Elections

By David Swanson

How did a Democratic challenger defeat a Republican incumbent in an enormous rural district in southern Virginia? A Democratic group in Charlottesville called Left of Center organized a forum on that topic Monday night. Speakers included three staffers on Tom Perriello's victorious campaign: Brian Bills, his personal assistant; Kelli Palmer, who registered African American voters in the southern most part of Virginia's Fifth District; and Rachel Klarman, lead field organizer for the southern counties. Also speaking were two newspaper reporters, Will Goldsmith of the C'ville Weekly and Lindsay Barnes of the Hook. And providing some historical context was Fred Hudson, chair of the Fifth District Democratic Committee.

Strange speculation from Bill Blum HERE.

By luaptifer, ePluribus Media

Dear George H. W. Bush (affectionately, '41'),

Regarding

"FOXNews - Sunday, January 04, 2009: The first President Bush said he would like to see his other son, Jeb, become president one day, but if now's not the time he'd be an "outstanding senator."

"...During an interview on "FOX News Sunday," the nation's 41st president said Jeb, the former governor of Florida, is "as qualified and as able as anyone I know in the political scene" to be president."

Absolutely, 41, absolutely! But first I hope you can be patient enough to help America address a couple of niggling doubts.

Thanks George, I expect nothing less than that you'll be gracious in response.

From Rick Perlstein, Facebook

Tom Geoghegan, labor lawyer and warrior for justice extraordinaire, will well run for Rahm Emmanuel's congressional seat in Illinois's Fifth District. Donate at Geoghegan for Congress PO Box 1145 Chicago IL 60690.

Thomas H. Geoghegan is a Chicago lawyer and author. He is a graduate of Harvard Law School (1975) and Harvard College (1971).

As a lawyer he has successfully brought class actions to recover lost pension benefits and health insurance arising from plant closings. He has also recovered shut down benefits under the federal WARN Act in several major cases. Both in federal court and in arbitrations, he has represented many different local unions, including nurses, truck drivers, steelworkers and railroad workers.

Just asking.

GOP chairman 'shocked' that Obama parody sent out | Comcast.net

The chairman of the Republican National Committee said Saturday he was "shocked and appalled" that one of his potential successors had sent committee members a CD this Christmas featuring a 2007 parody song called "Barack the Magic Negro."

Republican IT Guru Dies In Plane Crash
By CBS

(CBS/AP) Federal investigators are looking into a small plane crash in Ohio which claimed the life of its pilot, a Republican media consultant who was instrumental in the presidential and gubernatorial campaigns of three members of the Bush Family.

Michael Connell,45, of Akron died Friday when his plane crashed near a vacant house in Uniontown while attempting to land at nearby Akron-Canton Airport.

But the fatal accident is also raising questions about Connell and his work for key political figures and lobbyists, which has targeted him in investigations over missing White House e-mails and a lawsuit alleging electronic voting fraud.

Video and audio here.

By Larisa Alexandrovna

I don't usually reveal sources, but I think this is incredibly important. Michael Connell died in a plane crash last night. He was a key witness in the Ohio election fraud case that I have been reporting on. More importantly, however, he had information that he was ready to share.

You see, Mike Connell set-up the alternate email and communications system for the White House. He was responsible for creating the system that hosted the infamous GWB43.com accounts that Karl Rove and others used. When asked by Congress to provide these emails, the White House said that they were destroyed. But in reality, what Connell is alleged to have done is move these files to other servers after having allegedly scrubbed the files from all "known" Karl Rove accounts.

Blogged by Susie Madrak here.

By David Swanson

New York state could soon be represented in the U.S. Senate by a woman with more respect for and understanding of democratic representation, the Constitution, and the rule of law than we've grown accustomed to finding in Washington, D.C., a woman who has done more to oppose the abuses of power of the Bush administration than have most current members of the House or Senate.

Elizabeth Holtzman has asked the Governor of New York David Paterson to consider appointing her to fill a seat that may be vacated by Senator Hillary Clinton, whom President elect Obama intends to nominate for Secretary of State. I encourage you to ask everyone you know in the state of New York to contact the Governor and ask him to choose Liz.

Even Al Gore is encouraging support for this and making the right arguments, exactly as if he is able to spot stolen elections when he sees them: GIVE WHAT YOU CAN.

By Matthis Chiroux

In a remarkable reversal, the Nassau County District Attorney's Office has agreed to dismiss all charges against the Hempstead 15 following a six month adjournment in what's called an "ACD" (Adjournment to Contemplate Dismissal).

Additionally, they have agreed to consolidate all of our court cases on one date (TBD) so that we and our supporters may be seen and heard together as we prepare to move forward now to federal court where our lawyer, Jonathan Moore is filing a civil case on behalf of Nick Morgan and others.

By Muriel Kane, Raw Story

As the state of Georgia prepares to conduct a runoff between incumbent Senator Saxby Chambliss and his Democratic challenger, Jim Martin, old doubts about the election in which Chambliss took the Senate seat from Max Cleland six years ago are attracting fresh notice.

Chambliss was the victor in the 2002 election by seven percentage points, despite polls which showed him trailing by five points just a week earlier. That unexpected turnaround, combined with the exclusive control over the voting machines by Diebold Election Systems, raised suspicions of electronic vote-tampering from the start.

According to cyber-security expert Stephen Spoonamore, "If you look at the case of Saxby Chambliss, that's ridiculous. The man was not elected. He lost that election by five points. Max Cleland won. They flipped the votes, clear as day."

The top news story for endless months to the exclusion of almost anything else: Obama v Hillary, and nobody told us that the one we managed to defeat would be Secretary of State? There was no public notice that the one we supported would appoint an entire cabinet of individuals who had worked for the loser's husband? We were told that Obama opposed telecom immunity and Clinton supported it, and then Obama voted Yea and Clinton Nay. We were led to believe Obama might be ever so slightly more antiwar than Clinton, and he immediately chose Clinton and warmongers to her right to constitute his foreign policy team. Remind me again why we had to shut down all civic activism in order to focus on an election?

Talks about pardoning a turkey and cooking a turkey while turkeys are killed and bled behind her.

By Bill Fletcher, Jr., BlackCommentator.com

With the election of Barack Obama to the U.S. Presidency, his former Senate seat is now open. A series of discussions are unfolding as to who Illinois Governor Blagojevich should appoint. One of the more interesting names is Congressman Jesse Jackson, Jr.

There are three main reasons that I am interested in seeing his appointment:

1 - his consistent stand on the need for a constitutional amendment guaranteeing equal, quality education for all;

2 - an amendment guaranteeing the individual right to vote;

3 - an amendment guaranteeing equal, quality healthcare.

Congressman Jackson has correctly summed up that in the absence of a federal constitutional amendment and a continued reliance of the state system, we will be nearly guaranteed that certain basic human rights will be denied large segments of society. I was particularly intrigued when I participated in a discussion with him about the matter of education.

Will somebody ask the DSCC to stop having Cleland send out Emails claiming that Chambliss legitimately beat him and that therefore we should donate money?

Can everyone focus on election protection in Georgia, for the purpose of getting the Democrats 60 seats and denying them any more excuses not to enact the will of the public?