How Republicans Steal Millions of Votes - In Plain Sight!!!

[autorank]

No conspiracies here, they just use every lever of power they have and our Democratic Governors in the states below need to be told to put a stop to it. Every citizen has the right to vote. Only a small percent of ex-felons were convicted of a major/violent crime. Why can't they vote...oh, has something to do with racism...check it out.


The SENTENCING PROJECT

Disenfranchisement News

REPUBLICAN BENEFITS OF EX FELON DISENFRANCHISEMENT –
MILLIONS OF VOTES SUPPRESSED

"African Americans and other minorities around the country are having a difficult time voting and being certain that their votes are counted. That conservatives see the black vote as a sleeping giant in American politics is proven by the lengths to which they go to lock out of the system as many people as possible. The Republican Party has spent millions in support of purge programs and 'electoral integrity' schemes with the only real purpose being to reduce the number of African Americans that vote. This money is spent because the party understands the arithmetic of black political power and the disproportionate impact African Americans can have in deciding who wins presidential general election states such as Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, and South Carolina."

WHY is a Republican Governor taking the boldest steps in the country to restore disenfranchised ex-felons?

The Florida Parole Commission has reviewed more than 21,000 cases and restored the voting rights of 15,500 people who could not previously vote as a result of a felony record. Those whose rights were not restored were due to relocation from the state, a re-arrest, outstanding restitution fees and death, according to the Associated Press. In April the Clemency Board ruled that individuals with a non-violent criminal record could vote after completing their sentence. The state's Department of Corrections is loaning 100 employees a week to the Parole Commission to speed up the restoration process as Gov. Charlie Crist hopes the effort is completed before the presidential primary. Muslima Lewis, an American Civil Liberties Union of Florida attorney who oversees the group's voting rights and civil justice projects, said though she's happy to see progress, "15,500 is still a drop in the bucket when you look at the entire population of former offenders whose civil rights have not been restored." More than 1 million people are disenfranchised in Florida.

HOW IT ALL STARTED

During Reconstruction black American voting rates in the South were very high. Blacks and whites serving together in elected governments for years. When the Republicans traded the presidency for an end to Federal presence in the former Confederate states, the Compromise of 1876, Reconstruction ended and so did the rights of blacks to vote. This effort is part of general trend scholars Christopher Uggen and Jeff Manza termed Democratic Contraction, a means of denying universal suffrage for political advantage.

Once charged with a felony, almost any felony, you lose your right to vote, permanently in 14 states. As a result, 3.9 million Americans are disenfranchised for life due to felony convictions. Over 600,000 Floridians, mostly minority, mostly male, have lost their right to vote even though they have served their sentences. Florida is far from unique. From: Scoop

IT’S TIME FOR DEMOCRATIC GOVERNORS TO STAND UP FOR THE VOTING RIGHTS OF ALL CITIZENS, INCLUDING THOSE WHO HAVE PAID THEIR “DEBT TO SOCIETY.”
From: Scoop

Here are GOVERNORS WHO CAN RESTORE ex felon voting rights either by proclamation or by introducing legislation to end this violation of basic rights. Write them and let them know it’s time to do the right thing.

• Alabama Bob Riley, Rep
http://www.governor.state.al.us/contact/contact_form.aspx
• Arizona Janet Napolitano, Dem
http://www.governor.state.az.us/Contact.asp
• Deleware Ruth Ann Minner, Dem
http://www.state.de.us/governor/comments.shtml
• Florida (Send a thank you to Gov Crist)
http://www.flgov.com/contact
• Iowa Chet Culver, Dem
http://www.governor.iowa.gov/administration/contact/
• Kentucky Ernie Fletcher, Rep
http://governor.ky.gov/contact.htm
• Maryland Martin O’Malley, Dem
http://www.gov.state.md.us/mail/
• Mississippi Haley Barbour, Rep
http://www.emailyourgovernor.com/mississippi-governor-haley-barbour.html
• Nevada Jim Gibbons, Rep
[e-mail]
• New Mexico Bill Richardson, Dem
http://www.governor.state.nm.us/emailchoice.php?mm=6
• Tennessee Phil Bredesen, Dem
[e-mail]
• Texas Rick Parry, Rep
http://www.governor.state.tx.us/contact/
• Virginia Tom Kaine, Dem
http://www.governor.virginia.gov/AboutTheGovernor/contactGovernor.cfm
• Washington Christine Gregiore, Dem
http://www.capwiz.com/politicsol/mail/?id=31787&type=GV&state=WA
• Wyoming Dave Freudenthal, Dem
http://wyoming.gov/governor/contactgovernor.asp

See The Sentencing Project for actions and news on giving the vote to all citizens.

[Lars39]

1. K&R

[autorank]

2. Thanks LarS39!

It's a bumpy ride to Bethlehem but there will be room at the inn this time!

[Lars39]

3. Hey!

It's LaRs. I promise to lay off the pie! :D :hi:

[autorank]

4. Me too...

:blush: (I'm semi-famous for typos like that;)

[Lars39]

8. No harm, no harm!

You're a good joe, autorank! (And if you turn out to be a she it'll be my turn to blush. :D)

Excellent thread!:hi:

[autorank]

10. Very glad you like the thread. Recent pic of me below;)

:hi:

Joe is fine

[Kurovski]

12. Did you get another face lift?

Just a few months ago you looked like Montgomery Clift.

[autorank]

13. That's me in the late am.

Little rough around the edges;)

[Kurovski]

64. In the morning, in the evening,

still lookin' good. :thumbsup:

[Lars39]

17. Good pic.

Handsome, honest face. Pic would do well on a book jacket. :D

[liam_laddie]

52. Soooo...un nom de plume...

Autorank IS Ed Burns, after all! Who knew?

[autorank]

73. OMG, I'm outed!

:freak:

[mod mom]

5. Ex felons can vote in Ohio so the Republicons came up w other dirty tricks to attempt to keep them

from voting.

[autorank]

7. Relentless...

...and why isn't the party exercising discipline. My state has 200,000 exfelons (conservative estimate) who can't vote. The last two Democratic governors had power to restore these rights with a proclamation. Neither did. What's that about 2 0 0 , 0 0 0 EX felons, denied the right to vote in Virginia!

[Joe Chi Minh]

62. Thta is so scandalous it beggars belief. It's impossible to understand.

Do such Democrats officials deserve to be elected?

[XOKCowboy]

6. I've been reading about this in Armed Madhouse..

Thanks for fleshing it out and providing a way to right the wrong. We may have already spotted the GOP several million votes in the 2008 election through caging lists and wrongly disenfranchising voters based on their skin color and demographic.

[autorank]

9. Palast is "the person" on this issue.

This should be a priority, a push. The Republican Governor of Florida did this - he could have done it better but he did it and kudos! Where is my Democratic Governor? and the other Democrats on that list?

[bleever]

16. But, they'd make sure not to disenfrachise African-Americans if they were servicemembers, right?

That would have been too low, right?

[Patsy Stone]

21. Look, you...

we all know that the military votes Republican. We don't even need to see the results, we can just take their word for it. Black, white, green, blue: all Republican voters, every one.

You go, Charlie! That's my RINO!

K&R!

[truedelphi]

32. ALso we need to find a way to PENALIZE those who operate unfairly

It's not what we know, or how we vote - it's what the laws are, and who is enforcing those laws.
Getting to the bottom of the USA attorney firings is important.

And as Stalin has pointed out, so is who counts the votes.

Additionally, the "tweak" that is given to the masses by the talking heads on election night.

In 2008, the talking point is going to be expediency - a fair election is one that can be determined quickly and easily - not fair to the electorate to keep them waiting (OR SO THEY WILL TRY AND HAVE US BELIEVE)

[Kurovski]

11. K&R

This form of disenfranchisement is one of my greater "pet peeves". It's so damn blatant, and yet it still exists in some places.

I'm writing my Gov.

Thanks, Sir auto.

[bleever]

14. DUer rosebud57, paraphrasing J. Kenneth Blackwell:

"Everybody knows negroes don't need to be votin'".

Please revisit her site: www.bushcheatedo4.com.


Great work, that needs to be seen, augmented, repeated, and catapulted.

:thumbsup:

[L. Coyote]

40. Try this URL

http://www.bushcheated04.com/

It was early 2004 and the Bush reelection campaign was understandably shaken by the realization that they were not going to be running against the latte drinking, Volvo driving, gay civil unions, peace nik Howard Dean.

Instead they found themselves up against a man who had volunteered for the Viet Nam war, a comparison that put George W. Bush's National Guard service and decades of falling down, pissing on himself drunkenness in an unfavorable light.

.....

Nixon had tapped John O'Neill to go after Kerry back in '71. Nixon was not about to admit to what a fiasco that whole commie eradication program we called the Viet Nam War had become. Kerry had punked O'Neill on The Dick Cavett Show debate, and O'Neill was still spoiling for a fight.

[TahitiNut]

15. Don't forget - they're cheap, non-voting labor, too.

After all, who'd pay an ex-felon at market rates? Hmmm?

Gotta love cheap labor that can't vote ... especially for prison reform. :eyes:

[autorank]

18. Almost for free labor in prison, private, govt. oursourced prisons.

What a deal, you have nothing else to do so you can tele-market for nothing.

Is this what we call "rehab?"

[Old and In the Way]

19. The logical conclusion if you're a Bush Republican.......make us all

criminals. Then only the real criminals can vote to maintain their power. The politicization of our criminal justice system is another facet of your stolen election analysis.

By the way, "2004 Election: The Urban Legend"...I must have missed it here, but just read it at Cannonfire....kudos...I think you have found the smoking gun on the election fraud perpetrated by the Republican Syndicate on the American people. I have a question, so how did they add 6 million or so votes to the total? Has anyone tried to compare election day registrations at the polls to the reported totals? How do they square the macro numbers?

[autorank]

22. ". Then only the real criminals can vote to maintain their power." Great point...

...the real, but not officially "tagged" criminals.

Thanks for the kind words on Urban Legend. I have to say Joseph Cannon is just a great guy on this issue. He was on it before I was and he's always there to get the word out. CANNONFIRE ... the guy who outed Wilkes

The article was very tightly focused. Take the exit poll, the day after official poll, and see if it can tell a consistent story for the election. It' can't...that's why, we believe, they came up those strange numbers for the big cities - total votes (and % of total for big cities); all those "new" white voters; etc. We maintain that this was the only place to "create" a * win...put some big numbers in the cities. Nobody noticed except Charles Cook, and he was shooting from the hip, attributing the brilliant* win to the erosion of the ethnic subsegment in the big cities. He didn't go far enough after Election Day or he would have found how odd the whole calculation was.

Then we found the 13 big cities where we got actual votes - showing just a 15% increase. Those 13 big cities account for 61% of the total big city population so we can assume that there wasn't the necessary make up in the remaining 39% of the big city population.

Now we're really trippin'... How could the exit poll be so wrong, or was the vote count wrong, or is there anyway to tell who is right. The mess these simple findings creates is substantial, it throws into question the vote count, the polls, and Bush's entire legitimacy from 2004 on (we know he was illegitimate from 2001 to 2004 since he LOST to Gore).

We encourage others to take this as an opening and show that the debate has changed - we no longer have to "prove" that election fraud took place to raise the issue, they have to prove it didn't to make it go away.

Evidence of a 3 year old crime is highly relevant and will stimulate, we hope, additional research.

Here's the

URL http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0706/S00165.htm
and
Word doc download http://img.scoop.co.nz/media/pdfs/0706/E2004TheUrbanLegend.doc
(Share a hard copy with your Senators and Rep.)

Good seeing you!

[truedelphi]

31. K & recommended n/t

[Old and In the Way]

33. Since you have acquired the data on those 13 cities.....

do they also have the registration data on-

(1) actual # of voters, broken down by Party affiliation and
(2) the party affiliation of the new voters?

On point (2), it would be a stretch to think a newly enrolled person would join in one Party...and vote for the President in another.

Of course, on point (1), it would be interesting to know what the Party ID tells us about who voted. How did they compare, %-wise, from the 2000 vote?

Then compare this information to the bogus NEP conclusions.....it ought to add another layer of absurdity on the conclusions reached.


Lets see....500,000 more people vote for Gore than Bush in 2000. Then, after-

(1) Republicans steal that election
(2) Bush is asleep at the wheel on 9/11
(3) Walks on OBL
(4) Starts an immoral/unethical war based on lies
(5) Wire-taps us illegally
(6) Lets New Orleans drown

after all of this...and lots more, we are supposed to believe that Democrats (who else?) in big cities lost their minds and voted for this boy-king? No friggen way.


You really have set the table on blowing the whole scam of 2004. :toast: When the truth comes out and the American people accept that the Bush Presidency is a complete fraud.....do we get to reset things back to 2000? :-( I guess I'll settle for public humiliation and uncommutable life sentences for everyone involved in this act of treason against our country.

I've clipped your article and I am sending it to everyone in my address book.

[marions ghost]

38. THIS ARTICLE IS BRILLIANT!!!

It's the most readable explanation I have come across for why there is just NO LOGIC to the Repuglican "win" in 2004. We would have to believe that the significant margin for Bushco occurred in the big cities alone.

If you get this far into this thread and still don't understand "what exactly happened?" in 2004 (and you don't have time to read a whole book)--PLEASE take the time to read this brilliant article. Thanks for posting, Autorank.

----------------------------------------
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0706/S00165.htm

Excerpt:

The Urban Legend: "After four years of national struggle and focus overseas, inner city Americans came to the polls in record numbers, voted more Republican than before or since, and gave George Bush the necessary votes for his victory in 2004!

Is this Pattern Plausible or even Possible?

Accepting this strange event requires accepting that an election without any precedent occurred. The Democrats have seen retreats in urban turnout and vote share but these have never been accompanied by retreats in the Republican base area. The two phenomena just don’t happen in the same election. Democrats increased their votes in a diminished rural voting block, significantly improved performance in the small towns, and held close in the suburbs. They were taking three out of every five new voters around the country - but then we are expected to believe that they lost the election in the big cities after taking a similar beating in the smaller cities. This combination of events has never happened before in American history. It is unprecedented… and unbelievable."

[autorank]

50. Thank you. Spread it around - no restrictions at all on reproduction...

That's my favorite part of the paper. It's so crazy that this was slopped on the plate around
election time and the pundits failed to notice the total lack of any type of logic.

On the CNN exit poll page - public, there since 2004 election, you notice this by just looking at
the section of where voters lived - then compare it to 2000. Now that would be a logical pundit
thing to do right - how did the various voting blocks shift since 2000. But then they'd have to
care and we can infer that they don't. Maybe they could get staff that did this sort of menial
task;) I'd volunteer.

Spread the word and see the Word doc file for the article. I'm sending it to my Congressman and two
Senators for educational purposes and to ask, what the heck fallas?

Urban Legend
URL http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0706/S00165.htm
word doc http://img.scoop.co.nz/media/pdfs/0706/E2004TheUrbanLegend.doc

Esxcutive summary:
URL http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0706/S00206.htm
Word doc http://img.scoop.co.nz/media/pdfs/0706/E2004UrbanLegendExecSummary.doc

Thanks again for the encouragement. We'll keep on this and do more to push the truth.

[Vidar]

20. K&R.

[autorank]

23. Vidar, can you believe this garbage goes on in plain sight?

And that it's not a huge public issue?

[Joe Chi Minh]

63. After 2000, I was in stitches thinking there was no way any of them

could avoid prison sentences, little realising to what a bizarre extremity the historic propensity for electoral fraud your body politic on both sides had reduced the country; to such a nadir, indeed, that it could give rise to an overt full-scale putsch. And not only that, but with the losing, real "winners" of the election apparently helpless to overturn it - still less bring its perpetrators to book until years later. Truly a bizarro world.

For the rest of the world to grasp that it is not really as impossibly surreal as it seems, we need to reflect on the treatment of African Americans up to the present day. It puts Iraq and Afghanistan, Abu Ghraib, the torture and all the rest into a comprehensible perspective.

And yet, you have so much reason to hope. You have a few loony toons on the far right trying to justify the torture, but not a leading press war correspondent justifying it on the grounds that our poor lads are under so much stress that the freelance beating of a civilian prisoner to death by a couple of squaddies is very understandable. We just don't understand, apparently. And their senior officer is a war hero!

Well, I've got news for him. There are plenty of psychopaths in the army, as elsewhere in our society, particularly after 27 years of far-right wing misgovernment. Without close supervision of prisoner treatment, it was an atrocity waiting to happen, and not likely to be a unique incident of its kind.

Keep up the great work, Mike! That's a strong Irish face you have there, mate. I reckon your mother must be Irish too.

[galloglas]

24. K and R !!

And if I could cheat on votes like the GOP, I have this up to about 100 rec's by now.

The GOP won't be satisfied until they can repeal the Emancipation Proclamation. Go to the nutty Dominionist sites and they will quite openly note that the Bible says that one should be good to their slaves and manservants.

If the GOP ever goes over 3/4 of the votes, and another Quisling Justice on the SCOTUS, expect them to agree to that Biblical mandate when they pass the Re-Enslavement Amendment to the Constitution!

%*^!}*!&!%#@!@!! Republicans !!!

[sonias]

25. Ex-Fellons have the right to vote in Texas right now

Texas Election Code http://tlo2.tlc.state.tx.us/statutes/el.toc.htm

§ 11.002. QUALIFIED VOTER. In this code, "qualified
voter" means a person who:
(1) is 18 years of age or older;
(2) is a United States citizen;
(3) has not been determined mentally incompetent by a
final judgment of a court;
(4) has not been finally convicted of a felony or, if
so convicted, has:
(A) fully discharged the person's sentence,
including any term of incarceration, parole, or supervision, or
completed a period of probation ordered by any court; or
(B) been pardoned or otherwise released from the
resulting disability to vote;
(5) is a resident of this state; and
(6) is a registered voter.

Not that it would do any good asking pretty boy Rick Perry to grant ex-felons any rights. He just vetoed a law that simply would have informed them of their restored rights when they left prison. Perry is a prick. It was actually the bush king that signed the law that gave ex-felons the right to vote once they served their sentence. Imagine that? I think bush was still drinking in those days.

Texas Observer blog
Perry: Voting Shouldn’t Be Easy
May 27th, 2007 at 1:54 pm

Along with all the rebel motions hurled at Craddick Friday night, there was one parliamentary question that wasn’t just procedural.

After hearing the Clerk of the House read Gov. Perry’s message explaining his veto of House Bill 770, Rep. Harold Dutton (D-Houston) took the back mic. With Houston Democratic Rep. Sylvester Turner acting as speaker, Dutton jokingly asked for a show of hands from members who wanted to override Perry’s veto.

Turner laughed as he gave a familiar reply for the night: "That’s not a proper inquiry for the chair," he said. (A can’t-miss punchline under the dome lately, right up there with "You are not recognized.")

The logic behind Perry’s veto is laughable, too, but not in the ‘ha-ha’ kind of way.

Dutton’s very short bill would require the Texas Department of Criminal Justice to inform those who’ve served their time that their voting rights have been restored. TDCJ would also have to give them a voter registration form.

Sonia

[autorank]

26. That Parry veto is the most transparent, mean spirited, pathetic

legislative act of a Governor so far this year. He's simply a disgrace and people who vote for the likes of Rick Parry et al should be ashamed. Thank you for posting that.

[Ezlivin]

47. Don't you mean "Good Hair"?

Ol' Molly had him pegged.

[alfredo]

27. When Gov Ernie Fletcher was asked about restoring voting rights, he

changed the rules for restoration of rights much more difficult. He showed us, didn't he.

BTW, Ernie Fletcher is a minister. His understanding of Christian forgiveness is way out of the way I see it.

[L. Coyote]

28. Just one front of the political enemies game, in play since Nixon.

[autorank]

49. Since Compromise of 1876 & Codified in Mississiippi Constitution

Mississippi Constitution 1890, modern prototype/inspiration for felon disenfranchisement:
http://tinyurl.com/yequwd

Other states followed suit. Many newly disenfranchisable offenses, such as bigamy and vagrancy, were common among African Americans simply because of the dislocations of slavery and Reconstruction. Indeed, the laws were carefully designed by white men who understood how to apply criminal law in a discriminatory way: the Alabama judge who wrote that state’s new disenfranchisement language had decades of experience in a predominantly African-American district, and estimated that certain misdemeanor charges could be used to disqualify two-thirds of black voters.

“What is it we want to do?” asked John B. Knox, president of the Alabama convention of 1901. “Why, it is within the limits imposed by the Federal Constitution, to establish white supremacy in this State.” (Emphasis added)

See below for more:
http://tinyurl.com/2obg7e

[bananas]

29. k&r nt

[L. Coyote]

30. Can this be challenged under equal protection for federal elections, using Bush v. Gore maybe?

If some states disenfranchise a segment of the populace, equal protection under the US Constitution is denied. Can these be overturned in a single legal action? Attorneys???

Would it not be ironic if the precedent of Bush v. Gore was important in such a filing proceeding, and giving millions of Dems their voting rights back. There was discrimination and racism in police practices, but that will not overturn this like constitutional protections might, I suspect.

[autorank]

44. Challenged well by many, upheld. Gore versus Bush disallows precedent

http://tinyurl.com/ouzvs">Gore versus Bush, II, B, Paragraph 13
Gore versus Bush says it's unique and not to be used as precedent.

The recount process, in its features here described, is inconsistent with the minimum procedures necessary to protect the fundamental right of each voter in the special instance of a statewide recount under the authority of a single state judicial officer. Our consideration is limited to the present circumstances, for the problem of equal protection in election processes generally presents many complexities.

NAACP, ACLU, various other intellectually honest legal authorities...all challenge this and to no avail, despite the fact that this concept originated in Post Reconstruction racist policies to reduce black voting (one of many strategies) and restore white dominance after Federal authority was withdrawn from the former Confederate states. The founders had no similar provisions for such violations of voting rights.

The Legal Debate


Stratgies for upholding Felon Disenfranchisement

[Senator]

34. k&r

[blondie58]

35. thanks for posting on this

Criminals- all of them!
I am worried about the 2008 elections- they will surely be desperate to retain their power.

[fudge stripe cookays]

36. My old Jenny Craig counselor and I...

got into a talk about politics one day. I was urging her to vote in the last election.

She told me she couldn't, and finally came clean about her past crime history (1 felony when she was young and stupid- she didn't specify the nature, but it seemed like probably drugs) when I bugged her enough.

Texas has changed its laws (no longer restricts you from voting after a felony), and I even found the evidence to show her. I hope it did some good. She's one of the blithely unaware. At some point someone had told her she couldn't vote, and she never found out about the law change. But when I told her some of the crap that's been going on, she sounded interested and said she would register.

[Hubert Flottz]

37. "Morality"

That was the issue that put the vote stealing Bushies back in, in 2004.

I guess being a pubbie is like having a license to steal...and lie and loot and plunder and pillage and and and.

[autorank]

61. Like the rights of the feudal lords...

...just take whatever it is you want, no problem, and define morality as just that process.

Damn, these guys need a new idea...

[whistle]

39. NO CONSPIRACY HERE??? My God, it is The Right Wing conspiracy!

....Fascists want power and control and will do whatever it takes to achieve their objectives.

<snip>
Friday, June 1, 2007 7:32 a.m. EDT
Hugo Chavez Claims U.S. Right-Wing Conspiracy

President Hugo Chavez has claimed that a right-wing conspiracy led by Washington is out to demonize his government for forcing an opposition TV channel off the air.

The government refused to renew the license of Radio Caracas Television, or RCTV, forcing the channel off the air Sunday and sparking both angry protests at home and condemnation abroad from governments, press freedom groups and international organizations.

Speaking during an event Thursday with the visiting leader of Vietnam's communist party, Chavez said "international rightist, extreme-rightist and fascist movements are attacking Venezuela from everywhere - from Europe, the United States, Brasilia."

He targeted Brazil's Senate for approving a motion earlier in the day including a call for Chavez to reopen the channel.

"Nobody should interfere," Chavez said, accusing lawmakers in Brazil of "repeating like a parrot what is said in Washington."

"To those representatives of the Brazilian right, I say that it is much, much, much more probable that the Portuguese empire will again install itself in Brasilia than that the Venezuelan government will return the expired (broadcast) concession to the Venezuelan oligarchy," Chavez said.

Chavez accuses RCTV of helping incite a failed coup in 2002 and violating various broadcast laws. During the coup, RCTV and other private channels broadcast opposition calls for protests to overthrow Chavez while giving scant coverage to his return to power amid protests by his supporters.

RCTV denies wrongdoing, but critics argue many countries would yank the license of any channel that allows government foes to openly call for a rebellion.

Also Thursday, the Atlanta-based Carter Center joined the European Union, the Chilean Senate, the U.S. government, Human Rights Watch, Reporters Without Borders and others who have said RCTV's removal could chill free speech in Venezuela.

The organization founded by former President Carter, which has observed past elections here, expressed concern that "non-renewal of broadcast concessions for political reasons will have a chilling effect on free speech."
"A plurality of opinions should be protected," it said. "The right of dissent must be fiercely defended by every democratic government."

The center said if the government wants to deny renewal of a license based on alleged crimes, "these should be tried through the justice system before a decision is made."

Paris-based media watchdog group Reporters Without Borders accused Chavez of seeking to stamp out the country's opposition media entirely.

"Media that criticize the government will be snuffed out one by one until only the pro-government media are left," it said.

Relative calm returned to the streets after three days of protests and clashes between police and angry crowds hurling rocks and bottles.

University students planned to hold another large protest in Caracas Friday.

© 2007 Associated Press.

http://www.newsmax.com/archives/ic/2007/6/1/73813.shtml?s=ic

[Mark D.]

41. Another Example

Of the "War On Drugs" screwing up America. So many in
Prison for long stays for victimless non-violence and
not being able to vote because of it. I have no issue
if Scott Peterson can't vote, I do if a guy who lit a
joint once or twice a week to relax cannot because he
got a mandatory minimum stay of decades behind bars.

[autorank]

45. That's where Crist took it.

To his credit, he wanted automatic re-enfranchisement of the right to vote after release (most states make it nearly impossible to get this done and always require it be after you're off parole/post detention supervision).

So in Florida murderers, those who commit vicious assaults, and really big drug dealers are barred (I get a kick out of the "really big" drug dealers-which people Florida seem to understand as a distinction).

Crist has some push back on the proclamation route so he went through the Clemency Board but they're hustling, trying to re-enfranchise as many as possible. The Sentencing Project is not slamming Crist for not delivering everything he promised, recognizing a) his courage in doing it at all and b) his limitations to do it the way he wanted...but they're encouraging. And the extra staff to do this is a great sign. It's not like my state where the process is not designed for maximum efficiency.

[FogerRox]

42. yum, KnR

[Me.]

43. K & R

You go Autorank, you dog you

[autorank]

48. Guess which one I am...

:hi::hi::hi::hi:

[L. Coyote]

46. **** Official "Paul McNulty on Firings of US Attorneys Grilling" Thread ****

Conyers discussing caging black voters

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x1152818

[ejbr]

51. Thank you SO much for this information and contacts!

I have sent the following correspondence to ALL on your list (except Florida, who got a "thank you" note):

Dear Governor:

The laws presently in place that prevent the civil right of voting for ex-felons is creating the suffrage movement of our time. I understand that you can restore ex-felon voting rights either by proclamation or by introducing legislation to end this violation of basic rights.

One must ask what reasons do law-abiding citizens have in preventing others to vote. Their crimes, in all likelihood, have nothing to do with the voting process. If they are able to vote, what does it matter if some waste their vote? They won’t be able to intimidate people when our system prevents one from truly knowing how others vote. It won’t prevent future felons by setting an example as the right to vote has no affect on whether to break the law. Lastly, I have seen someone get a felony for holding one pill of ecstasy, while another receive a misdemeanor after killing three people in a drag race (http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/06/19/BAGHNQHDPF1.DTL&hw=royal+family&sn=004&sc=394). Are we willing to suggest that the deadly, reckless driver deserves more rights upon release than the person who may have been ignorantly holding an illegal pill for a friend?

I believe that our founding fathers would argue in defense of a felon's right to vote. I have no issue with suspending the voting rights of those imprisoned, but those who are no longer incarcerated should be able to vote. Or do we really live in “the land of the free”?

Sincerely,

Thanks again!

[autorank]

53. Model letter--check it out--thank you. May I use it in subsequent posts?

Just perfect.

Oops, forgot. Thank you very much for the kind words and supporting this fundamental right!

[ejbr]

54. Thanks for the mojo!

Use it anyway you like. I shared it in hopes of giving others ideas about what points they might wish to raise.

And you are very, very welcome. It makes me feel good to fight for something that doesn't affect me or anyone I know, but is the right thing to do.

[autorank]

72. That's the goal of American Democracy imho. n/t

[trashcanistanista]

55. Excellent, thank you. k&r

:kick:

[proud patriot]

56. Thanks for pulling this together

:)

[autorank]

59. My pleasure...the phenomenon has gone on way too long and it's a one way

street. Not one of those outrages where the Republicans can say (even with remote justificaiton), it's not just us. Well it is just them right now (of course election fraud has a long and varied history).

This is all a part of what McClatchy Washington Bureau has covered so well, the "voter fraud scam."
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/reports/usattorneys/ Sunshine is the best remedy:)

[proud patriot]

78. thanks again

:)

[glitch]

57. Again with the Awesome, K & R nt

[shance]

58. Kick this back on up there!

More stellar work by Mr. Autorank******

:toast:

[malaise]

60. Great job

Bookmarked - K& R.

[Divine Discontent]

65. I wrote all but 2 of them! everybody else got 5 min, do the same!

this could win the presidency if just 1 state where it was close was decided by these votes!

www.cafepress.com/warisprofitable <<--- top 08 items

[autorank]

68. Good for you, you're a great example.

Geez, I just wrote my Governor, now I'll do another seven thanks to your inspiration.

Outstanding. This would make a difference. Whatever happened to the notion of

"He/she paid her debt to society" and therfore is allowed to rejoin it.
In my case, I actually believe that treason is the only crime that should eliminate voting rights.

Thanks for the motivation!

[BrainGlutton]

66. In Florida, Governor Crist is at least trying to streamline the process . . .

. . . of restoring an ex-con's rights. But you still have to apply. It's a long way from abolishing the felon-disfranchisement law, but, considering we have a Republican governor and a Republican legislature, it's probably the best we can hope for.

[autorank]

69. He wanted to make it automatic...

Click on the "Scoop" link and theres a quote from the AP article where this was announced.

McCallum screwed him up on the original proclamation. I think he'll be back for more and get
it done.

Glad you have relief from the strangeness of Jeb...

[stevedeshazer]

67. K & R

Thanks again for bringing it to DU.

:hi:

[autorank]

70. My honor...

:hi:

The folks at Sentencing Project are totally professional about this and have great resources to
help people. When they publish a major paper, etc., it's always pretty air tight.

Everybody votes period.

[Mnemosyne]

71. Error: you can only recommend threads which were started in the past 24 hours

Excellent post! :applause::applause::applause: Sorry I missed giving a rec., but :kick::kick::kick:

I also believe they may be disenfranchising the poor through the food stamp program; at least in PA. The application here asks if you wish to register to vote. I have spoken with quite a few young women, early to late twenties, friends of my daughter, and almost every one of them had checked the box requesting to register; not one ever received anything about it again. Nada.

I have sent in three forms in 2 years to re-register as a D and have not received a single change of party card; also still listed as unaffiliated at the polls. I am taking it in person next week with some questions about their efficiency and practices.

A friend recently told me that since she has moved to PA from NY, two years ago now and NY refuses to take her off their voter list. She is still listed to vote in NY, but votes in PA now. I may not have the story exact, I suffer from CRS too often these days :), but when she told me about it it really reeked. I'll give her a call soon and ask her to repeat so I can write it down.

:hi:

[autorank]

74. Get the story. That's typical and McClatchy reported on that nationwide

Every citizen of voting age should be able to vote, period. And between now and when it becomes unconstitutional to limit voting rights, the states that do it need to relieve those people disenfranchised from paying any taxes; the feds too since they're complicity.

NO TAXATION WITHOUT REPRESENTATION

[Mnemosyne]

75. I missed the info from McClatchy. Any advice

on where/how to begin, Mike? I've thought of trying to get an interview with someone at the assistance office, a supervisor there is an old neighbor.

I am just so completely fed up with all the bs. Has everything we ever believed about the US been lies? :cry:

[underpants]

76. The "War on drugs"

[Kurovski]

77. Kick. (nt)

[Jeffersons Ghost]

79. hi buddy... KEEP UP THE EXCELLANT WOIRK!!!

YOU ARE AN ACE!