Democracy for New Mexico

NM-02: Cheney to Stump for Tinsley at Hobbs Fundraiser

According to an AP story, VP Dick Cheney, who did not attend the GOP convention in St. Paul and whose name was never mentioned formally there, will attend a fundraiser for Ed Tinsley on September 26th in Hobbs. Hobbs is the hometown of Tinsley's Dem rival, Harry Teague. No further details were immediately available on the fundraiser.

"The vice president intends to work hard this cycle to return a Republican majority to Congress and he is looking forward to returning to New Mexico," Cheney spokesman Jamie Hennigan said.

Dick has his work cut out for him on that count, don't you think? Odd, too, that in a year when the GOP prez and VP candidates are trying to convince voters they're running to "change Washington" and throw out the crooked "do-nothing" bums who have been running things, one of the most notorious bums is coming to New Mexico to boost Tinsley (left). Of course they don't want to send the incredibly unpopular Bush to stump for GOP candidates, but I wonder why they think the venal Cheney is any better.

Why, just the other day one of Cheney's cronies at Halliburton plead guilty to bribery:

A former colleague of the US Vice-President, Dick Cheney, has pleaded guilty to funnelling millions of dollars in bribes to win lucrative contracts in Nigeria for Halliburton, during the period in the Nineties when Mr Cheney ran the giant oil and gas services company.

Albert Stanley, who was appointed by Mr Cheney as chief executive of Halliburton's subsidiary KBR, admitted using a north London lawyer to channel payments to Nigerian officials as part of a bribery scheme that landed some $6bn of work in the country over a decade.

The guilty plea, announced yesterday, came after a four-year investigation by US attorneys and threatens to stir up old controversies just as eyes are trained on the Republican party convention. Mr Cheney, who pulled out of an address to the convention because of Hurricane Gustav earlier this week, led Halliburton from 1995 until returning to government in 2000. He had previously been Defence Secretary under the first President George Bush, and the links with Halliburton have been a constant thorn in the side of the current administration as the company has gone on to win billions of dollars of contracts in Iraq and other US military spheres.

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Bloggers Report Outrageous Police Actions in Minneapolis

"Defense Control" vehicle in Denver

There were plenty of mucho macho, paramilitary-style displays and actions by law enforcement and Secret Service officers in Denver during the DNC Convention. As I reported before, we'd run into one person holding a peace sign surrounded by a dozen officers in riot-SWAT gear with assault weapons, or a small group of older women wearing peace teeshirts drawing a crowd of mounted police, bicycle cops or guys in suits wearing earpieces. Or streets would be closed down for blocks because a small group was walking together and chanting a slogan.

However, as far as we know, nothing came close to the kind of police state behavior that's already going on in Minneapolis as the GOP arrives for their Convention in St. Paul.

Check out this piece by Glenn Greenwald, who's on the story with Jane Hamsher of Firedoglake -- which also has several articles on the situation in Minneapolis. Police in riot gear have been raiding houses, forcing people to lay on the floor while handcuffed, seizing their computers, arresting journalists and lawyers and generally running amok claiming they are uncovering potential "conspiracies -- without any evidence of lawbreaking of any kind. I sure hope the whole world is watching, but maybe it's our own citizens who should be paying the most attention and admitting certain dangerous realities about certain "security" obsessed law enforcement officials.

Cops in Denver

Serve and Protect?
We personally endured a few over-the-top, in-your-face intimidations in Denver. The worst came when the battery-operated scooter I was using to traverse the long distances between events broke down right before we were past the blocks long "security perimeter." The defective battery (one of two we encountered in my rented scooters) had been giving me trouble all night because it wouldn't hold a charge for long. I had gotten help from Convention volunteers and firefighters to recharge it enough to keep going very slowly, but it gave out again when I neared the exit from the Pepsi Center's secured area.

Two Secret Service agents were clearly peeved at this and ordered us to get the scooter out of there immediately, or else. They had beet red faces, were yelling loudly and were trying to be as intimidating and wise ass as they could. Oh, how they relish their power. When we explained we couldn't carry the heavy scooter ourselves and it shouldn't be pushed, they went ape shit. Questions or comments aren't allowed.

The beefy agents refused to help us or call anyone else over to help and just kept demanding we get the thing past the last barriers. One of them finally ordered me out of the scooter. He then half picked it up and half dragged it past the perimeter and threw it so hard against a concrete barrier that it almost overturned. Next came a nasty-assed grin. Pride in service!

We had the temerity to ask what we could do to get farther and they spouted a few epithets and said they didn't care if we spent the night there. They clearly detested being asked any questions, as they apparently perceive themselves as having unassailable and unlimited power to act as they desire, period. These types are really tough when it comes to dealing with a pair of gray-haired women, one of whom has mobility problems. After letting the scooter sit there for 20 minutes or so, it regained enough juice somehow that we managed to get it started so we could move at a snail's pace to an area where we could hail a cab to take us to our car.

A Cowed Citizenry
It was also instructive to watch our fellow citizens watch the inexcusable rudeness with which we were being treated. They stared, they saw, they fled. After all, the message was clear -- they could be next if they said a word. I'm convinced the authorities could have done whatever they felt like doing to us and nobody would have made a peep in our defense.

You see, intimidating tactics like those we witnessed do in fact work. The goal is to keep everyone quiet, obedient and unquestioning of any behavior on the part of "the authorities" and, quite often, it works. In fact, I'm sure it makes many people feel "safe" from "the terrorists" -- but it makes me feel like our civil liberties could easily go the way of video cassettes if the brutes among law enforcement are allowed to operate unrestrained.

It's especially ironic when Convention speakers are going on about enforcing the Constitution and Bill of Rights while right outside the door there are law enforcement entities acting like citizens exercising -- or even thinking about exercising -- their civil liberties are "the enemy." Not to mention the extreme threat posed by gray-haired women with a scooter with dead batteries. Priorities, priorities.

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The Bad Guys Win (for Now): AG King & SOS Herrera Side with Shannon Robinson on NMYO; Shannon's Tirade on Senate Floor

No surprise here. Secretary of State Mary Herrera (right) decided to accept Attorney General Gary King's advice about changing New Mexico Youth Organized's legal status. Herrera evidently made her decision based on King's secretive determination, using undisclosed criteria, that the non-profit NMYO had crossed some undefined political line with its mailings about the voting records and campaign donors of certain lawmakers months before the June 3rd primary election.

Letter from the Secretary of State
Herrera issued her letter yesterday instructing Keegan King, the Director of New Mexico Youth Organized, to comply with the reporting requirements of a political committee rather than a nonprofit. You can read her letter here. Note that Herrera couldn't even get the letter's salutation right -- starting the letter with "Dear Mr. Keegan." The brief letter reveals no details about why the decision was made or the criteria used to make it. It simply says NMYO "appears" to be acting like a political committee, and gives the nonprofit ten days to explain and correct its alleged "violation" and complete and file documents that were attached to the original letter.

Herrera doesn't even bother to name or describe what she calls the "apparent violation," perhaps because she really doesn't know what it is. What we know is that defeated status quo insider Shannon Robinson complained to the AG back in May about NMYO. We know that the AG's office quickly jumped in response and sent Herrera an inaccurate, horribly researched letter two weeks before the primary. I'm sure that Robinson probably thought that would help him in the election. It had become quite clear that he was way behind.

We know that the AG's office then asked the SOS to ignore the letter and that there was a odd lull after that. We know that AG King finally did directly advise Herrera in a private meeting last Friday. And that today she jumped, without explanation or definition of the "violation" committed by NMYO. Nobody from the SOS's office or the AG's office has to date met or spoken with anyone representing NMYO or the Center for Civic Policy (its parent organization) about the matter.

Response by the Center for Civic Policy
Eli Il Yong Lee, Executive Director of the Center for Civic Policy, the parent group of New Mexico Youth Organized, issued this statement yesterday in response to the SOS's letter:

"The Center for Civic Policy and New Mexico Youth Organized strongly disagree with the decision made public today by Secretary of State Mary Herrera and Attorney General Gary King. We will pursue all legal remedies at our disposal.

With our educational mailings, we upheld our responsibility to make sure New Mexicans knew what actions have been taken on issues important to them by their elected officials. Any effort to restrict this legal activity would muzzle New Mexico nonprofits from doing the very important job of keeping public officials accountable. Public information is just that…public. Any attempt to hide this kind of information is not in the interests of the people of New Mexico. It is surprising that any public official would actually advocate for this irresponsible course of action."

If It Swims Like a Fish ...
So, is Mary Herrera caving under the same status quo political pressure that may be steering Attorney General Gary King on this matter? Nobody knows, but this whole thing sure looks fishy. And if it swims like a fish and blows bubbles like a fish, it probably IS fishy, right?

Don't forget that the press release issued by AG King to explain how he came to his legal position said, "If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, then it’s probably a duck. And I think we know a duck when we see one." Imagine an attorney general in any other state making a similarly vacuous and unprofessional statement to the press about a decision that could impact the majority of nonprofits operating in the state.

Super Heroes to the Rescue in the Windmill Tilt
I've been a Democrat all my life. It pains me that two of the top Democratic elected officials in the state seem to be acting without a logical, legal explanation or any semblance of fairness in furthering Shannon Robinson's Quixotic quest. It's hard for me to believe they take the paranoid Robinson seriously when he blames his thorough drubbing at the polls on some nefarious plot.

Everybody knew Robinson was probably finished when he was called out repeatedly by the Albuquerque Journal for steering legislative appropriations to the rugby team he coaches. He was caught in the act abusing public funds. He had no convincing explanation. Voters noticed.

But in Robinson's mind, it's Shannon against the world, and Mary and Gary are the super heros he calls forth to help him protect truth, justice and the American way. Well, if the American way means voting the wishes of your campaign donors, ignoring the pressing needs of your constituents and refusing to accept the results of an election.

Scare Tactics
Make no mistake about it. This particular attack may be against NMYO, but it sure seems designed to scare, intimidate and threaten other nonprofits from doing their jobs in educating the public about the behavior of their elected officials. The hit job also seems aimed at gobbling up the resources, time and attention of a number of nonprofits to lessen their effectiveness in educating the public.

Shannon Jumps the Shark
You'd think that Shannon Robinson's reprehensible behavior on the Floor of the State Senate last Friday, as well as other crazy statements he's made of late, would be highly embarrasing to both King and Herrera. This is the point of view they are both apparently defending.

Check out these gems reported by the NMI's Trip Jennings as Sen. Shannon Robinson's utterances on the Senate Floor last Friday during the New Mexico Special Legislative Sessiion:

Robinson said, "I'm on a manhunt. And I am going to track it down. Follow the money.... These nonprofit watchdogs are anything but that. They don't have a right to be a nonprofit. They are going to have to face charges of tax evasion. This is a scheme to avoid taxes We are going to see in the next few months ... the state Supreme Court will back us up on that. I think the AG will back us up.

During his speech, Robinson appeared to accuse Sen. Gerald Ortiz Y Pino of participating in a conspiracy of silence. "Sen. Ortiz y Pino will not comment," Robinson said. "He knows if he talks about it he can get indicted."

Robinson then turned questions toward Sen. Cisco McSorley, D-Albuquerque. McSorley would have none of it, however. "I dont know of anything of what you are talking about. I have no idea of what you are talking about," McSorley said to Robinson. "There you have it," Robinson said.

Here's the Albuquerque Journal's account of what they term Robinson's half-hour "tirade" on the Senate Floor. Quote:

In his blistering tirade, which included references to the devil, George Soros and the FBI, Robinson also accused city and state agencies of wrongdoing but gave no details. And he asserted that two senators have ties to the nonprofit, the Center for Civic Policy.

... On the Senate floor Friday, Robinson said, "That organization put out obscene literature. It shows a picture, supposedly of me, taking the oath of office with my left hand. Now only the devil swears in with his left hand." He also said Soros, a philanthropist and social activist, was financing the group — a charge Lee denies. [emphasis mine]

... McSorley said, "I don't think anybody has any idea about what you're talking about here. Robinson's response: "Okay. There you have it. And you know what? If you live by the sword you die by the sword. And if you lie under oath, eventually what happens is, the FBI shows up."

You have to give Robinson credit for chutzpah. He personally attacked two of the most ethically responsible and highly respected Senators in the chamber, right to their faces. You may or may not agree with the politics of Ortiz y Pino and McSorley, but there has never been even a whiff of scandal connected to either of them. Yet somehow, in Shannon's mind, they're in on the plot to get him. It's a pretty wide-ranging plot, after all.

The Plot Thickens
And now the "conspiracy" is spreading -- to federal races in New Mexico -- according to Robinson's rambling statements in an interview with Peter St. Cyr just before Shannon headed to Santa Fe for the Special Session. You really must listen to the entire audio file yourselves to get the full flavor of just where Robinson is headed with his "conspiracy" talk. It's no longer merely wacky. It's no longer merely odd. It's downright scary in my book. Listening to this interview made my hair stand on end. Maybe that's it. Maybe people are afraid to go too hard on him, you know?

See our previous post on this matter and the lawsuit filed by Robinson and two other losing primary candidates. That post contains a list of links to other posts related to the attack on the primary winners and various nonprofits. Also see another recent post that provides a statement by the Southwest Organizing Project on the attacks by Robinson.

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MUST READ: SWOP Responds to Lawsuit by Shannon Robinson et al.

Southwest Organizing Project (SWOP) issued the following statement today in response to the recent lawsuit against them, other nonprofits and three Dems who won their primary legislative races. The suit was filed by incumbent Democrats who lost their primary races to reform candidates on June 3, 2008 -- namely Sen. Shannon Robinson, Sen. James G. Taylor and Rep. Don Silva. All three lawmakers have a reputation in many quarters for putting the desires of entrenched interests before the needs of their constituents, the common good and ordinary New Mexicans. The very poorly written lawsuit claims fraud and conspiracy and takes a tone that's come to be known as tinfoil-hat, if you know what I mean.

Also See: Besides reading the entirety of SWOP's moving and convincing response, make sure you check out the op-Ed by Eli Il Yong Lee, Executive Director of the Center for Civic Policy, published in today's Albuquerque Journal. Let's hope that fair-minded individuals, including Democrats in positions of power, will read these materials carefully and consider what is at stake here, including their own reputations. It's not only progressives who are angry about the attacks on reform candidates and well respected nonprofits. The political futures of a number of Dems are on the line here, and the public will vote accordingly if this ill-considered charade continues to try and protect the status quo to the detriment of the common good. 

From the Southwest Organizing Project (SWOP):

See our full response here.

Since 1980, the mission of the SouthWest Organizing Project has been to empower the disenfranchised to realize equality and justice. These aren’t just nice words on paper meant to make us feel good, we actually believe this is possible.

Our primary purpose is to help low-income, communities of color organize themselves to build healthy, pollution free communities. One of the primary ways we do this is through public education so that New Mexicans have the information they need to urge action by their elected representatives.

Invariably, in the course of trying to achieve our mission, we face tremendous opposition from those maintaining the status quo – a status quo that has left New Mexicans ranked at the bottom of practically every social indicator from education to healthcare.

For us, it is not enough that the nonprofit sector simply work to alleviate the symptoms of poverty and racism. In addition to organizing, it is our duty to question the actions of decision makers that perpetuate relentless poverty and growing inequality.

Our theory of action is that we create opportunity for disenfranchised communities to insert their own voices into the crucial public debates that profoundly affect their lives. These opportunities derive from direct campaigns developed with communities of people to affect change. Making our voices heard, for us, has happened in a number of ways over our 30-year history. Sometimes it’s with a bullhorn in the street, other times it's sitting at the table with policy makers, and at other times it’s through direct communication via mail, telephone or radio to decision makers.

Along the way, we have consistently communicated to our constituents the voting records and campaign contributors of elected officials, urging them to communicate with their elected officials directly. We call this accountability and speaking truth to power.

Go to our blog for the full response: here
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See our previous post on this matter and the related confusion prompted by Attorney General King's sorta kinda official opinon on whether the legal status of the nonprofit New Mexico Youth Organized should be changed, in essence, to a PAC. That post contains a list of links to other posts related to the attack on the primary winners and various nonprofits.

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Join the Effort to Send Rove to Jail

The basics on Rove, Siegelman and the subpoena

I want to strongly urge you to sign the petition demanding that the U.S. House Judiciary Committee declare Karl Rove in contempt of Congress for his refusal to comply with a subpoena related to his involvement in the injustice done to former Alabama Governor Don Siegelman. I was very impressed with Siegelman and moved by his story as told to Sam Seder at Netroots Nation, and I posted about it the other day from Austin. More info: SendKarlRovetoJail.com.

Brave New Films, The Nation magazine, Campaign for America's Future, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, Progress Now Action and CREDO Mobile will host a press conference in Washington DC next Tuesday, prior to delivering the petition to the House Judiciary Committee urging committee members to "let Rove know he can't decide which subpoenas he obeys and which he ignores." In less than six days, almost 100,000 people have signed the petition. You should too.

"Karl Rove is not above the law," said Robert Greenwald, founder and president of Brave New Films in a media release. "Rove's refusal to comply with a Congressional subpoena makes a mockery of the justice system. Even former high government officials like Rove are accountable to the law.  Rove needs learn that we live in a democracy, not a dictatorship."

"Karl Rove has built a career out of bending the law, but now he seems to feel entitled simply to break it," says Michael Kieschnick, President of CREDO Mobile.  "We expect the House Judiciary Committee to agree that Karl Rove is in contempt and should be sent to jail if he persists in his flagrant disregard for the laws of this country."

Even as the President quietly finishes out his last days in office, Rove's audacious display of indifference in the face of an unambiguous legal directive is yet another reminder of the monarchical attitude toward the rule of law that has been such a consistent feature of the Bush administration over two terms -- an ugly characteristic most closely associated with Karl Rove's machinations.

Learn more about Brave New Films in this New York Times article.

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(Updates) Capitulation Day on FISA

Rachel Maddow and constitutional law professor Jonathan Turley discuss the Senate's cave-in

See voting result updates below the fold.

Today's the day for the Senate showcase on political convenience and expediency on FISA. Apparently it's focus groups before the Fourth Amendment or the rule of law. Hey, it's not their problem, as Jonathan Turley explains in the above clip. "The founders would have found this incomprehensible," he says. Many of us do too.

So far, a significant majority of our noble Senators have defeated the Dodd amendment to strip the immunity provisions from the bill by a 32-66 margin. They then proceeded to off the Specter amendment, which would allow broader court review and require the cases to be dismissed if the court determines that the warrantless wiretapping programming was legal, by a margin of 37-61. Next they killed Sen. Bingaman's amendment, which would delay the immunity and make it contingent upon the results of a report on the telecom surveillance by the Inspector General, by a 42-56 vote.

Bravo Senators! No wonder the approval rating of the Congress is down to an all-time low of NINE PERCENT according to the latest Rasmussen survey.

The Senate is now in recess and will reconvene at 2:15 PM EDT to vote on cloture and the bill itself. The telecom lobbyists and felons in the White House must be ecstatic!

Update: Here are the Dems who voted for Dodd's amendment to strip retroative telecom immunity from the bill. Remember these names -- and then see how they vote on the bill itself:

YEAs ---32
Akaka (D-HI) Baucus (D-MT) Biden (D-DE) Bingaman (D-NM) Boxer (D-CA) Brown (D-OH) Byrd (D-WV) Cantwell (D-WA) Cardin (D-MD) Casey (D-PA) Clinton (D-NY)	Dodd (D-CT) Dorgan (D-ND) Durbin (D-IL) Feingold (D-WI) Harkin (D-IA) Kerry (D-MA) Klobuchar (D-MN) Lautenberg (D-NJ) Leahy (D-VT) Levin (D-MI) Menendez (D-NJ)	Murray (D-WA) Obama (D-IL) Reed (D-RI) Reid (D-NV) Sanders (I-VT) Schumer (D-NY) Stabenow (D-MI) Tester (D-MT) Whitehouse (D-RI) Wyden (D-OR)

The spineless Dems who voted against Dodd's amendment:

Bayh (D-IN), Carper (D-DE), Conrad (D-ND), Feinstein (D-CA), Inouye (D-HI), Johnson (D-SD), Kohl (D-WI), Landrieu (D-LA), Lincoln (D-AR), McCaskill (D-MO), Mikulski (D-MD), Nelson (D-FL), Nelson (D-NE), Pryor (D-AR), Rockefeller (D-WV), Salazar (D-CO), Webb (D-VA).

And of course faux-Dem-Lieberman Party-Independent Joe voted nay too. No surprise there. My biggest disappointments are McCaskill and Webb, whom I've generally come to admire, and Feinstein, who represents a deep Blue state. I think Bayh should be stricken from consideration by Obama as a possible VP based on this vote alone.

More to come on the other votes when they're available.

Update: Cloture passed 72-26. FISA Amendments Act passed 69-28. Obama voted for the bill as advertised. Clinton voted against it, probably to show how much more liberal she is than Obama. We can all predict how she would have voted if she had the nomination in hand. Good job by Tester from Montana who voted nay even though he represents what's still considered a Red state.

Shout out to Sen. Jeff Bingaman, who voted the right way on everything and worked hard to get support for his amendment. Thank you, Senator. McCain didn't bother to show up to vote today.

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FISA: Last Stand

I could write more about tomorrow's vote on the FISA bill and why the bill is awful, but anyone who would bother to read it probably already knows what I know, or understands more than I understand. The rest of our fine citizens apparently don't care or understand the implications, and many actually think the executive branch should be conducting unlimited wiretapping and data vacuuming without any oversite. It makes them feel "safe."

I don't claim to entirely understand all the complexities of the FISA bill, but when the ACLU, acclaimed constitutional and legal scholars, Glenn Greenwald and Senators I respect are all against it, that's essentially enough for me. And then there's the whistleblowers.

I'll leave you with a diary by mcjoan at Daily Kos that discusses the views of two recent telecom surveillence whistleblowers, as well as those of one of America's most famous all-time whistleblowers, Daniel Ellsberg. Ellsberg, as you may recall, is a former military and intelligence analyst who risked everything to release the Pentagon Papers in the early 70s, showing the horrors going on within the government related to the Viet Nam war and other matters. Excerpt from the statement by Ellsberg on FISA:

You can't have a democracy with the state--the executive branch--having that kind of information, total information about every communication, every credit card, every transaction, every fax, e-mail, telephone conversation of everyone. And as far as we know, that's what's being collected now. We do need to know whether that's yet true or not, but I think it's a pretty good assumption.... You can't keep a republic, a constitutional republic with that degree of knowledge by the president, by the executive branch of all of our private affairs. You can't have it. You have something else, you have, you can call it an autocracy, a dictatorship. It's the basis for tyranny, and that's what the Constitution was meant to prevent and that's what this bill would confer--unlimited power....

I have to say that no senator, Republican or Democrat, should be voting for this Senate bill. Not one. Everyone who does so is in fact, I would say, violating his or her oath to defend the Constitution. But they can do better than that.

This New York Times op-ed provides an excellent overview of the flawed FISA bill. There are still three amendments out there that would quash at least the tip of the iceberg of bad stuff in this bill. They aim to either delete telecom immunity from the bill or make it more conditional. Not one of them is expected to gain the votes necessary tomorrow. My understanding is that they'd have to get the support of at least 60 Senators due to some rule or agreement in play.

Last Ditch Efforts
Those who care about the rule of law are being urged to contact their Senators and persuade them to at least vote for NM Sen. Jeff Bingaman's amendment, which would put off retroactive telecom immunity at least until Congress gets a report on an investigation to be done by the Inspector General on what happened. Bingaman has gotten a lot of praise for the effort in the netroots and from civil liberties authorities. The word is that his amendment has the best chance of passing, although the chances are still slim so close to an election. We all know what happens when an election is nigh.

The diary by mcjoan also suggests we call the Senators who did not vote for FISA last time to urge them to stand their ground:

These are the 30 Senators and the potential president who can hold firm now and lead the charge to fix this next year. Holding them to their previous vote now is critical to making those improvements in the next Congress.

Akaka (D-HI)
Biden (D-DE)
Bingaman (D-NM)
Boxer (D-CA)
Brown (D-OH)
Byrd (D-WV)
Cantwell (D-WA)
Cardin (D-MD)
Dodd (D-CT)
Dorgan (D-ND)
Durbin (D-IL)
Feingold (D-WI)
Feinstein (D-CA)
Harkin (D-IA)
Kennedy (D-MA)
Kerry (D-MA)
Klobuchar (D-MN)
Lautenberg (D-NJ)
Leahy (D-VT)
Levin (D-MI)
Menendez (D-NJ)
Murray (D-WA)
Reed (D-RI)
Reid (D-NV)
Sanders (I-VT)
Schumer (D-NY)
Stabenow (D-MI)
Tester (D-MT)
Wyden (D-OR)

Not Voting
Clinton (D-NY)
Obama (D-IL)

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Women's Voices Women Vote Behind Robocall Scam in NC

I wonder if the TV cable squawkers and the editorial board complainers will spend one one-hundredth of the time they've spent on the Wright "crisis" on this scandal. Turns out the Dem-leaning, non-profit group Women's Voices Women Vote has now admitted conducting an unethical and probably illegal anonymous robocall campaign in North Carolina that's clearly aimed at confusing potential primary voters who might be expected to support Obama. Note that former White House Chief of Staff for the Clinton administration, John Podesta, is on the group's board. Make of that what you will.

As the post states,

N.C. residents have reported receiving peculiar automated calls from someone claiming to be "Lamont Williams." The caller says that a "voter registration packet" is coming in the mail, and the recipient can sign it and mail it back to be registered to vote. No other information is provided.

The call is deceptive because the deadline has already passed for mail-in registrations for North Carolina's May 6 primary. Also, many who have received the calls -- like Kevin Farmer in Durham, who made a tape of the call that is available here -- are already registered. The call's suggestion that they're not registered has caused widespread confusion and drawn hundreds of complaints, including many from African-American voters who received the calls.

According to a story in the Raleigh News and Observer,

Bob Hall, executive director of Democracy North Carolina, said in a news release that the calls were being made to African American households. The good government watchdog posted audio of the call.

"This is another in a long line of deceptive practices used in North Carolina and elsewhere that particularly target African-American voters," Hall said. "In our view, this phone message plainly violates North Carolina law. We ask the Attorney General, State Bureau of Investigation, and the State Board of Elections to investigate, expose, and prosecute the sponsors of these calls."

The robocall scandal comes on the heels of accusations that the person who orchestrated Rev. Wright's appearance at the Washington Press Club was Clinton supporter Rev. Barbara Reynolds, a reporter and member of the Club. A post on Reynolds' blog praising the Clinton campaign was recently deleted, although its contents have been recovered via a cache version of the post. The president of the Press Club has denied that there were any political motives involved in the booking of Wright.

Technorati Tags:Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, Women's Voices Women Vote, John Podesta, Jeremiah Wright, robocalls, North Carolina, primaries, Democrats, Barbara Reynolds

(Updated) Cargo, MacCallum, Alleged NM GOP Vote-Buying Story on Collins Radio Show Tonight

UPDATE: Click to listen to an podcast (mp3) of about an hour of the show that focuses on the NM story. Both former Gov. Dave Cargo and KKOB's former news anchor, Laura MacCallum, are interviewed.
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As posted on BradBlog by Brad Friedman:
New Mexico Republican Vote-Buying Scandal to be Covered Tonight on Peter B. Collins Show Guests to Include Myself, Along with Former US Attorney from NM, Former NM Republican Governor, Former KKOB Anchor Who Broke Story...

During my regular weekly Friday guest appearance on the syndicated Peter B. Collins Show at 5pm PT tonight (that's 6pm in Albuquerque), we'll be joined by guests:

• Laura MacCallum (now-resigned KKOB reporter who broke the Heather Wilson Vote-Buying stories before they were spiked by her own station after complaints from Wilson.)
• Gov. David Cargo (former Republican NM Governor. One of several officials who made the initial allegations)
• David Iglesias Did not make it (former US Attorney from NM who was fired in the U.S. Attorney Purge after receiving inappropriate phone-calls from Heather Wilson and Pete Domenici.)

You can listen live right here. If there's time for calls, you can get in via 888-5-PeterB (888-573-8372).

(Updated) More on Allegations About Vote Buying at NM GOP Delegate Elections

UPDATE: At 3:00 PM today, KKOB radio's Pat Frisch will discuss the alleged NM GOP vote buying at the Party's ward conventions last month, along with the resulting controversies. Frisch is filling in for Jim Villanucci, who's on vacation. You can listen to the show online or on AM radio at 770.
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Local and national blog posts are proliferating about the story broken by Dennis Domrzalski regarding allegations of vote buying at the recent NM GOP delegate ward elections and KKOB's decision to pull Laura MacCallum's news coverage of the allegations. MacCallum quit her news anchor job at the radio station in response. I previously posted on the story a few days ago.

I don't have time to write more about this right now because I have some business to take care of this morning, but I'll get back to it later today. In the meantime, I thought I'd publish a recent Democratic Party of New Mexico press release on the story:

HEATHER WILSON DOESN’T REFUTE ROLL IN VOTE-BUYING SCHEME

DPNM Calls on Senate Candidate to Answer Charges Directly

Albuquerque – The Democratic Party of New Mexico today called on U.S. Senate candidate Heather Wilson to directly answer charges that she bought votes at a recent Bernalillo County Republican Party delegate nominating convention.

“Once again, Heather Wilson is caught in an ethically compromising situation in which she faces allegations of manipulating the system to come out ahead in an election,” DPNM Chairman Brian Colon said today. “This time, she refuses to directly answer the charge that she bought delegate votes and her silence on such a serious charge is incriminating.”

On Monday, allegations of intra-Republican vote buying continued to surface on 27-year veteran news reporter Dennis Domrzalski’s blog. Domrzalski’s post included accounts from former New Mexico Governor Dave Cargo, State Rep. Janice Arnold-Jones and former KKOB radio reporter Laura McCallum indicating that people who showed up had been paid by Heather Wilson and Darren White’s campaigns.

“Cargo said that over the course of the meeting many of the participants said that they were from Wilson’s senate campaign and from Bernalillo Country Sheriff Darren White’s congressional campaign,” Domrzalski reported. “Several people told him that they were being paid $35-an-hour (for two hours) by their campaigns and that the campaigns had also paid their $30 registration fees.”

Wilson’s senate campaign has not refuted the charges.

“Allegations of vote-buying should not be taken so lightly,” said Colon. They cut to the heart of our nation’s democracy and electoral process. In fact, this is not the first time Heather Wilson has been caught engaging in ethically ambiguous behavior. Heather Wilson has established a clear pattern of ethically compromising actions that simply do not reflect the values of New Mexico voters.”

In 2006 Heather Wilson proved ethically challenged when she personally called former U.S. Attorney David Iglesias to pressure him to reveal details and expedite a pending investigation during her 2006 reelection campaign.

Said Iglesias, “I received a call from Heather Wilson. She said ‘what can you tell me about sealed indictments.’ The second she said any questions about sealed indictments, red flags went up in my head, because as you know, we cannot talk about indictments until they’re made public. In general, we specifically cannot talk about a sealed indictment.”

When asked if he felt “pressured during that call” by Sen. Chuck Schumer during a March, 2007 Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, Iglesias responded, “Yes, sir. I did.”

Although she has claimed a constituent asked her to place the call to Iglesias, Heather Wilson has refused to publicly identify the mysterious individual.

Following Wilson's call, Iglesias was subsequently fired by the Bush Administration in a purge that resulted in the questionable firing of at least nine U.S. Attorneys nationally.

In a piece published by the New York Times on March 21, 2007, entitled “Why I Was Fired,” Iglesias cited the phone call from Congresswoman Heather Wilson.

He also told The Associated Press, “I know it’s not performance-related, I know it’s not misconduct. What does that leave? Politics.”