McCain-Palin Lies

ACORN Myths in District With No ACORN

davidswanson — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 16:56:28 -0500

By David Swanson

Virginia's Fifth District Congressional race has become a battle over whether or not to count provisional ballots, with the Democratic candidate in favor and the Republican opposed, in general, to counting them. The Republicans can be expected to regurgitate myths promoted by the RNC, McCain campaign, and national corporate media about "voter fraud." Ideas matter, and if these insidious ideas are not rejected, decisive votes in this election might be.

Bush-McPalin

davidswanson — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 12:30:26 -0400

Not Only McCain Palled Around With Pinochet

davidswanson — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 11:46:39 -0400

By David Swanson

The Huffington Post has dug up, and the Daily Kos and everybody else are commenting on evidence that McCain held a private secret meeting with Chilean dictator and torturer General Augusto Pinochet. But this is not just a story about John McCain's hypocrisy (what a shock that would be!). It's a teachable moment, and in two senses.

First, it's an opening to talk about McCain's more recent support for torture, a topic Huffington Post, Daily Kos, and other liberal blogs have been no more open to than the New York Times or Fox News. In 2005 John McCain championed the McCain Detainee Amendment to the Defense Appropriations bill for 2005, which passed the Congress and was signed into law by Bush, adding one more redundant ban on torture to existing U.S. law, despite Vice President Cheney having lobbied hard against it. But McCain allowed a major loophole for the CIA and then kept quiet when Bush threw out the whole thing with a "signing statement." Bush and Cheney's administration continued to torture without pause or slowdown.

In 2006 Time Magazine recognized McCain's efforts to supposedly ban torture in naming him one of America's 10 Best Senators. Time made no mention of the fact that torture had always been illegal, the fact that Bush had thrown out the new law with a "signing statement," or the fact that the United States was continuing to torture people on a large scale.

Also in 2006 McCain voted in favor of the Military Commissions Act which supposedly left torture decisions up to the president. And in February 2008, McCain voted against a bill that would supposedly ban torture, and then applauded Bush for vetoing the bill. I've talked to plenty of torture fans at McCain-Palin rallies. They know they're backing the torture ticket. Why won't even the independent progressive media admit it?

Second, this is a teachable moment because not just McCain palled around with Pinochet. Without the efforts of a number of fine upstanding Americans, there never would have been a President Pinochet. The idea to overthrow Chile's democratically elected President Salvador Allende Gossens originated with Harold Geneen, chief operating officer of the International Telephone and Telegraph Corporation, and his fellow board member and former CIA director, still then CIA employee, John McCone, who took the idea to National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger and to CIA Director Richard Helms. Donald Kendall, chairman of the board and chief executive officer of Pepsi-Cola , and former employer of then president Richard Nixon, took the idea to Nixon, Kissinger and Attorney General John Mitchell. Kissinger consulted with David Rockefeller of Chase Manhattan Bank. David Atlee Phillips, who had already worked on the successful U.S. overthrow of President Jacobo Arbenz in Guatemala and William Broe were named co-directors of the CIA's new Chile Task Force. On September 11, 1973, the United States executed a brutal coup, murdering Allende and many others. One of the last Americans to meet with Allende, the previous December in New York, was U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, George H. W. Bush.

If you haven't already, pick up a copy of the 2006 bestseller by Stephen Kinzer, "Overthrow: America's Century of Regime Change From Hawaii to Iraq." This book leaves out overthrows the United States only marginally supported, and leaves out a long list of invasions that did not involve regime change. Kinzer focuses on cases of U.S. managed regime change on foreign soil. He provides the story of Pinochet's rise to power that no one is talking about, and quite a few other stories we desperately need to start talking about if we are going to avoid repeating them. Aside from a perjury conviction for Helms, I don’t think anyone has paid any penalty for what they did to Allende and the people of Chile. And, of course, Bush Jr. was well aware of that when he launched his campaigns of illegal invasion, assassination, detention, torture, and war crimes. Successors to Nixon and Bush will know very well whether anyone is ever held accountable, and that knowledge will determine their behavior.

McCain and Hate Mongering DVDs in Virginia

davidswanson — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 15:15:19 -0400

By David Swanson

Unrequested and unwanted, this notorious fear and hate mongering DVD arrived today, October 23rd, in my mailbox in Charlottesville in the swing state of Virginia: http://obsessionthemovie.com

The DVD seeks to teach people that an entire religion, Islam, is aimed at terrorizing and killing them. The distributors of the DVD have clearly determined by some respectable and scholarly method that this information is most edifying for residents of swing states.

The DVD did not arrive inserted in a newspaper ad, the way it arrived in so many homes in other swing states a month or two back. It arrived by itself in a little postcard-sized envelope with nonprofit postage from The Clarion Fund. The Clarion Fund could have gotten my name and address from any list, but not from any religious or rightwing political list, because I'm not on any -- with one exception. I recently entered my address on the Virginia McCain website in order to obtain tickets for a Sarah Palin rally in Richmond, at which I made this video of my own, which is also full of hatred and bigotry, but which does not approve of those attitudes:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=vf_R3hQGYT4

I only subscribe to one newspaper, the Charlottesville Daily Progress. I called and asked them if they'd sent the DVD or sold their mailing list, and the person I spoke with said they did not know and would get back to me. Clarion Fund doesn't answer their phones. Chances are the Daily Progress had nothing to do with it, but if it did then chances are very good that Media General, the parent company owning lots of newspapers in Virginia and North Carolina, among other places, is hitting more than this one little town.

According to a story posted yesterday on MSNBC, thousands of people around Hampton Roads, Va., have received the DVD, and the McCain campaign claims to have nothing to do with the DVD or its distribution, refusing to comment on it even to condemn its vicious and destructive lies:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27326021

For those who've forgotten or don't know what "Obsession" is about and what it is being used for, here are a couple of articles:

***

National outcry over 'Obsession' DVD
By ANICK JESDANUN • AP Business Writer • October 4, 2008

NEW YORK-- Newspapers that carried an advertising supplement in recent weeks containing a DVD critical of radical Muslims have faced complaints from readers and questions about whether newspapers should offer a platform to everyone willing to pay for distribution.
Advertisement

Although a few papers refused to carry the DVD, about 70 including The New York Times distributed it on the grounds that rejecting it would violate the sponsor's right to free speech. The decision generated letters, cancellations and even a protest.

[AND OF COURSE THE TIMES' CLAIM IS NOT TRUE, SINCE THE TIMES AND OTHER PAPERS REJECT ADS FOR REASONS Of POLITICAL CONTENT, CONFLICTS WITH THE CLAIMS OF LARGER ADVERTISERS, AND FOR NO STATED REASON AT ALL]

The Clarion Fund, a nonprofit founded in 2006 to address "the most urgent threat of radical Islam," spent millions of dollars distributing the DVDs mostly in battleground election states. That targeting led to further outcry about the group's motives.

"This is definitely the most feedback that I've gotten to an ad," said Ted Vaden, public editor for The News & Observer in Raleigh, N.C. "It's among the heaviest reaction I've gotten to anything. The great majority of the reaction was negative."

Vaden said the paper received about 500 e-mail and phone messages and had some 50 cancellations. He said the paper may have sparked some of the complaints by writing a front-page story calling attention to "Obsession: Radical Islam's War Against the West," the DVD insert that critics have denounced as anti-Muslim propaganda.

The decision over running the ad was similar to what online services like Google Inc.'s YouTube and Yahoo Inc.'s Flickr face when they let users freely share provocative video or photos. They get complaints of promoting unpopular viewpoints when they try to uphold free-speech principles; they get complaints of censorship when they don't.

Newspapers generally insist on giving a platform to a variety of viewpoints, but readers who complained were largely critical.

"I cannot believe that I was sent the hate-inflaming, fear-mongering video disk 'Obsession' in my newspaper!" Margaret Lewis of Durham, N.C., wrote to The News & Observer. "What will you enclose next? KKK robes?"

Kelly McBride, head of the ethics faculty at the journalism think tank Poynter Institute, said papers generally reject ads only if they promote illegal activity or might incite violence. The "Obsession" DVD, at most, makes people angry, she said.

"It's pretty hard to make an argument to reject it," she said. "It's hard to articulate a standard that would give you the opportunity to reject something like the 'Obsession' DVD but allow other types of political, religious or anti-religious speech."

The Clarion Fund, which has declined to identify all of its board members or the sources of its funding, is working with the Endowment for Middle East Truth on "The Obsession Project," which is to include research publications and issue forums.

Clarion Fund spokesman Gregory Ross said the group spent several million dollars in donations from individuals he would not name, and he said running the ad in swing states was a means of drawing media attention and not meant to influence the election's result, a move barred by federal tax law covering nonprofits.

"We found (newspapers were) the most economical and best way to get it out there," Ross said.

Dozens of people protested outside The Oregonian's offices on Monday, the morning after the Portland, Ore., newspaper carried the DVD. One said he canceled his subscription. Mayor Tom Potter had tried to persuade the paper not to run the ad.

Publisher Fred Stickel, who did not return phone calls from The Associated Press for comment, has said The Oregonian tries to keep its advertising channels open, regardless of whether the paper agrees with the sponsor's message.

But Elizabeth Brenner, the publisher of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, told reporters at the Milwaukee Press Club that based on complaints from its readers, the paper likely would not carry it again if faced with the same decision. She declined further comment to the AP, saying she didn't want to re-ignite the issue.

"Obsession," an hour-long movie that features graphic images of terrorism, video of anti-American speeches from Mideast television and comparisons with Nazi Germany, has been sent to about 28 million households through newspapers and direct mail.

Ross questioned whether many of the video's critics actually had seen it, and he noted that it carried a disclaimer saying it was not about the majority of Muslims, who are peaceful.

Some readers expressed support.

"It's refreshing to see something other than the 'politically correct' drivel most Americans seem to accept as fact," Steven Earle of Clifton, Colo., wrote to The Denver Post, which distributed a half million copies.

The News & Record of Greensboro, N.C., rejected the DVD, considering it inflammatory and hateful without contributing much educational value.

"We got a lot of e-mails from across the country applauding the decision," Editor John Robinson said, adding that most feedback for and against came from outside his paper's region.

The Detroit Free Press, The Plain Dealer of Cleveland and the St. Louis Post-Dispatch also declined to carry the ad.

The glossy color insert to which the DVD was attached described it in tiny print as a "Paid Advertising Supplement."

As at other newspapers, The New York Times' decision to run the ad in some markets outside New York came from its advertising department, not the newsroom.

"Just as we print advertisements that rebut New York Times editorials, news articles or critical reviews, we print ads that differ from our editorial position," spokeswoman Diane McNulty said. "We do so in the belief that it is in the best interests of our readers for our pages to be as open as possible."

The Miami Herald got dozens of letters and e-mails, mostly critical. But Anders Gyllenhaal, the newspaper's executive editor, said the outcry led to good discussions with the region's Muslim community about the principles of free speech.

***

Obsession DVD Distributors: Would We Try To Influence Election? Never!
By Eric Kleefeld - September 25, 2008, 10:59AM
http://tpmelectioncentral.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/09/obsession_dvd_di...

We've finally gotten to speak with the people behind the mass distribution of Obsession, a DVD warning viewers of the threats of radical Islam. And they're actually claiming that their mailing of the DVD to millions of households in swing states, and paying to have it inserted in local papers in places like Ohio, Florida, North Carolina, is not an attempt to sway voters in swing states.

And get this: They're saying the swing-state focus is simply an effort to get the attention of reporters in swing states, because the media is heavily focused on swing states and if they distributed the DVD in non-swing states it wouldn't get any attention.

The movie is being distributed by Clarion Fund, a right-wing group founded by filmmaker Raphael Shore, in partnership with the Endowment for Middle East Truth. Since these organizations are 501(c)(3) non-profits, it would be illegal for them to use the DVD as an express effort to win people's votes -- but they can embark on educational campaigns.

Nonetheless, this "educational campaign" -- which would seem to be helpful to John McCain -- is heavily focused on swing states. Why?

"If we were to distribute only in Hawaii and Maine, the press would be like, 'Look we're in Pennsylvania, we're in Florida, we're not covering something in Hawaii now,'" said Gregory Ross, Clarion Fund spokesman, in an interview with Election Central.

Ross explained. "So to capture the press and get interviews just like you're calling me, that why we're sending it to the swing states."

"We do not consider this electioneering," Ross added, "because we're not telling anyone how to vote."

Still, Ross appeared to accidentally concede that politics might be behind the campaign.

In a reference to the Endowment for Middle East Truth, which is helping push the DVD, Ross said: "They use our movie Obsession as a vehicle to help foster political -- well I should say, discussion in general."

Ari Morgenstern, spokesman for EMET, concurred that this is not about influencing the election: "Well, this is in no way an effort to influence the election. The goal is to help educate the American public about radical Islam's war with the West."

Neither Ross or Morgenstern would disclose the identities of any of their donors who are helping with this effort, but Ross did say they "span the political spectrum." He declined, however, to say if one or more were backing Barack Obama or John McCain.

Ross said that Clarion Fund has another movie coming out, The Third Jihad, about the threat of radical Islamists right here in America, set to premiere in October. There are not currently any plans to distribute it in swing states in the same way as they are doing for Obsession -- but he's not ruling anything out.

***

In other Virginia for McCain news, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani will be appearing (and possibly cross-dressing) at a McCain rally in Midlothian, Va., this Saturday, but unbeknownst to McCain, Rudy has already begun raising funds for a 2012 presidential run against Obama:

http://joinrudy2012.com

McPalin's Lies About ACORN

davidswanson — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 11:09:52 -0400

A McCain "Win" Will Be Theft, Resistance Is Planned

davidswanson — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 20:49:36 -0400

By David Swanson

If your television declares John McCain the president elect on the evening of November 4th, your television will be lying. You should immediately pick up your pre-packed bags and head straight to the White House in Washington, D.C., which we will surround and shut down until this attempt at a third illegitimate presidency is reversed.

A McCain "win" will not be illegitimate because I disagree with his policies, but because he himself has rendered it illegitimate. He and his campaign and allied supporters have sought to illegally remove hundreds of thousands of voters from the rolls, fraudulently registered people as Republicans without their knowledge and against their will, obstructed voter registration drives, falsely warned students against voting where they attend school, falsely accused community groups of voter registration fraud, falsely alleged the widespread existence of voter fraud, and encouraged supporters to falsely believe McCain's opponent is a foreign terrorist through speeches, recorded phone messages, and flyers. Already in early voting in a number of states there have been cases of votes on electronic machines visibly flipping to McCain or McKinney when intended for Obama. We will see McCain supporters on November 4th challenging people's right to vote, seeking to force people to vote on provisional ballots, and seeking to have provisional ballots discarded. And we will see electronic vote counts wildly out of step with the most recent polls, although not with exit polls -- which we will be denied any access to unless they have been "adjusted" to match the official counts.

Inciting your supporters to violence with racist and religious lies about your opponent, effectively alleging treason on absolutely no basis, should be enough, alone, to disqualify a campaign for the presidency of the United States. Working to block voters from registering should be enough on its own. Any of the dozens of creative forms of vote suppression currently being used by the Republicans should be enough. And allowing votes to be counted on completely unverifiable machines owned and controlled by corporations allied with your party should make the results illegitimate even if plausible. If McCain is declared the "winner," it will not be plausible, but at this point he has so disgraced himself and our electoral system that he is no longer a legitimate candidate for president regardless of what the polls (themselves fallible, but all we've got) say just before election day. Too many people have already been denied the opportunity to even push the buttons and have their votes miscounted. Too much incendiary slander has been let loose. Too much visible vote flipping has already been documented.

If Obama officially wins, McCain is likely to challenge it, charging the Obama campaign with some of the very crimes engaged in by McCain himself. Our reaction should be exactly the same in the event of a McCain challenge as in the event of a McCain "victory." We should not sit back for even a split second and wonder how it will work out. We should not try to organize a plan on the spur of the moment to travel to key battleground states. We should be prepared already to immediately travel to Washington, D.C., head straight for the White House, occupy Lafayette Square Park, the Ellipse, and surrounding streets, block entrances, and shut the place down until Obama is recognized as the president elect or we are guaranteed a credible election with universal registration and hand-counted paper ballots.

We may be there for days or weeks or months. But we must be there. We must be there by the millions. We must show each other, and the nation, and the world that we have had enough, that we will not stand for one more stolen election, that we will not give in to fear, lies, theft, and intimidation. If they choose to attack our nonviolent gathering of citizens, let them do it right in front of George W. Bush's White House with the world's media watching. We will not back down.

I'm not hoping it comes to this, of course. If it doesn't because the official election results are credible and just, we should celebrate and prepare to lobby our government for real change. But if resistance does not develop because people are too scared and obedient to act, then you'll still be glad you packed ahead of time, and you might want to look into tickets to Canada.

McCain Supporters Call ACORN and Advocate Hanging All N------ From Trees

davidswanson — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 15:47:22 -0400

Go here to listen to the audio.

Media and Election Experts Assess the Allegations of Voter Registration Fraud

davidswanson — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 15:30:37 -0400

By Michael Slater, Executive Director, Project Vote

Everything has its season, and the month before a national election is the season for partisan allegations of "voter fraud." This year has been different mostly in degrees. The issue of a small number of bogus voter registration applications in ACORN's historic 1.31 million voter registration drive (conducted in partnership with Project Vote) has taken a prominent place in the dramaturgy of the Republican presidential campaign strategy.

On October 2 the RNC launched its opening salvo against ACORN with a teleconference call with media in which RNC counsel Sean Cairncross claimed ACORN was "engaged in a systematic effort to undermine the integrity of the election process nationwide." The McCain-Palin campaign has attempted to turn fears of "voter fraud"-and Senator Barack Obama's transparently tenuous ties to ACORN-into an attack on Obama's candidacy, a justification for voter challenges, and a fundraising opportunity . Republican presidential candidate Senator McCain recklessly escalated the rhetoric in the last presidential debate on October 15, in which he said "We need to know the full extent of Senator Obama's relationship with ACORN, who is now on the verge of maybe perpetrating one of the greatest frauds in voter history in this country, maybe destroying the fabric of democracy."

Journalists have taken up the challenge to assess the truth of these claims and have found them wanting.

Reporters and Voting Rights Experts agree that the allegations are unwarranted and that the threat of "voter fraud" is grossly exaggerated for partisan purposes.

• Greg Gordon of McClatchy Newspapers says: "Republicans have leveled similar allegations against the coalition known as ACORN in every election since at least 2000, but they have yet to produce proof that the group poses a threat to election integrity." ("Will McCain get any traction from latest Acorn allegations? ", October 10)

• Senator Barack Obama understands that: "ACORN is a community organization…they were paying people to go out and register folks, and apparently some of the people who were out there didn't really register people, they just filled out a bunch of names." (Presidential Debate , October 15)

• Michael Winship of Bill Moyers Journal says: "the ACORN 'election fraud' story is one of those urban legends, like fake moon landings and alligators in the sewers, and it appears three or four weeks before every recent national election with the regularity of the swallows returning to Capistrano." ("A Mighty Hoax from ACORN Grows ," October 17)

• Cynthia Tucker editorializes in the Atlanta Journal Constitution: " The Republican nominee is once again using fear as a tactic to try to win votes...Fake voters are a myth, a convenient cover for those who really don't believe in the universal franchise. (ACORN has been accused of fraudulent registrations; for actual voter fraud to occur, persons with those fake names would have to show up to cast ballots.) There is no evidence of people coming to the polls using false names and fraudulent IDs. (" Don't buy frenzy over voter fraud ," October 17)

• The New York Times editorializes: "Based on the information that has come to light so far, the charges appear to be wildly overblown - and intended to hobble ACORN's efforts… For all of the McCain campaign's manufactured fury about vote theft (and similar claims from the Republican Party over the years) there is virtually no evidence - anywhere in the country, going back many elections - of people showing up at the polls and voting when they are not entitled to... The real threats to the fabric of democracy are the unreasonable barriers that stand in the way of eligible voters casting ballots" ("The ACORN Story ," October 17)

Even election officials in key states have said that they detected no problems with ACORN's voter registration drives.

• Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner said Ohio ACORN's head organizer: "is very experienced and conscientious, and we've had nothing but good experiences working with her." (Interview on "Democracy Now ," October 9)

• The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports: "The group has caused no such problems, according to Republican city elections director Scott Leiendecker. ACORN finished its efforts in St. Louis about three months ago, he said. So far, he said, "Everything's been on the up and up." ("GOP Attacking ACORN's voter registration efforts," October 11 )

• The Orlando Sentinel reports: "The heat coming from national Republicans isn't shared by Florida's GOP leadership. Both Gov. Charlie Crist and Secretary of State Kurt Browning have said they don't mind ACORN being active in Florida's election process. When reporters asked Crist if there was a problem with ACORN here, he said, "No." ("ACORN's voter sign-ups bother McCain, but not Crist," October 12 )

• The Miami Herald finds that: "Breaking with the talking points of his fellow Republicans in Washington, Florida Gov. Charlie Crist said he does not think voter fraud and the vote-registration group ACORN are a major problem in the Sunshine State. ''I think that there's probably less [fraud] than is being discussed. As we're coming into the closing days of any campaign, there are some who enjoy chaos,' Crist told reporters…Crist's Republican Secretary of State, Kurt Browning, said he doesn't think ACORN is committing systematic voter fraud." (" Crist breaks with Republicans over ACORN voter fraud charges ," October 15, 2008)

• The Houston Chronicle reports: "There is no evidence of intentional manipulation of the voter rolls here, according to the county's voter registrar." ("ACORN sign-ups in Harris seem legitimate," October 16)

In reality the attacks against ACORN have nothing to do with fear of "voter fraud," and everything to do with fear of low-income and minority voters.

• Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. (D-IL) writing at The Huffington Post said: "The real reason [for the Republican attacks] is obvious: Because ACORN, along with Project Vote, just announced that they had successfully registered 1.3 million poor people this year." (Attacks on ACORN Based Not on Facts, But on Fear of 1.3 Million Poor People Registering , October 10)

• In the Capital Times (Madison, WI) Joel McNally editorializes: "Republicans have another underlying motive for attacking ACORN. It is an organization that engages in that dreaded community organizing. It actually tries to give a voice to the poor and most vulnerable among us...Clearly, organizations like ACORN are on the front lines of promoting democracy in this country while Republicans are trying to stop its spread." (entitled "GOP Battles the Spread of Democracy ," October 10)

• Miles Rapoport, former Connecticut Secretary of State and President of Demos spoke out: "I think the criticism of ACORN is a diversionary issue that should not be allowed to cloud what is happening this year, which is an extraordinary flowering of democracy. ACORN is to be applauded for encouraging that, not criticized, and I am proud to stand with them." (ACORN Press Conference , October 14)

• Election law attorney Rick Hasen at the Huffington Post says: "For the last three elections, Republicans have been ramping up cries of voter fraud as a way of undermining the legitimacy of the election results should they not turn out in their favor and providing a reason for strict voting purges that are likely to remove many Democratic voters from the rolls." ("The Purge Surge: Why the GOP Is Nuts About ACORN ," (October 10)

• Former U.S. attorney David Iglesias recently told Talking Points Memo: "I'm astounded that this issue is being trotted out again. Based on what I saw in 2004 and 2006, it's a scare tactic." ("Iglesias: 'I'm Astounded' By DOJ's ACORN Probe ," October 16)

• As Reported in The Hill, Julian Bond, chairman of the NAACP says: "This latest attack on ACORN follows a sorry pattern, played out in election after election. Republicans have practiced an assortment of subtle and overt methods to suppress and smother voter registration and turnout…Ever since they first practiced voter suppression, they've yelled, 'Voter fraud!' " ("Groups: ACORN attacks meant to suppress vote," October 15)

• People for the American Way (PFAW) President Kathryn Kolbert says: "Those who are stirring the 'voter fraud' pot don't want to talk about voter suppression and intimidation. They want to use the code word of 'voter fraud' as cover for their real objective of voter suppression…It's a sad day when a campaign's success strategy is dependent upon keeping voters away from the polls." (ACORN Press Conference, October 14.

• The Kansas City Star asks: "So why all the caterwauling from Republicans? The most salient point is that ACORN has registered more than 1.3 million voters this election cycle. Of course many of these people are in demographic groups - minorities, and lower- and middle-income Americans - who tend to vote for Democrats. And many of these people are ready to vote for change…" ("Friday Editorial: McCain's spurious attacks on ACORN," October 16)

New Mexico Republicans Smear Valid Voters with Fraud Charge

davidswanson — Sat, 18 Oct 2008 15:03:48 -0400

Incident Highlights Republican Suppression Efforts Masked by “Fraud” Campaign

ALBUQUERQUE - After the New Mexico Republican Party claimed Thursday that fraudulent voters—including some registered to vote by ACORN—participated in the June, 2008 Democratic primary, ACORN contacted some of the voters Republicans said were bogus. ACORN will present its findings Saturday morning at an 11:00 am press conference at ACORN’s New Mexico headquarters (411 Bellamah NW, Albuquerque).

The voters that the Republicans named in their press conference on Thursday were quickly reached by ACORN Thursday night. They include an 18-year old first-time voter and a new citizen. All provided evidence that they are legitimate voters, and their legitimacy was confirmed by the Bernalillo County Clerk. All confirmed that they voted in the June primary and expressed outrage that the Republican Party is targeting them.

“This is un-American,” said Celestina Balderas, an ACORN leader. “What we have learned today is that a new citizen who votes in America now risks getting attacked by the Republican Party. ACORN will not allow this scare off new, legitimate voters.”

“What these Republican operatives did is criminal,” said ACORN member Dana Gallegos. “They violated these voters' privacy, and they want to deprive them of their right to vote. These kinds of dirty tricks tear at the fabric of our democracy. We demand an apology from the Republican Party, and we demand that Senator McCain denounce these partisan scare tactics.”

ACORN confirmed with the Bernalillo County Clerk that the voters in question were all legitimate. They include:

l Dora Pargas Escobedo, a 67-year-old immigrant who became a naturalized, United States citizen this year, and;

l Brittany Nicole Rivera, an 18-year old Albuquerque resident.

ACORN registered 80,000 voters in New Mexico this year.

###

ACORN (Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now) is the nation's largest community organization of low- and moderate-income families, with over 400,000 member families organized into 800 neighborhood chapters in 103 cities across the country. Since 1970 ACORN has taken action and won victories on issues of concern to our members, including better housing for first time homebuyers and tenants, living wages for low-wage workers, more investment in our communities from banks and governments, and better public schools. ACORN -- an acronym for Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now – should be used on first reference.)

$5,000 Reward for Information on ACORN Break Ins

davidswanson — Sat, 18 Oct 2008 02:25:41 -0400

Velvet Revolution, an organization dedicated to fair elections, is offering $5,000 for information leading to the arrest and conviction of those responsible for break-ins at the ACORN offices in Dorchester, MA and Burien, WA.,

The timing of the break-ins coincide with the Republican attacks on the organization. The Washington break-in occurred on Tuesday and the Boston break-in occurred in the evening after Senator McCain made accusations against ACORN in the final presidential debate, where he said the group was “destroying the fabric of democracy”. In recent days the organization has been the target of threatening calls and e-mails, including at least one death threat. “Voter suppression is their goal but we will not allow the actions of political hacks and zealots to intimidate us or keep us from exercising our most fundamental right – the right to vote” – Mimi Ramos, Head Organizer, Massachusetts ACORN.

In Dorchester five computers were stolen from the ACORN office and the phone system and internet network were ripped out. Computer records were also stolen from ACORN Housing which does foreclosure prevention counseling. If you have any information regarding break-ins or want to make a donation the number to call is (617) 436-7100.