Hungry Blues

Dear Friends and Concerned Citizens:

We can still have an impact on the course of this election.

We are a group of citizens concerned about the 2004 Presidential election. There were 57,000 complaints of voting violations delivered to the House Judiciary Democrats (http://tinyurl.com/4ykbt). When hundreds of thousands of voters are affected by machine problems and acts of voter suppression, it calls our American Democracy into question.

On January 6th, Congress meets to certify the Presidential election. If even one House member and one Senator object to the electoral votes of any state, this objection will be recorded: the vote will not be automatically approved. This has happened only once before -- in 1877. Its occurrence once again would draw historic attention to our shattered democracy and lead to an outcome that none of us can know.

In 2000 no Senator would join the Representatives from the Congressional Black Caucus to challenge the electoral vote. Therefore in 2004, we are asking you to contact as many as you can of the key Senators, listed below, as well as your own Senators, if you think you can reach them on this issue. Tell them not to certify the election on January 6, 2005.

Sign our petition to the Senators:
http://www.petitionspot.com/petitions/senatorsnocertify

Contact these Senators at 1-800-839-5276 or 1-877-762-8762 connecting all offices.

Barbara Boxer CA-D
Robert Byrd WV-D
Mark Dayton MN-D
Thomas Harkin IA-D
Jim Jeffords VT-I
Edward Kennedy MA-D
Patrick Leahy VT-D
Carl Levin MI-D
Joseph Lieberman CT-D
Barbara Mikulski MD-D
Barack Obama IL-D
Olympia Snow ME-R
Charles Schumer NY-D

If you live in the same state as any of the Senators on our list, email us at caef@caef.us to share information about activist efforts in your area or to get involved in organizing. If you want to start something yourself, we have experienced organizers who can give you guidance. We want to know any information you gather on the potential of a specific Senator to object to certification of the vote.

See our site for a more detailed summary of violations, citations and other information about the 2004 election and what you can do.

Please get involved. Pass this on to others.

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ELECTION FRAUD 2004

There were 57,000 complaints of voting violations delivered to the House Judiciary Committee. Machine problems and acts of voter suppression affected hundreds of thousands of voters.

Machine problems include electronic touch screen machines in Florida that began counting votes backwards and others that reported the wrong candidate as people voted. Touch screen machines are inherently dangerous because most leave no paper trail, because they are relatively easy to tamper with -- and above all because they hide the voting process from the voter and prevent traditional citizen oversight.

Hanging chads were once again a problem, this time in Ohio. Just as in Florida in 2000, the greatest ballot spoilage -- ballots cast but not countable -- occurred in predominately African American precincts.

Some voters were turned away illegally. Others were given provisional ballots that were later discarded. Inexcusable waits of up to ten hours caused an unknown but easily guessed number of voters to give up without voting. Many were sent to the wrong polling place. Many experienced intimidation. Tens of thousands were purged from voting lists. Absentee ballots did not arrive or went uncounted. African American, low-income and younger voters were disproportionately disenfranchised.

Significant discrepancies between the exit polls and the official results occurred -- but only in swing states. Exit polling, which has been reliable for decades, was suddenly inaccurate. Jonathan Simon points out that the disparity between the exit polls and the official tallies almost always favored George Bush -- statistically improbable.

These are the kinds of problems that led the Ukrainian people to take to the streets and the international community to stand up and cry foul. The Voting Rights Act makes voter suppression illegal. The 14th amendment of our Constitution says that if voters are disenfranchised, the vote of the Electoral College should be adjusted proportionately.

Currently the votes are being recounted in Ohio and The Supreme Court of Ohio has before it a lawsuit claiming election tampering on the part of the Bush campaign.

We must be able to trust that our electoral processes are fair and just. This is a non-partisan issue. Join us in opposing the certification of this election.

We're targeting Senators because on January 6th, Congress will meet to certify the election. If even one House member and one Senator object to the electoral votes of any state, that objection will be recorded and the vote will not be automatically certified.

After the 2000 election Representatives from the Congressional Black Caucus were willing not to certify, but they couldn't find one Senator to support them. Don't let that happen again.

Our list of Senators consists of those we think are most likely to respond to our request. Contact them, as well as those of your own state. Tell them not to certify this election and that this election cannot stand unquestioned. If you have any first hand stories, the Senators need to know.

Coalition Against Election Fraud
web: http://www.caef.us
email: caef@caef.us

This post was supposed to go up days ago and is actually a little old as news. Sadly there's plenty of reason still to post this, since the story ought to be as big as Watergate, and almost no one is paying attention. I'm talking about the sworn testimony from Hocking County, Ohio Board of Elections Deputy Director, Sherole Eaton. Ms. Eaton said that on Friday, Dec. 10, an employee of Triad, the company that services all of Ohio's punch card machines, tampered with the tabulator computer, which records the results from the individual machines around the county.

The story is serious enough that The New York Times broke its code of silence on the Ohio investigation and actually published an article on the subject. Only a nine paragraph article, but against the backdrop of it's news ban, this is a thunderous acknowledgment that something serious is going on.

Here's what has happened: Sherole Eaton came forward with a signed affidavit, alleging machine tampering by a Triad employee. The Triad employee also asked Ms. Eaton to be complicit in falsifying the results of the manual recount that they were to perform. From her affidavit:

On Friday, December 10 2004, Michael from TriAd called in the AM to inform us that he would be in our office in the PM on the same day. I asked him why he was visiting us. He said, "to check out your tabulator, computer, and that the attorneys will be asking some tricky questions and he wanted to go over some of the questions they maybe ask." He also added that there would be no charge for this service.

He arrived at about 12:30PM. I hung his coat up and it was very heavy. I made a comment about it being so heavy. He, Lisa Schwartze and I chatted for a few minutes. He proceeded to go to the room where our computer and tabulation machine is kept. I followed him into the room. I had my back to him when he turned the computer on. He stated that the computer was not coming up. I did see some commands at the lower left hand of the screen but no menu. He said that the battery in the computer was dead and that the stored information was gone. He said that he could put a patch on it and fix it. My main concern was - what if this happened when we were ready to do the recount. He proceeded to take the computer apart and call his offices to get information to input into our computer. Our computer is fourteen years old and as far as I know had always worked in the past. I asked him if the older computer, that is in the same room. could be used for the recount. I don't remember exactly what he said but I did relay to him that the computer was old and a spare. At some point he asked if he could take the spare computer apart and I said "yes". He took both computers apart. I don't remember seeing any tools and he asked Sue Wallace, Clerk, for a screwdriver. She got it for him. At this point I was frustrated about the computer not performing and feared that it wouldn't work for the recount. I called Gerald Robinette, board chairman, to inform him regarding the computer problem and asked him if we could have Tri Ad come to our offices to run the program and tabulator for the recount. Gerald talked on the phone with Michael and Michael assured Gerald that he could fix our computer. He worked on the computer until about 3:00 PM and then asked me which precinct and the number of the precinct we were going to count. I told him, Good Hope 1 # 17. He went back into the tabulation room. Shortly after that he (illegible) stated that the computer was ready for the recount and told us not to turn the computer off so it would charge up.

Before Lisa ran the tests, Michael said to turn the computer off. Lisa said, " I thought you said we weren't supposed to turn it off." He said turn it off and right back on and it should come up. It did come up and Lisa ran the tests. Michael gave us instructions on how to explain the rotarien, what the tests mean, etc. No advice on how to handle the attorneys but to have our Prosecuting Attorney at the recount to answer any of their legal questions. He said not to turn the computer off until after the recount.

He advised Lisa and I on how to post a "cheat sheet" on the wall so that only the board members and staff would know about it and and what the codes meant so the count would come out perfect and we wouldn't have to do a full hand recount of the county. He left about 5:00 PM.

(From the truthout.org report, Proof of Ohio Election Fraud Exposed, by William Rivers Pitt.)

The day after Ms. Eaton submitted her affidavit, Representative John Conyers requested an investigation by the FBI [pdf]. In his letter to the FBI, Conyers added, "I have information that similar actions of this nature may be occurring in other counties in Ohio." Despite the magnitude of Eaton's allegations and Conyers' statement, the Bureau has no plans to investigate.

As serendipity would have it, the editor of Mississippi Political News Watch (MPNW) stumbled upon the Information on the Council of Conservative Citizens and Mississippi Politicians I posted here last Sunday. MPNW has its own list of Mississippi politicians who associate with the racist Council of Conservative Citizens (CCC). MPNW also has a good article on the CCC.

If you're interested in cultural and political news about the South, with a strong focus on Mississippi, Mississippi Political News Watch is worth visiting. The site appears to update daily. The site doesn't have syndication for RSS readers, so you have to click over there whenever you want to catch the latest news.

Truth in Elections*
49 Francesca Ave.,
Somerville, MA 02144
617-625-3166
econhmnrts (at) aol.com
*In conjunction with United Progressives for Democracy
and Massachusetts Coalition Against Election Fraud

For immediate release Contact: Grace C Ross 617-642-0312

Across the US electors in at least five states, for the first time in history, turned the heavily scripted and ritualized electoral college proceedings into a forum for political action. Frustrated by the relative inattention to wide spread real voting violations now numbering in the tens of thousands, Electors called for congressional investigation and legislative action.

Vermont electors, on the record and in front of TV cameras and a number of statewide media outlets, expressed their concerns for our democracy with “57,000 complaints already received by the Congressional Judiciary Committee, we call on Congress and especially our Vermont Congressional delegation to investigate.” They enumerated credible violations affecting hundreds of thousands of voters across the US, Elector Jeffrey Taylor reports.

Opening the traditional statement of thanks for being introduced at the beginning of the Massachusetts Electoral College 2004 session, Elector Cathleen Ashton of Wayland, took the opportunity to demand “Every vote be counted and every vote count.”

As described in local news reports, for the first time in history, Electors in Maine also went on the record using the voting process to “call for national voting reforms.” Their statement pointed to the kind of electoral reforms Maine has that lead to more genuine elections, such as same day registration, allowing ex-felons to vote, and clean election reforms "but our four electoral votes are held meaningless if our sister states cannot hold elections that are fair, accurate and verifiable," Elector Lu Bauer said after the brief ceremony at the State House.

Most extraordinarily, one elector in California cast his ballot provisional upon “all votes being counted – provisional, absentee, under- and overvotes, computerized without paper ballots, even getting valid votes from those turned away illegally, intimidated, discouraged by incredibly long waits, etc.” This incredible act as a creative attempt to get this message read on the floor of Congress when they open the ballots on January 6 to consider whether to certify the vote.

“Never has such a vote been cast by an elector and without a parliamentarian to rule it in or out at the electoral college level, we await whether Congress will acknowledge this type of provisional vote and address the issues this elector sought to raise or whether they too will ignore provisional votes,” said Grace Ross, an organizer of the national effort to support electors to take action and a member of Truth in Elections.

Even in North Carolina where lack of “swing state” status left local voting violations relatively invisible, Democratic Electors and local activists spoke out about local problems while Republican Electors voted inside. Elector Mary Roe spoke of problems she herself witness as an election observer in her own county as well as saying that “everyone deserves to have their votes counted” while deploring the 4,500 votes NC election officials acknowledged disappeared in a computerized voting machine crash.

Massachusetts Electors who introduced the motion said they will use this to lobby Congressional members to take action now such as objecting to the vote. The motion passed by acclimation called on Congress to: “Act to commit Congress to investigate all voting complaints that might have any validity that they receive; Act to commit Congress to remedy any voting rights violations or electoral fraud verified by its own agents or through the courts; File in Congress and commit their resources to passage of systemic remedies.”

In speaking at their Mass. press conference afterwards, one Elector, Tom Barbera spoke of personally having his life threatened during get-out-the-vote efforts. Another spoke of being targeted for intimidation such as being immediately accosted as an African American entering a Florida polling place by whites telling her “your kind is not wanted here”, “we don’t want your kind voting here”, “leave”; such threatening behavior meant as get-out-the-vote volunteers they frequently had to follow intimidated voters of color out of polling places and convince them to reenter and agree to accompany them through the voting process..

Tom Barbera, in presenting the Massachusetts’ Electoral College motion, acknowledging that many whose voting rights violations were most widely violated were African American, referenced the Civil Rights struggle in saying ”we believe that as electors, we have a unique opportunity and obligation to ensure that justice does not again become so delayed as to be denied (as happened in 2000)”

Things have slowed down here at HungryBlues the last few days. I've been working with the Boston-based Coalition Against Election Fraud on getting at least one US Senator to stand with the members of the House who will object to the Electoral College Vote Certification on January 6. This political work and my job hunting have been taking up most of my time. I might catch up on blogging a little today. We'll see how things go. . .

This year when the Massachusetts met to cast their votes, it was not business as usual. The electors from Kerry's home state decided they could not merely cast their votes; rather they felt compelled to use their positions as electors. Here is the motion they passed, while they were still sworn in:

Motion passed by Massachusetts electors December 13, 2004, made by Tom Barbera -

I move that we, the duly sworn electors of Massachusetts, call on Congress and especially the honorable members of our MA congressional delegation as follows:
We believe that as electors we have a unique opportunity and obligation to insure that justice does not again become so delayed as to be denied. We call on the Congress of the United States and most especially our own honorable representatives, the members of the Massachusetts Congressional delegation to -

1. Act to commit Congress to investigate all voting complaints that might have any validity that they receive.
2. Act to commit Congress to remedy any voting rights violations or electoral fraud verified by its own agents or through the courts.
3. File in Congress and commit their resources to passage of systematic remedies.

Tom Barbera’s statement, as he cast his vote for President and Vice President -

We believe in one nation under God and we recognize as in the words of the great leader Martin Luther King Jr. that “injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” And we recognize our obligation as citizens of one nation to stand up for the equal rights for all members of our national community. We do believe that all people are created equal and we hold precious the sacred right to vote which our forefathers enshrined in the very Constitution that we have just sworn as electors to uphold and as citizens of Massachusetts where we count every vote.

The Electors unanimously voted yes. Barbera got a very long and standing ovation.

For more info:
Coaltion Against Election Fraud (Massachusetts-based organization that lobbied the electors to take a stand for American democracy)
Casting a vote for activism (Daily News Tribune)
Electors rue marred election: Claim voter fraud, intimidation (MetroWest Daily News)

I'd boil down all the recent developments to two things:

1. The level of attention to and outrage about gross violations of African Americans' civil rights seems to be mounting to a renewal of the public will to address racial discrimination in at least some of its forms.

2. All of our worst fantasies about possible tampering with electronic voting machines are becoming more certain every day.

Below, I'm focusing on item 1. Item 2 is in my next post.
            ***         ***         ***

It may have taken some white people getting to see the gross displays of racism in this election to effect the sea change I'm hoping has really come, but this is what it took before. That was one of the important tactics of the Civil Rights Movement—bringing the realities of racism onto television screens across America and making average citizens see the truth about injustice in their land-of-the-free. White activists who turned out to protect the vote on election day got a bitter taste of what it was that they were protecting against. Listen, for example, to Susan Truitt, founder of the Citizens Alliance for Secure Elections (CASE) in Ohio, testifying at the Conyers hearing in Washington lat week.

Why were they there too long? They didn't have enough voting machines. They were intentionally suppressed in their vote. I personally saw a man come to the polls with an IV in his arm because he had been in the hospital, an elderly African-American gentleman. His family took him out of the hospital, took him to the Driving Park Precinct on the east side of Columbus so that the man could vote, because he was refused an absentee ballot in the hospital. I saw that with my own eyes.

I talked to people who spoke of their wait, of how they had to go pick up children, of how they had to return to their jobs. I received a call when I was at the call center for Election Protection: a man had been fired because he waited in line to vote.

This is despicable. This is not America. This is not the America that we are promised. This is not the America that we dream of, and this needs to be stopped now.

(UNITED STATES HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES JUDICIARY COMMITTEE DEMOCRATIC FORUM: PRESERVING DEMOCRACY -- WHAT WENT WRONG IN OHIO? [pdf 192 KB], Wednesday, December 8, 2004, Rayburn House Office Building, Washington, D.C., 63-64)

Here is an excerpt from the call to arms from National Voter Fund Executive Director, Gregory T. Moore, when he testified at the second installment in the Conyers hearings on Monday, this time in Columbus, Ohio:

The NAACP National Voter Fund joins in solidarity with CASE, the Free Press, National Voting Rights Institute, and many other groups as we seek a recount of all the votes cast on November 2, 2004 in the state of Ohio; something that never happened in Florida 4 years ago. . . .

Those people standing in line will go down in history in the same spirit as students and civil rights leaders sitting in at lunch counters and county courthouses demanding an end to segregation in public accommodations and the right to vote for all Americans regardless of race.

The courage and determination of those voters all over Columbus to stand in line should serve as the opening volley in a rallying cry that will, with your leadership in the Congress, lead to a series of long overdue uniform standards for voting, and provisional voting at the federal and state level. This upcoming legislative battle will be fought on two fronts in Washington and here in Columbus. It is the continuation of our decades long crusade to break down the barriers to full voting rights. . . .

Our democracy is in grave danger when “we the people” relinquish to machines the power to decide who governs our nation. We all know from our day-to-day lives that cars break down, computers break down, and even electrical systems can shut down as the people of Ohio witnessed last year. When we have machines that are recording a higher voter turnout than the total number of people who are actually registered in a jurisdiction (as was the case in Franklin and Cuyahoga counties), we the people have to step in and take corrective action. . . .

The NAACP and the NAACP National Voter Fund made a commitment to our voters that we would work to ensure that all votes are counted. We are not conceding that battle until all the votes are counted. . . .

My bible and Rev. Jesse Jackson has taught me that the race does not go to the swift and the strong, but for those who hold out til the end. Thanks to all of you here for continuing to hold on and for keeping the promise of our democracy alive.

(Whole thing. [pdf 56KB])

After the Conyers hearing in Washington last week, Cliff Arnebeck of Common Cause Ohio pronounced that

If you look at who was here . . . you had leaders from the generally white political reform movement, and leaders from the black civil rights movement. This is a powerful coalition. We are not talking about one group having dominance over the other, but a real partnership of the traditional political reform community with the traditional civil rights community, and Reverend Jackson is the one that proposed it, has initiated the organization of it.

Let's hope Arnebeck is right.

Hanuka Bell

Dinga lingle lingle, I ring your bell
Knocka knock knockie knock at your door
The week of Hanuka now is here
And you must be sad no more

I’ll help you clean and scrubbity scrub
I’ll dress you pretty and sweet, sweet, sweet,
I’ll dance you right out your door, door, door,
And you must be sad no more.

Here’s my old man that drives my old horse
Hitched up to my junky old cart
His clothes look older than you and me
But he talks with a song in his heart

Grandma tells tales of old Hanuka times
Us kids walk all back to those years
She waves both her hands and a fire lights her eye
And she never looks sad anymore.

Hanuka time is the time for us all
To tell things that troubled our minds
To untie old knots of bad feelings we’ve had
And try not to look sad anymore

It’s dinga lingle lingle, I dingle your bell
Yes, I knocka knock knock at your door
Eight days of sweet Hanuka make me feel like new
So I don’t look so sad anymore

Words by Woody Guthrie, Music by Paul Morrissett
TRO © 2003 by Ludlow Music, Inc.

Recorded on The Klezmatics, Woody Guthrie's Happy Joyous Hanuka .

The transcript is here [pdf 192KB]. There is much to quote and comment on. But Jesse Jackson goes first.

This passage is from the question period after the official statements by Congress people and expert panelists. It posts now because

a) it's late and time for me to go to bed, and Jackson's statement needs no comment: it says it all.

b) Jackson's statement follows well on the heels of The Southern Strategy of George W. Bush. Sometimes the borders of the South extend quite far.

I do not want the people who tried to vote and got violated and who have real suspicions to be marginalized as if something is wrong with us and not something wrong with the machine and those who own the machines. I remember in 1964, I guess it was, Dr. King got the Nobel Peace Prize, and President Johnson gave a White House reception, and he said Mr. Johnson, I thank you very much, but all people deserve the right to vote. He said Dr. King, I knew you were going to say that. But the fact is I wish I could give you the right to vote, but I can't give it. I wish I could, but I can't. Worse, the Congress can but won't. Therefore, you can't have the right to vote.

The Congress spoke. The President spoke. But it took an independent band of people who had to go to Selma and had to bleed some more to go outside that whole system and open it up. But now, if some of you came out of those streets, we need you to go back to the streets with your newfound power and declare our protests to be legitimate. We need some legitimacy in the struggle. When Mr. Kerry left, he took media scrutiny with him. So it's repeated that it's over. It ain't over. The machines have not been checked. Why did it take 34 days, because 88 counties and 88 distant schemes in the sense of discounting people, most of whose children are in Iraq. No member of Congress has lost a child in Iraq. None of the top 10 percent lost a child in Iraq.

The poor and the dying are being jammed again. This ain't right. A step further: this system can't be fixed. This is irretrievably broken. You cannot fix this under present law: 3,067 counties, 13,000 administrators, with each their own scheme; we deserve a Federally-protected right to vote.

I close on this: why do our kids do so well, from these same neighborhoods? Why do we do so well in football, basketball, baseball, track, golf and tennis? Because if you're from Mississippi or New York, California or Seattle, the playing field is even.

We deserve a Federally protected right to vote. We need a Constitutional amendment to protect our right with Federal machinery. We cannot have the poor people getting poor machines, rich folks getting rich machines and then calling it equal. It violates equal protection.

So my appeal is that we need two things: we need some right now presence in Ohio. Let people express themselves the way they have done in Ukraine. Let's express ourselves and hear people and investigate. And secondly, let's move right now for a Constitutional, individual, Federally-protected right to vote.

States rights are unfixable. We're voting for a President. Our right to vote for President and Congress should be protected by the Federal Government, and right now, we are dependent upon states to do that.

(Reverend Jesse Jackson, UNITED STATES HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES JUDICIARY COMMITTEE DEMOCRATIC FORUM: PRESERVING DEMOCRACY -- WHAT WENT WRONG IN OHIO?, Wednesday, December 8, 2004, Rayburn House Office Building, Washington, D.C., 110-113.)

(The following information was compiled by the Arkansas Delta Peace & Justice Center (ADPJC) from source material of the Temple of Democracy and the Southern Poverty Law Center. As detailed below, the ADPJC has collected mentions of Mississippi and the state's politicians in the Council of Conservative Citizens publication, Citizens Informer, from 1999-2003. For an introduction that relates this post to the other content on this blog, see my previous post, The Southern Strategy of George W. Bush. --BG)

The Council of Conservative Citizens is a reincarnation of the White Citizens Councils that sprang up in the South in the 1950s and 1960s to oppose school desegregation. Like the League of the South, a neo-confederate group to which it has many links, the 15,000-member Council has tried without success to mask its white supremacist ideology to better promote a right-wing political agenda.The link to the Council of Conservative Citizens is www.cofcc.org.

The official publication of the Council of Conservative Citizens is the Citizens Informer.

excerpts from the

Citizens Informer 1999 to 2003

Mississippi related items/individuals
Note that all are white
                 almost all are males
                 almost all are Republicans

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Vol. 30 -- 1st Quarter 1999

on page 1 is the media attention and a photo of Governor Fordice at the Nov. 7, 1998 conference in Jackson, Mississippi.

Page 3 -- Pictures from the Nov. 6-7 1998 CofCC Conference in Jackson, Mississippi. In attendance, Crystal Springs Mayor Dan Gibson, State. Rep. Ken Stribling, Gov. Fordice, State Senator Bill Minor,

Page 7 - Mississippi activites. In Marshal County Oct. 19 meeting is attended by: Mark Garriga, chief of staff for Gov. Kirk Fordice; State Rep. Tommy Woods (http://www.ls.state.ms.us/house/woods.htm); Supervisor L.E. Malone; Fred Blek, prosecutor; Clark Bell, member of Mississippi Republican Executive Party.

Page 7 - Mississippi. Black Hawk rally is claimed to be a success even though news reports claimed turnout by candidates way down. Speakers were: State Rep. Terry Brown, candidate for Lt. Gov.; Dan M. Gibson, candidate for Governor; State Senator Robert Huggins (http://www.ls.state.ms.us/senate/huggins.htm) was a moderator. At local chapters: State Sen. Bill Hawks and Mark Garriga spoke in Calhoun; State Rep. Mark Formby (http://www.ls.state.ms.us/house/formby.htm), State Rep. John L. Moore (http://www.ls.state.ms.us/house/moore.htm), State Rep. Terry Brown, & State Senator Dean Kirby (http://www.ls.state.ms.us/senate/kirby.htm) spoke in Jackson; State Senator Bill Minor ( spoked in Marshall; State Rep. Terry Brown, Jim Jiles, Nick Walters, and Dan Gibson mayor of Crystal Springs spoke in Webster.

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Volume 30 Dec. 1999

pp. 15 Continued; Calhoun County Mississippi CofCC has Miss. Secretary of State candidate Nick Walters speak; Greater Jackson Mississippi CofCC has National Rifle Association Safari Club Vice-President Dick Withers speaks. Also, Sate Rep. Terry Brown speaks to CofCC. Jared Taylor video shown.; Marshall County Mississippi CofCC has three members of Mississippi State legislature attend meeting but do not mention their name.

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Vol. 31 Feb. 2000

pp. 18 Calhoun CofCC in Mississippi has French TV visit for documentary on private schools.

pp. 19 Mississippi Greater Jackson CofCC has State Senator Bill Hinson speak.

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Vol. 31 March 2000

Mississippi. Address by State Rep. Rita R. Martinson(http://www.ls.state.ms.us/house/martinson.htm). Address by State Senator William R. Minor. Current issues is the Confederate flag and Mississippi state flag.

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Vol. 31 May/June 2000

pp. 15  Caroll County Mississippi CofCC at Confederate Memorial day ceremonies with the UDC and SCV. Greater Jackson Mississippi has City Councilman Ben Allen speaker to them. In general Mississippi CofCC is starting a Mississippi State flag campaign.

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July-August 2000

pp. 12 Mississippi, Marshall County, Confederate Memorial Day observance. State Rep. Tommy Woods (http://www.ls.state.ms.us/house/woods.htm) address CofCC meeting. Piney Woods CofCC rally attended by Sate Sen. Joseph T. Stogner, State Rep. Herb Frierson (http://www.ls.state.ms.us/house/frierson.htm), State Rep. Kenney Moore, State Rep. Mark Formby (http://www.ls.state.ms.us/house/formby.htm), and State Rep. Joey Fillingane (http://www.ls.state.ms.us/house/fillingane.htm).

pp. 20 "Mississippi Bungling" about Jesse Jackson Jr. in Mississippi.

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September-December 2000

pp. 13 Mississippi: Mississippi Supreme Court Justice Kay Cobb attends CofCC meeting with Virginia Abernethy. Also, there was Byhalia mayor Bill Fisher, U.S. Representative Roger Wicker. Also, attending was State Sen. Bill Minor and State Rep. Tommy Woods. News on the Mississippi flag fight.

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January - February 2001  Vol. 32

pp. 10 "Mississippi Flag Vote is Crucial for our Heritage" by William Lord Jr. He is very upset with Rev. Don Wildmon.

pp. 14 Trent Lott's uncle T.A. Watson. Joe Sobran speaks to CofCC in Washington D.C.

pp. 15 Mississippi CofCC.

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March -- April 2001 Vol. 32

pp. 1 "Victory In Mississippi" by Samuel Francis.

pp. 14 Marshall, Mayor Robert Smith of  Memphis, Mississippi, (not Memphis, Tennessee). Also Rep. Tommy Wood and Senator Bill Minor. (Both state I presume) Webster, former State Rep. James Blue. Rep. Gary A. Chism (http://www.ls.state.ms.us/house/chism.htm).

pp. 15 Dr. Gary Lee Roper organizes 58 Christian ministers to support the Confederate Battle flag as a Christian symbol.

pp. 17 Ad by 58 ministers for the Mississippi state flag from the DeSoto Times.

pp. 19 Three columns by Samuel Francis, "Scientists Lie about Race and the Genome", "Real Reasons against Reparations," "Mississippi Sets the Clock Right."

pp. 24 Dover Cylinder Head ad. Mississippi vote.

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May - June 2001 Vol. 32 No. 3

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July - August 2001 Vol. 32 No. 4

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Nov. - Dec. 2001 Vol. 32 No. 6

pp. 6 Council News, short items about local chapters. Mississippi State Rep. Tommy Woods (http://www.ls.state.ms.us/house/woods.htm) attends meeting.

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Nov. - Dec. 2001 Vol. 32 No. 6

pp. 12 Mississippi Marshall County function has the Marshall County Sheriff Kenny Cikerson, Byhalia Police Chief Mike Novay, MS representatives Jack Gadd (http://www.ls.state.ms.us/house/gadd.htm) and Tommy Woods(http://www.ls.state.ms.us/house/woods.htm). CofCC members at Macedonia Baptist Church in Calhoun City.

pp. 13 Mississippi meetings.

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Jan. - Feb. 2002 Vol. 33 No. 1

pp. 15  Mississippi section. Jackson county chapter wants to place Mississippi flag in Constitution. State Sen. Charlie Ross (http://www.ls.state.ms.us/senate/ross.htm) speaks to Feb. 21 meeting of CofCC. State Rep. Gary Chism (http://www.ls.state.ms.us/house/chism.htm) spoke at same meeting about the state flag. State Rep. Eric Robinson (http://www.ls.state.ms.us/house/robinson_(84th).htm) special guest.

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March - April 2002 Vol. 33 No. 2

pp. 15 Republican Congressional Candidate Charlotte Reeves speaks at the Carroll County CofCC. Charlotte Reeves at Greater Jackson, Southern Magnolia, and Piney Woods CofCC Southern Heritage event. State Senator Glenn Hamilton speaks at Webster County CofCC.

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May - June 2002 Vol. 33 No. 3

pp. 13  Mississippi, State Senator Bill Minor, State Rep. Tommy Woods (http://www.ls.state.ms.us/house/woods.htm)

pp. 14 Mississippi candidate for Congress send representatives to CofCC even in Jackson, Mississippi. Chip Pickering and Ronnie Show. Marshall County CofCC has SCV commander Gene Ingram, Rep. Tommy Woods (http://www.ls.state.ms.us/house/woods.htm), Dorothy Herron of the UDC, Byhalia Mayor Dempsey, State Senator Bill Minor.

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July - Sept. 2002 Vol. 33. No. 4

pp. 13 Mississippi, pictures, Tommy Woods (http://www.ls.state.ms.us/house/woods.htm) State Rep., Tim Johnson, State Senator at CofCC meeting in Marshall County.

pp. 17 Mississippi items: Byhalia project to put Mississippi flag license plates on police cars in that town. August Marshal County meeting with State Sen. Tim Johnson. Webster County has State Rep. Gary Chism (http://www.ls.state.ms.us/house/chism.htm).

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Oct. -- Dec. 2002 Vol. 33 No. 5

pp. 1 Bill Lord, "Alabama Judge Orders Ten Commandments Monument Removed."

pp. 2 Editorials, About the Trent Lott affair and the Dixiecrats.

pp. 6 Samuel Francis, "Lott May Have Unintentionally Said Something True."

pp. 13 Mississippi, Southern Heritage Political Rally near Jackson, MS. Shoney's donates a door prize.

pp. 20 Mary Elizabeth Sanders, "Help Bring a Confederate Monument to Its Rightful Place." Port Hudson Confederate monument. A lot of resistance to this Confederate monument.

pp. 23 Robert Slimp. "My J. Strom Thurmond Stories." 

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Jan.-Feb. 2003

pp. 14 short items. Mississippi State Rep. Bobby B. Howell (http://www.ls.state.ms.us/house/howell.htm) speaks at Carroll County meeting. Arnie Watson, uncle of Trent Lott dies. Jackson meeting, Miss. State Rep. John Moore (http://www.ls.state.ms.us/house/moore.htm).

pp. 18 Bob Patterson, "The Race Card." Upset with a revival of the Emmitt Till case.

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March - April 2003

pp. 13 Mississippi State Senator Dean Kirby (http://www.ls.state.ms.us/senate/kirby.htm), State Represenative Clayton Smith (http://www.ls.state.ms.us/house/smith_(59th).htm) speak at CofCC meeting. Marshall County CofCC greeted at state capitol by State Senator Bill Minor, Rep. Tommy Woods (http://www.ls.state.ms.us/house/woods.htm), Rep. Jack Gadd (http://www.ls.state.ms.us/house/gadd.htm), and Rep. Wander Jennings (http://www.ls.state.ms.us/house/jennings.htm).

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May - June 2003

pp. 12 Short items. National Conference in Olive Branch, Mississippi, a suburb of Memphis. Panels, "The Attack on White Culture," Peter Gemma, Miles Wolpin, Samuel Francis. Panel, "Christian Response to Liberalism Panel," Benny Hill, pastor of Duncan Hill Baptist Church, Robert Slimp, Steve Woods. Panel: Immigration Invasion, Brent Nelson, Wayne Lutton, Virginia Abernathy, Saturday Luncheon, speaker was Gregg Stewart, chairman of the coalition that defended the Mississippi flag. Also, attending was Mississippi Rep. Thomas Woods (http://www.ls.state.ms.us/house/woods.htm), and Gary Chism (http://www.ls.state.ms.us/house/chism.htm).

pp. 13 Black Hawk Barbecue, with "twenty-six state candidates attending," including Lt. Governor Amy Tuck, GOP gubernatorial candidate Haley Barbour and Mitch Tyner. Picture on page.  Many other candidates attended.

pp. 14 Attendees at Black Hawk dinner. MS state rep., Bobby Howell (http://www.ls.state.ms.us/house/howell.htm) at, State Senator Bill Minor. Lt. Gov. Amy Tuck.

pp. 24 Dover Cylinder Head ad. Ms State Senator Dean Kirby (http://www.ls.state.ms.us/senate/kirby.htm) addresses Greater Jackson and Southern Magnolia chapters of the CofCC.

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Fall 2003 Vol. 34 No. 3-6 Special Edition

pp. 13 Mississippi, Mitch Tyner speaks to CofCC.

pp. 14 Shannon Warnock speaks to Mississippi CofCC soliciting votes for Haley Barbour. Rev. Cripps speaks to CofCC in Jackson.

This post brings together some things I've been saying in bits and pieces in other posts and in messages to email lists and friends. What I say here is also intended as an introduction to my next post, which presents some information about the Council of Conservative Citizens in Mississippi.

I have tried before to emphasize that Republican efforts to suppress the African American vote are deeply rooted in the history of American racism. Much of what we can enumerate is nothing new: voter intimidation, voter roll purges, voter challenges, unequal distribution of voting technology and information to predominantly African American precincts. These tactics have been around for decades, but in this year's election cycle they were employed more brazenly and on an unprecedented scale by the GOP. In one New York Times post-mortem on Bush's success in Florida, for example, Republican campaigners were extremely nonchalant about their pre-election threats of massive voter challenges.

Republican strategists acknowledged that their party had purposely warned the news media that they might file challenges to deter felons and dual registrants from voting. They said their tough talk had forced the Democrats to marshal their forces to conduct poll monitoring in the critical final days.

This kind of Republican bragging about voter intimidation tactics, threatened or real, is just one side of the coin Bush uses as currency with his racist base. The other side is John Ashcroft's reconfiguration of the DOJ Civil Rights Division. Charged with protecting minority voting rights after the 1965 Voting Rights Act, the Civil Rights Division is now poised to be a federal voter "integrity" agency that prosecutes voters who would try to vote "fraudulently." Ashcroft has also been pushing for a narrow interpretation of the 2002 Help America Vote Act that would greatly limit the abilities of citizens to file suit for violations of their voting rights.

These shamelessly public attacks on African American voters and on the federal protections of their rights carry an intent much like Ronald Reagan's 1980 campaign speech in Philadelphia, Mississippi. There, in the place famous only for the 1964 Klan murders of Chaney, Gooodman and Schwerner, the presidential candidate made no acknowledgment of those events, only fourteen years past, but made his coded appeal to Southern racists:

I believe in states' rights. I believe that we've distorted the balance of our government by giving powers that were never intended in the Constitution to the federal establishment.

States' rights has long been the banner under which some Southerners declare allegiance to crumbling racist institutions, first to slavery and then to Jim Crow.

In Bush's hands, the Southern strategy has a new, brutish cast. Rather than cart out the states' rights rhetoric or welfare queens or Willie Horton, the Bush administration appeals to its racist base by modeling old-style Jim Crow tactics widely and visibly—as official party election practices and as part of the Department of Justice's stated law enforcement agenda. George W. Bush did something truly radical in 2004: he affirmed states' rights by federalizing the states' rights agenda.

The relative absence of overt racist rhetoric, coded or otherwise, in the Bush administration, coupled with the unprecedented ethnic and gender diversity of Bush's cabinet and other staff, effects an Orwellian dissonance between Bush's demonstrated personal tolerance and the hostilities he willingly fosters. In effect, Bush is working to reinstitute the distinction that was do dear to Southern segregationists in the the 1950s. James Forman, former Executive Secretary of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, put it this way in his book, The Making of Black Revolutionaries:

Southerners believed integration meant the total acceptance of the American Negro in the American way of life. Desegregation meant the removal of the legal barriers that prevented Negroes from having access to the American way of life. . . .

For instance, the Supreme Court decision of 1954 said that Southern schools should be desegregated. That is a legal question, a legal right which is indisputable. However, when you twist the removal of legal barriers to mean that one must accept (how gracious) us totally into the American way of life, then the justification for hostility increases. (91-92)

Bush keeps a coterie of minorities and women in the upper echelons of his administration to project images of full access for all, a supposed absence of legal barriers to the American dream. At the same time, for anyone who cares to look behind the scrim, Bush's policies and his electoral strategies communicate clear opposition to a meaningfully integrated society.

The current revival of racism in our country (not that it ever went away) is not directed only at random, hateful individuals. Bush's audience also includes powerful infrastructures of racist sympathy with active agendas of minority suppression and intimidation. I'm not talking about splinter hate groups that may be deemed as far outside the mainstream. As my friends in Alabama will often say, "The Klan dresses in three-piece suits now, not sheets." The Council of Conservative Citizens, formerly known as White Citizens Councils, have for decades been the suited, "respectable" face of the Klan, "trumpeting the 'Southern way of life,'" through "a traditionalist rhetoric that appealed to better-mannered, more discreet racists; while the Klan burned crosses, the CCA relied on political and economic pressure." The information in my next post details the intricate, many-tentacled reach of the CCC into the mainstream political life of the state of Mississippi.

And these influences reach well beyond Mississippi state lines. For starters, in case you don't remember, you might want to check out John Ashcroft's Southern heritage credentials.

The story just gets stranger.

In case you're wondering, these press releases come straight from the recount volunteers. Folks from the Boston-based Coalition Against Election Fraud called the phone numbers in the first press release and confirmed the information, once again from Ray Beckerman's blog, Ohio Election Fraud.

Locked-Down Ohio Poll Records Left in Unlocked Building

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Locked-Down Ohio Poll Records Left in Unlocked Building
DAYTON Saturday December 11, 2004

Greene County election records that were the subject of Secretary of State Blackwell’s personal lockdown order on Friday December 10 were left vulnerable in an unattended, unlocked Board of Elections office. According to Joan Quinn and Eve Roberson, two election observers researching voting records, revisited the office the next morning to find the building unlocked and unoccupied.

Quinn and Roberson were the citizens who had been allowed access to voter records by Director of Elections Carole Garman, who then abruptly withdrew access to these records upon the order of Secretary of State Blackwell. On Friday, Garman did not offer a valid legal basis for the withdrawal of voting records to these observers. The Ohio Revised Code requires that all election records be available to the public and provides penalties for those preventing public access. The Ohio recount process does not officially start until the week of December 13, after the Electoral College vote will have taken place.

The records taken from Quinn and Roberson’s hands on Friday stood in an unlocked Board of Elections office Saturday morning, apparently overnight. Several observers arrived Saturday morning, noticing cars in the parking lot, and looked for officials in the office, but found nobody in the unlocked building. Law enforcement and media contacts had been alerted and were at the site before County officials arrived. Deputy Director of Elections Lynn McCoy arrived later and stated that all election records were still “locked down” and remained unavailable to the public. However, metal boxes with sealed locks had been stacked in the unlocked basement immediately accessible to the unlocked entrance. The Deputy Director would not confirm that these boxes contained original ballots.

Quinn and Roberson are part of a vote recount and observation team researching voting irregularities in Ohio from the November general election. The Greene County voting records were required to document irregularities in advance of the official recount. Because the voting records are considered vital to the accuracy of the recount, Quinn and Roberson questioned why any election official would intentionally keep them from public view. Roberson said “Any lockdown of public records is a violation of the public’s right to know what its government is doing.”

The recount team is soliciting affidavits of people who have witnessed or experienced voter irregularities in Ohio. Persons with any information or experiences to share are invited to send comments to: ohvotefraud@yahoo.com

Contact Information: ohvotefraud@yahoo.com

That's that haunting little number by Andy Razaf and Fats Walller, immortalized by Louis Armstrong. And it's what they must be singing in Cleveland. Well in certain parts of Cleveland, anyway. If you're not sure what I mean yet, take a look at these two maps from this article on this excellent site, which I discovered last night.

1. Machine and long line problems reported to voteprotect.org (raw data: here and here)

2. Ballot spoilage, i.e., ballots cast but not counted towards the presidential election result.
(raw data: Cuyahoga County Election Returns (LARGE text file))

In what appears to be a clear violation of Ohio state law, Blackwell has stopped recount volunteers from reviewing voter records.

From Ray Beckerman's Ohio Election Fraud (Formerly "Fairness"):

Ohio Election Investigation Thwarted by Surprise Blackwell Order

Dayton, Ohio Friday December 10, 2004

On Friday December 10 two certified volunteers for the Ohio Recount team assigned to Greene County were in process recording voting information from minority precincts in Greene County, and were stopped mid-count by a surprise order from Secretary of State Blackwell’s office. The Director Board of Elections stated that “all voter records for the state of Ohio were “locked-down,” and now they are not considered public records.”

The volunteers were working with voter printouts received directly from Carole Garman, Director, Greene County Board of Elections. Joan Quinn and Eve Roberson, retired attorney and election official respectively, were hand-copying voter discrepancies from precinct voting books on behalf of the presidential candidates Mr. Cobb (Green) and Mr. Badnarik Libertarian) who had requested the recount.
One of the goals of the recount was to determine how many minority voters were unable to vote or denied voting at the polls. Upon requesting copies of precinct records from predominantly minority precincts, Ms. Garman contacted Secretary of State Blackwell’s office and spoke to Pat Wolfe, Election Administrator. Ms. Wolfe told Ms. Garman to assert that all voter records for the State of Ohio were “locked down” and that they are “not considered public records.” (emphasis added)

Quinn and Roberson asked specifically for the legal authority authorizing Mr. Blackwell to “lock down” public records. Garman stated that it was the Secretary of State’s decision. Ohio statute requires the Directors of Boards of Election to comply with public requests for inspection and copying of public election records. As the volunteer team continued recording information from the precinct records in question, Garman entered the room and stated she was withdrawing permission to inspect or copy any voting records at the Board of Elections. Garman then physically removed the precinct book from Ms. Roberson’s hands. They later requested the records again from Garman’s office, which was again denied.

Ohio Revised Code Title XXXV Elections, Sec. 3503.26 that requires all election records to be made available for public inspection and copying. ORC Sec. 3599.161 makes it a crime for any employee of the Board of Elections to knowingly prevent or prohibit any person from inspecting the public records filed in the office of the Board of Elections. Finally, ORC Sec. 3599.42 clearly states: “A violation of any provision of Title XXXV (35) of the Revised Code constitutes a prima facie case of election fraud within the purview of such Title.” (emphasis added)
Contact Information: Joan Quinn (937) 320-9680, (916) 396-9714 – cell Katrina Sumner (937) 608-5861