Clinton's Blind Eye to Voters

So, Hillary claims a victory in Pennsylvania. Who could have predicted that?

Maybe Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.

"I’m not saying anything bad about my candidate but I– it is funny at New Hampshire that all the ones that were hand-counted went for Obama and all the ones that were machine counted went for Hillary."

That was Bobby talking to Bill McKibben on the March 8, 2008 broadcast of Ring of Fire Radio (approximately half way in).

Dear Bobby, he couldn’t keep down the ironic chuckles as his endorsee’s primary successes and his knowledge of methods of election theft were irrefutably dancing in front of him.

I’ve been paying attention to RFK Jr. ever since I read his Crimes Against Nature in 2004. With approximately 20 books on Bush under my belt leading up to that election, it was Bobby’s book that was the answer to NPR’s question, "What is the most important book to read before the 2004 Presidential Election?"

Bobby is a brilliant, funny, fearless and passionate speaker. Did you see him at Live Earth last year?

He would be one hell of a great endorser.

If his heart was in it.

But Hillary’s silence on the real voting issues that have been rampant in every state’s primary must give Bobby pause.

The fact that the world has suffered great consequences from the illegitimate certifications of the last two Presidential elections for George W. Bush and his psychologically unhealthy teammates – should be inspiration for legitimate candidates seeking election to demand that voters get to vote and get to have their votes counted.

In each and every primary.

Not just the ones where Senator Clinton won delegates by dishonorably campaigning after an agreement was made that the candidates would not do so.

Senator Clinton’s pretense to care for the voters who deserve to have their votes counted is revealed as rather selective by her silence on the continuous problems that have occurred in every state primary.

Starting with New Hampshire, problems with confusing new voter ID laws irregularly and sometimes illegally enforced, improperly trained poll workers, registered voters missing from lists, shortages of staff and machines and ballots, long lines, voter intimidation, and the stubborn clinging to voting machines that have long since proven to be hackable, unreliable, and unverifiable have resulted in people not voting, votes not counted at all, and incorrect and unverifiable vote tallies across the nation.

But Hillary Clinton has said nothing about any of that.

Perhaps it is, as Bobby suggests, that often the results of the these problems seem to help her get delegates.

Nor does she mention Rush Limbaugh’s Operation Chaos – his urging Republicans to vote in Democratic primaries, even if it means they have to switch affiliation, and vote strongly for Senator Clinton.

Is this how she wants to win? Doesn’t she realize that the Republican have a reason to want Hillary to win?

Consider this: Remember that U.S. Attorney firing scandal? Remember that one of the replacements for U.S. Attorneys who weren’t cooperating with the Bush/Cheney/Rove agenda was a "friend of Karl Rove’s" (always a dangerous sign)? A little man named Tim Griffin was put in place as U.S. Attorney – where?

In Arkansas. Why Arkansas? Because that’s where he can research the history of Hillary Clinton.

Would he have done such a thing? Oh, yeah. As Greg Palast points out, it was Mr. Griffin who was behind the emails of caging lists sent out in 2004 - a detestable method of purging registration lists of tens of thousands of voters, voters who appeared to live in low-income, urban areas, homeless shelters, and military bases.

Griffin was sent to Arkansas for a reason. Republicans want Hillary for a reason. And those reasons are slimy – and do not bode well for, uh, democracy, America, the world, etc.

And Bobby knows this. I can’t imagine his endorsement is sitting well for him. It’s certainly not the subject of any of those impassioned speeches he’s so good at.

As Bobby said to Bill McKibben back in March, when Bill noted that in his town in Vermont where paper ballots were used Obama was popular, winning 175 to 68:

"He’s popular any place where they count the votes by hand."

Justice Demanding Justice

March 10, 2008 Press Release:

(Washington, DC) - Today, the U.S. House of Representatives General Counsel filed a civil lawsuit on behalf of the House Judiciary Committee to enforce subpoenas issued by the committee seeking information on the U.S. Attorney firings. The defendants in the case are former White House Counsel Harriet Miers and White House Chief of Staff Joshua Bolten who were cited by the House for contempt of Congress last month. Last week, the Justice Department refused to present the House-passed contempt citations to a grand jury, contrary to federal law. Based on the House resolution that also found Bolten and Miers in comtempt, the committee is now filing the civil lawsuit to enforce the subpoenas.

"We will not allow the administration to steamroll Congress," Conyers said. "Under our system of checks and balances, Congress provides oversight of the executive branch to make sure that government power is not abused. The administration’s extreme claims to be immune from the oversight process are at odds with our constitutional principles on which this country was founded, and I am confident the federal courts will agree."

Miers and Bolten violated their obligations under committee subpoenas by refusing to appear before the committee or to provide subpoenaed documents. The lawsuit was filed this morning in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia and will be served on Ms. Miers and Mr. Bolton. The Judiciary Committee, as plaintiff, is asking the court to find the following:

(1) Ms. Miers is not “immune” from the obligation to appear before the committee in response to a duly authorized, issued and served committee subpoena;

(2) Ms. Miers and Mr. Bolten must produce privilege logs identifying all documents withheld on grounds of executive privilege;

(3) Executive privilege does not cover documents not involving the president or undertaken directly in preparation for advising the president or whose contents are widely-known, previously released or previously the subject of extensive, authorized testimony, and that Ms. Miers’s and Mr. Bolten’s claims of executive privilege are, in any event, overcome by the committee’s compelling need for the subpoenaed testimony and documents.

(4) that Ms. Miers is required to appear before the committee to respond to questions put to her pertinent to the investigation and to invoke executive privilege only if and when appropriate;

(5) that Ms. Miers and Mr. Bolten are required to provide, as required by the subpoenas, a detailed privilege log, identifying by author, recipient, date and subject matter those documents responsive to the subpoena that have been withheld on executive privilege grounds;

(6) that Ms. Miers and Mr. Bolten are required to produce all non-privileged documents responsive to the subpoenas.

"I do not take this step lightly," Conyers said. "It is extremely rare that Congress must litigate in order to enforce subpoenas and no compromise can be reached. Unfortunately, this administration simply will not negotiate towards a compromise resolution so we must proceed. I look forward to a quick and favorable ruling by the court, so that we can complete our investigation."

The civil lawsuit is the latest step in the year-long investigation into the firings of nine U.S. Attorneys and related matters. Nearly one dozen Justice Department officials have resigned since evidence in the investigation became public, including former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. Documents turned over by the department indicate that the White House played a substantial role in the development and execution of the plan to force U.S. attorneys to resign.

Contempt Complaint