Foxes, Henhouses and Democrats
by Daniel Sargis
13 October 2004A series of seemingly unrelated incidents at geographically scattered Republican campaign headquarters is starting to form a curious pattern.
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To borrow a phrase from that esteemed defender of civil rights, Representative Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-TX), I am “deeply concerned that the right of U.S. citizens to vote in free and fair elections is again in jeopardy.” As you may remember, Johnson and twelve other Congressional Democratic co-conspirators requested that the United Nations monitor this November’s U.S. elections. Instead of 100 international “observers,” Johnson should have called out the troops from the Department of Justice...with RICO indictments in-hand.
With labor unions in serial violation of the U.S. Criminal Code, Johnson et al are fretting about the need for Bulgarian election “observers” to ensure our voting rights. With the U.S. political system under the full assault of a Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act dream team, Johnson et al are seeking salvation from the first cousins of the crooked U.N.-run Oil-for-Food Program. You can always count on the Democrats to have one hand pointing an accusing finger while the other hand is robbing the cookie jar.
In the last couple of weeks a series of seemingly unrelated incidents at geographically scattered Republican campaign headquarters are starting to stitch themselves into a curious pattern:
-- On September 2nd, in Huntington, West Virginia, someone fired a shot at the Republican Headquarters as local party members were watching President Bush's nomination speech.
-- On October 1st, in Seattle, Washington, the Washington State Bush-Cheney headquarters was broken into and three computers were stolen. The Seattle Times reports that, “Missing are laptop computers used by the campaign's executive director, the head of the get-out-the-vote effort and one that had been set for delivery to the campaign's Southwest Washington field director.”
-- On October 5th, outside of Knoxville, Tennessee, WBIR TV reported that, “An unknown suspect fired multiple shots into the Bearden office of the Bush/Cheney re-election campaign.”
-- On October 5th, more than 50 demonstrators supporting Democrat presidential candidate John Kerry stormed a Republican campaign office in West Allis, Wisconsin.
-- On October 5th, a group of protestors stormed and then ransacked a Bush-Cheney headquarters building in Orlando, Florida. WKMG TV reported that most of the intruders “were from the AFL-CIO and were taking part in one of 20 other coordinated protests around the country.”
-- On October 5th, Labor activists stormed President Bush's campaign headquarters in Tampa, Florida as part of a nationwide orchestration involving thousands of organized labor goons. The Tampa Tribune reported that “Miami and Orlando also were among the 17 cities in swing states where the AFL-CIO organized such events.” -- On October 8th, the Akron Beacon Journal (Ohio) reported that, “Two men who tore down a Bush-Cheney sign and urinated on it were caught on videotape by Summit County Republican officials early Friday morning.”
Are we starting to see a pattern here? To ask it a bit differently...if the good patriots from FreeRepublic.com coordinated a national campaign to vandalize Kerry-Edwards headquarters, would the media fluff this as benign random occurrences? Or would this become a coordinated conspiracy between the Bush campaign and an “extreme right-wing” organization to steal the presidential election and deny voters their Constitutional rights?
Good evening and welcome to CBS Evening News. I'm Dan Rather. There were violent attacks today by right-wing extremists, possibly coordinated by officials from the Bush campaign, on Kerry-Edwards campaign headquarters throughout the United States. In his quest for re-election is the President denying you of your civil rights and committing a felony?
Back to the world of the sane...the U.S. Code (USC) has a couple of things to say. Title 18, USC, Section 241 is entitled "Conspiracy against rights." In a nutshell, this section makes it a Federal crime “If two or more persons conspire to injure, oppress, threaten, or intimidate any person in any State, Territory, Commonwealth, Possession, or District in the free exercise or enjoyment of any right or privilege secured to him by the Constitution or laws of the United States....” The punishment for such is that “They shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than ten years, or both....”
Title 42, USC, Section 1971 (entitled "Voting rights") contains a handy paragraph “b” with the heading "Intimidation, threats, or coercion." This paragraph simply states that “No person...shall intimidate, threaten, coerce, or attempt to intimidate, threaten, or coerce any other person for the purpose of interfering with the right of such other person to vote or to vote as he may choose, or of causing such other person to vote for, or not to vote for, any candidate for the office of President, Vice President, presidential elector....”
I almost forgot to mention that organized labor seems to be the culprit in most of these crimes. You know...the organized labor that is deathly afraid of a Bush victory which will actually start making labor unions file the financial disclosure form LM-2 starting in March of 2005. Form LM-2 would require union bosses to inform union members how the bosses, claiming to represent them, spend their financial dues.
Why would both the Democrats and labor unions be so afraid of the same financial disclosure they insist upon from corporate America being required from organized labor? Fifteen years ago, the U.S. Supreme Court held (in Communications Workers v. Beck), that unionized employees were only required to pay dues for collective bargaining, not politics, organizing and other activities which the union could not prove were related to collective bargaining. The union bosses don’t want to lose their “right” to buy their Democratic patsies with dollars stolen from the “working person.” And, quid pro quo, the Democrats certainly don’t want to lose those dollars and resources...even if it means the “working person” keeps getting swindled.
How cute...we have violations of the U.S. Code and all the makings of a conspiracy for gain. How do you spell RICO? Is it really that hard to imagine somebody like the former head of the Washington Teachers' Union, Barbara Bullock, making a deal with former Democratic Senator “Torch” Torricelli to use union goons to disrupt an election in return for a continued one-eye-blind policy towards the (mis)use of union money. How do you spell Grease?
Coincidentally, Bullock is serving 110 months in prison, to be followed by 3 years of supervised release during which time she is to perform 3,000 hours of community service for stealing $2.5 million in dues money from her rank and file “working persons.” Torricelli ran from his Senate seat and continued investigations for illegal campaign contributions and gifts. What’s that saying about birds of a feather?
The blind eye which is being turned from this obviously orchestrated pattern of election intimidation, and collusion for gain, could almost make me think that Janet Reno is still running the Justice Department. The American voter and the honest rank and file union membership of this country deserve better. Daniel Sargis, a freelance writer, is a principal in a private investment development company. His website is dansargis.org.
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