Editor’s Note: A full examination of this issue will be the topic for this week’s program, “Voter Caging” on “NOW” airing Friday, July 27 on PBS (Check local listings at http://www.pbs.org/now/sched.html.). TO/vh

Also see:     
Truthout’s interview with former US attorney for New Mexico David Iglesias    •

Exclusive | Emails Detail RNC Voter Suppression in Five States
    By Jason Leopold and Matt Renner
    t r u t h o u t | Report

    Thursday 26 July 2007

Truthout has obtained previously undisclosed GOP campaign emails from the 2004 presidential race that reveal and detail strategies to disenfranchise voters in crucial swing states.

    Previously undisclosed documents detail how Republican operatives, with the knowledge of several White House officials, engaged in an illegal, racially-motivated effort to suppress tens of thousands of votes during the 2004 presidential campaign in a state where George W. Bush was trailing his Democratic challenger, Senator John Kerry.

    The documents also contain details describing how Bush-Cheney 2004 campaign officials, and at least one individual who worked for White House political adviser Karl Rove, planned to stop minorities residing in Cuyahoga County from voting on election day.

    The efforts to purge voters from registration rolls was spearheaded by Tim Griffin, a former Republican National Committee opposition researcher. Griffin recently resigned from his post as interim US attorney for Little Rock Arkansas. His predecessor, Bud Cummins, was forced out to make way for Griffin.

    Another set of documents, 43 pages of emails, provided to Truthout by the PBS news program “NOW,” contains blueprints for a massive effort undertaken by RNC operatives in 2004, to challenge the eligibility of voters expected to support Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry in states such as Nevada, New Mexico, Florida and Pennsylvania….” excerpt

Caution before reading; have a fresh cup of coffee, and put on your adult size panties.

Stampeding Elephants
A few more clues on the GOP stampede from the Youtube/CNN debate. Apparently, of all the GOP candidates, only McCain and Ron Paul have signed on. Should be quite an evening.

In the series of ’somehow’ comments, one sticks out for me:

Somehow American leadership, whose only credit is lying to its people and illegally invading a nation, has been allowed to steal the courage, virtue and honor of its soldiers on the ground.

Everyone already knows soldiers risk their lives; but they also risk something else just as important. When they forfeit their own self-determination and place their confidence in their leadership, they risk the possibility that if they’re wrong, they might just have to face life-long regret. This is no small thing, and is an aspect of having their courage, virtue and honor stolen by a corrupt leader. What this means is that they risk their souls as well as their bodies. In return they deserve at least a good faith effort at honor in terms of what they’re sent to do.

Personally, I lean towards impeachment, but at the same time the groundwork has to be laid. Unfortunately, the groundwork is being laid much too slowly – something like leveling land for a new freeway using a wood plow and a mule. Running out the election clock just isn’t good enough. I don’t expect that Congress should jump ahead too soon, but someone needs to light a fire under their asses on laying the groundwork.

Republican Congress members who might be concerned about loss of political clout if the POTUS from their own party is impeached, need to be reminded that by Nov’08 Bush will become their own worst political liability. If they don’t want to completely lose two branches of the government for at least a generation, they may want to reconsider their current naive stubbornness.

What do Centrists and Republicans really believe they will gain if they succeed in preventing an impeachment, only to fail at preventing disastrous erosion of the entire country’s integrity?

“My fellow Americans: You sent a loud and clear message last November to stop this disastrous war. We are fighting to do just that, but I’m here tonight to warn all Americans the fight is now much bigger than the war in Iraq. The war the Bush administration and the Republican party have declared is on our cherished Constitution and on our way of life. We are on the edge of the abyss, and I have never feared for my County as I fear for it now. Our Constitution is being openly mocked and defied by a gang of Aristocrats known as todays Republican party.

We cannot win this battle without all of America standing with us.
Live free or Die!”

I know, fantasy. But it would be nice if they would use language as more of a weapon. You don’t play nice with fascist – that should be a sign on every Dems desk.

Rush attacks my husband over Vick

by AtlantaJan

Thu Jul 26, 2007 at 05:29:31 PM PDT

My husband is a retired sportswriter who has just started making a little cash doing freelance pieces for SI Online. His first piece was about Michael Vick and Atlanta’s reaction to the charges against him.

In the piece, Bill McCloskey, veteran and revered bartender at Manuel’s Tavern (which Atlanta Kossacks are very familiar with) says, “This is bigger than Ray Lewis.”…

She gives an interesting account of Rush Limbaugh’s ignorant attacks on her husband’s article. Then she points out some of Rush’s Achilles heels, including that he sells these t-shirts on his site:

“Guantanamo: Your Tropical Retreat from the Stress of Jihad.”
“I Got My Free Koran and Prayer Rug at G’itmo” and
“My Mullah went to Club G’itmo and All I Got Was This Lousy T-Shirt.”

Anyone that has been swirling around in the bowl with Bush should be targeted for an electoral flushing:

Can you believe Sen. Feinstein actually sought to censure President Clinton in 1999 and she has proposed no such thing to even one Mayberry Machiavellian?

Sen. Feinstein gives Bush a pass and censures Clinton for lying?

Feinstein: A Last-Minute Push for Censure

By Edward Walsh
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, February 12, 1999; Page A23

The leading Democratic advocate of censuring President Clinton for his conduct in the Monica S. Lewinsky scandal made a last-minute appeal to the Senate yesterday, saying that Clinton’s behavior was “immoral, deplorable and indefensible” and that it merited “strong condemnation and censure.”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/special/clinton/stories/feinstein021299.htm

Text of Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s censure resolution

[snip]

Whereas William Jefferson Clinton, president of the United States, deliberately misled and deceived the American people, and people in all branches of the United States government;

Whereas William Jefferson Clinton, president of the United States, gave false or misleading testimony and his actions have had the effect of impeding discovery of evidence in judicial proceedings;

Whereas William Jefferson Clinton’s conduct in this matter is unacceptable for a president of the United States, does demean the office of the president as well as the president himself, and creates disrespect for laws of the land;

Whereas President Clinton fully deserves censure for engaging in such behavior;

Whereas future generations of Americans must know that such behavior is not only unacceptable but also bears grave consequences, including loss of integrity, trust and respect;

Whereas William Jefferson Clinton remains subject to criminal actions in a court of law like any other citizen;

Whereas William Jefferson Clinton’s conduct in this matter has brought shame and dishonor to himself and to the office of the president; and

Whereas William Jefferson Clinton through his conduct in this matter has violated the trust of the American people;
http://www2.jsonline.com:80/news/president/0213feinstein.asp

[keywords: Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), California's senior Senator, Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, Senate Commitee on the Judiciary, Senator Dianne Feinstein]

But as a neighbor to Delay’s district I can appreciate the fine work of the ‘no representative’ who did so outstanding a job as to not cause trouble, not obstruct, not lie (or so we suspect), and to not engage in bribery and redistricting.

Do you think ‘no representative’ could run in Culberson’s district too? He’s such a putrid windbag and it was misery to be in his district.

Conyers Outfoxes Bushie in Contempt Showdown

by Patriot Daily News Clearinghouse

Rep. John Conyers is methodically setting up the legal elements for Congress to pursue statutory and/or inherent contempt proceedings against executive branch officials in a manner that essentially wipes out any claim to executive privilege to shield the truth. A few weeks ago, I wrote a diary on Impeachment by Frog-Marching Congressional Oversight, which suggested that Congress had a better chance — according to US Supreme Court precedent — to obtain evidence and testimony from the Bush gang if it conducted a “criminal proceeding” to investigate potential criminal or unlawful conduct by executive branch officials. The beauty of the “criminal proceeding” is that Bush is not likely to prevail on executive privilege claims. Well, it looks like the US Attorney probe has now been officially transformed into a “criminal proceeding” to determine whether Bush officials have violated specific laws. … READ ALL.