and 2000, who are believed to have been killed. Lukashenko now joins such august company as Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe and the military junta that controls Myanmar (formerly Burma) in being barred from traveling in the European Union.

The United States is reportedly planning a similar ban, along with economic sanctions. Further steps by the E.U., such as freezing the assets of Belarus's leaders, are also being contemplated.

Meanwhile, Lukashenko's ally Russia is applying pressure to assume dominance over Belarus. Gazprom, the Russian energy giant, has set an April 30 deadline for Lukashenko to either give up control of Beltransgaz, the state-owned company that transmits Russian gas to Europe, or start paying what Russia deems market rates for its energy. Belarus's cut-rate energy, which costs Russians billions of dollars a year, is behind what Lukashenko calls his "economic miracle." Without being thus propped up, Belarus's economy could well collapse, along with the pensions Lukashenko has promised the people.

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9. Nation: History Ambushes the * Administration – Now was it worth it?

Do you think they care; they’ve made a fortune over the past five years? Looted the treasury, helped them selves to everything that was not nailed down. It’s been a Grand Old Pilfering! Elections are serious business. Look at what happened to us.



Monday, April 17 2006 @ 11:07 AM PDT

You can count on one thing. All over Washington, Republicans are at least as capable as I am of watching and interpreting the polling version of the smash-up of the Bush administration. With each new poll, the numbers creep lower yet. Presidential approval in the latest Washington Post-ABC News poll dropped another 3% in the last month and now sits at 38%, while disapproval of the President continues to strengthen -- 47% of Americans now "strongly disapprove" of the President's handling of the presidency, only 20% "strongly approve." (62%, by the way, disapprove of the President's handling of the war in Iraq.)

Tomgram: History Ambushes the Bush Administration

http://www.infoshop.org/inews/article.php?story=2006041711071144

In the Rubble
By Tom Engelhardt

You can count on one thing. All over Washington, Republicans are at least as capable as I am of watching and interpreting the polling version of the smash-up of the Bush administration. With each new poll, the numbers creep lower yet. Presidential approval in the latest Washington Post-ABC News poll dropped another 3% in the last month and now sits at 38%, while disapproval of the President continues to strengthen -- 47% of Americans now "strongly disapprove" of the President's handling of the presidency, only 20% "strongly approve." (62%, by the way, disapprove of the President's handling of the war in Iraq.)

Behind these figures lurk worse ones. When asked, for instance, whether they would vote for a generic Democrat or Republican in the upcoming midterm elections, those polled chose the generic Democrat by a startling 55-40%, the largest such gap yet. In addition, Democrats have now become the default party Americans "trust" almost across the board on issues, even in this poll edging the Republicans out by a single percentage point on the handling of terrorism.

Commenting on a recent Ipsos-AP poll showing Democrats and Republicans in a tie on the question, "Who do you trust to do a better job of protecting the country," GOP pollster Tony Fabrizio said: "These numbers are scary. We've lost every advantage we've ever had. The good news is Democrats don't have much of a plan. The bad news is they may not need one." Surprisingly, despite the way Democrats have shied off the subject, a near-majority (45%) of those polled were also in favor of some kind of Feingold-like censure of the President for listening in on citizens

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10. IN: Microvote Investigated in Home State. Another Great Channel 8 WISH

These folks did great work on the centralized voter registration database that failed miserably on its first test. Now this. These folks are very good and provide some of the best election fraud coverage around. Maybe they could come to DC, ya know, dump The Post, have a video news paper… Oh, btw, Todd Rokita, Scty of State who hired the other local Indianapolis Company to do the registration database that failed, the Republican Governor (Mitch Daniels) wants Todd to investigate.


MORE OF this great station’s WILL YOUR VOTE COUNT series
Indianapolis Based Voting Machine Maker Faces Tough Questions
April 17, 2006, 11:37 PM
http://www.wishtv.com/Global/story.asp?S=4781302&nav=0Ra7

By Loni Smith-McKown
24-Hour News 8

An Indianapolis-based maker of voting machines used by 47 counties faces tough questions from Indiana's Secretary of State. New concerns were aired during a hearing Monday that may leave you wondering, "Will your vote count?"

<snip>

The state's lawyer claimed that Microvote sold uncertified voting equipment in at least two counties, that it supplied and permitted the use of unreliable voting equipment and that it marketed software that may not be approved for use during the May primary.

<snip>

Here's what Microvote's president Jim Ries said in January 2004, "I think this year you'll see that our entire industry is going to be under the microscope. Looking back four years ago, what have we done as an industry to increase the faith of the voter and instill the fact that every vote counts." Editorial comment: (Ya think Jim, really;)

But in a letter sent April 5 of this year to the state election division, Ries warned:
"The certified version is not an application capable of guaranteeing a primary election on May second, 2006, without any problems. This is because of potential vote volatility issues."

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11. IN: County Election Workers Make ESS Machines Work – Wow.

Marion County, IN was one of the counties that was worried a few weeks ago about the voter registration database the state was having problems with. They also got messed with by ESS. They needed machines for the visually impaired and ESS had the solution. Problem was ESS couldn’t make them work. Marion staff did all sorts of work and the machines work. Now if the registration database works, that will be an easier election day. They were looking at major hand counting without resources.

Voting machines pass critical test: Marion County finally has voting machines that work after encountering one problem after another

http://www.wthr.com/Global/story.asp?S=4779851&nav=9Tai
Rich Van Wyk/Eyewitness News
Marion County, April 17, 2006 -.

Getting the system to work properly involved designing a ballot precisely, writing software that reads the ballot and making sure the printer prints the ballot as it was designed.

Marion County election officials blame the problems on ES&S, the company creating the system and writing the software.

The voting machines purchased four years ago for visually impaired voters have never been used, the software still doesn't work.

Is this any way to run an election? Sadler responds, "Absolutely not. We should have been done weeks ago."

[stellanoir]

13. Just when you think the world can't get any weirder. . .

Yikes and woh man do you ever sleep?

K&R

[Patsy Stone]

14. Good morning!

K&R!

[Humor_In_Cuneiform]

15. Who could forget the 04 Election????

Cartoon by Keefe of The Denver Post


:rofl: cause it is so accurate

[bleever]

17. Time for an earthquake to shake up our election system.

[understandinglife]

18. K&R!!!

Never Forget: George W. Bush willfully violated National Security to cover-up his willful launch of a war of aggression and illegal occupation of Iraq.

[JimDandy]

19. K n R

[FogerRox]

20. KNR-- gheesh, You can't make this stuff up....... Holy ska-moley Batman.

[stillcool]

21. Holy crap....Al Capone and the...

Bowery boys on steroids!