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Burglars took two computers and other equipment during a break-in at an early voting station in northeast Houston, but appeared to have left electronic voting machines untouched, Harris County Clerk Beverly Kaufman said Monday. A skeptic of voting machine security said the break-in underscores how vulnerable the county's electronic ballots are to tampering. “It's very easy to do this in a surreptitious fashion. No tooling required, no screwdrivers, nothing fancy,” said Dan Wallach, a computer science professor at Rice University who was hired by the state of California to study the same Hart Intercivic machines used by Harris County. “If...

Embattled Athens County, Ohio Democratic Chairwoman Susan Gwinn was indicted Monday on two counts of election-related bribery, special prosecutors announced today. Gwinn, who last month was charged with six felonies for campaign finance crimes and money-laundering, became the subject of a voter fraud investigation after an email from College Democrats Vice President Kellie Galan surfaced in which students were promised a cash bounty for every voter brought to the polls. "Remember, if you bring a friend from 4th ward they are more then [sic] a friend, they're 5 bucks!" Galan wrote to fellow College Democrats in the email. Athens' 4th...

GOUVERNEUR, NY - The computerized voting machines used by many voters in the 23rd district had a computer virus - tainting the results, not just from those machines known to have been infected, but casting doubt on the accuracy of counts retrieved from any of the machines

Barack Obama is to reject all of the options outlined for increasing troop numbers in Afghanistan in favour of revised plans which include a clear exit strategy, it has been claimed. The report came from a senior administration official close to the high-level deliberations Mr Obama is holding with his war cabinet over the refocusing of the Afghan war effort. The President is said to have raised questions at a meeting on Wednesday that could alter both the size of any possible troop increase and the length of time they are in the country before they can hand over to...

For the first time, in a long time, there is actually some tangibility to the abortion debate in this country. Yes, after years of Democrats dodging around the issue by saying they don't approve of abortions, but favor a woman's right to choose (the same way they supported the troops but still were rooting against them in Iraq and Afghanistan) Democrats in the House were forced to vote whether they would support government-subsidized abortions as part of the new health care bill. In an amendment to the House's health care bill, Rep. Bart Stupak (D-Mich.) proposed an amendment which essentially...

A top House Democrat said Monday she's "confident" that a conference committee will strip language in the House health bill on taxpayer funding for abortion. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.), the Democrats' chief deputy whip in the House, said that she and other pro-choice lawmakers would work to strip the amendment included in the House health bill that bars federal funding from going to subsidize abortions. "I am confident that when it comes back from the conference committee that that language won't be there," Wasserman Schultz said during an appearance on MSNBC. "And I think we're all going to be...

Sen. David Vitter's bid to require the 2010 Census to ask all respondents about their citizenship was killed today when the Senate voted to invoke cloture and end debate on the Commerce spending bill without having to consider the Louisiana Republican's amendment. The Democratic leadership, which had been trying to block the Vitter amendment since early October, eked out a victory with the bare number of votes needed to invoke cloture, prevailing 60 to 39. Vitter's Democratic colleague, Sen. Mary Landrieu, who had been caustic in her criticism of Vitter's measure, voted with the majority. Vitter intended the citizenship count...

Memory cards in seven voting machines were unintentionally left in Atlanta precincts Tuesday night, in a poll worker error that election officials say is not expected to affect the outcome of any race. Fulton County Board of Elections Director Barry Garner says he expects to gain access to the memory cards Wednesday morning and tally the remaining votes. Garner says poll workers in the seven precincts were in a hurry and did not ensure that all the cards were removed from the machines. He called the oversight unacceptable and said his office would put procedures in place to prevent such...

Big Government’s open about the fact that this is an issue: Will Corzine Allies Steal the Election in New Jersey? ACORN, Dirty Tricks and Absentee Ballot Fraud New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine is locked in the political fight of his life. With just hours left before voting, polls show a neck-and-neck race between Corzine and GOP candidate Chris Christie, with Independent candidate Chris Daggett pulling significant support. Obama and VP Biden are making last ditch pitches for the embattled governor. But evidence is building that Corzine’s campaign may see its only salvation is in rigging the election. What can you...

Is there one, (one?!) honest Democrat? C'mon, New Jersey! NJ-GOV: Jon Corzine’s Absentee Ballot Slush Fund NRO via Redstate National Review’s Jim Geraghty has a tremendously important story. Jon Corzine is trying to build an absentee ballot slush fund to win a recount in the New Jersey Governor’s race. Basically, the Democratic Party has asked the Secretary of State to send provisional absentee ballots out to people whose signatures on their absentee ballot requests don’t match: In a development that is depressingly predictable, the New Jersey Democratic party is asking the state to provide provisional ballots for all these voters....

This year, New Jersey’s registered voters can request a mail-in ballot for any reason. (Before 2005, voters needed to provide a reason for why they needed an absentee ballot.) The state received about 150,000 absentee-ballot applications this year. On about 2,300 of those applications so far, the signature on the request form does not match the signature on the voter’s registration forms with the state.In a development that is depressingly predictable, the New Jersey Democratic party is asking the state to provide provisional ballots for all these voters. Those ballots could, presumably, be used to overcome any narrow lead by...

Thursday, October 29, 2009 Democrats Ask New Jersey Secretary of State to Ignore Mismatched Signatures on Absentee-Ballot Requests This year, New Jersey’s registered voters can request a mail-in ballot for any reason. (Before 2005, voters needed to provide a reason for why they needed an absentee ballot.) The state received about 150,000 absentee-ballot applications this year. On about 2,300 of those applications so far, the signature on the request form does not match the signature on the voter’s registration forms with the state. In a development that is depressingly predictable, the New Jersey Democratic party is asking the state to...

<p>Prominent Houston attorney John O'Quinn was one of two men who died this morning when their SUV slammed into a large tree on Allen Parkway after the driver apparently lost control, police said.</p> <p>"I'm stunned. The community lost one of its biggest assets," said Rick Laminack, who worked with O'Quinn from 1987 until 2006. "He was a great lawyer who shared a lot of his wealth with people who needed help."</p>

BizJournals April: Vitner: Worst of the recession is over Forbes May, The Recession Is Over http://www.forbes.com/2009/05/04/recovery-indicators-unemployment-opinions-columnists-recession.html Bloomberg June, Treasuries Drop for 3rd Day on Signs Worst of Recession Is Over: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?sid=as7n0AWDEzuQ&pid=20601087 Newsweek July, The Recession Is Over: http://www.newsweek.com/id/208633 FoxNews August, The Recession is Over! http://www.foxnews.com/search-results/m/25889935/recession-is-over.htm WSJ September, US Stocks Slightly Higher As Bernanke Says Recession Is Over Sep http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20090915-711042.html

The Democrats have beaten the Republicans to court in NY-23, obtaining an order to show cause that requires the impounding of voting machines for what is expected to be another tight congressional special election. "Most of the time, you don't bring this until the day after the election, and then only if you think the race will be close," said attorney Frank Hoare, whom I reached on his cell phone as he was driving back to Albany after filing the order in Elizabethtown. "The Republicans usually play games and start the action the day of the election; in an effort...

So now the cat is well and truly out of the bag. For years, as the number of immigrants to Britain shot up apparently uncontrollably, the question was how exactly this had happened. Was it through a fit of absent-mindedness or gross incompetence? Or was it not inadvertent at all, but deliberate? The latter explanation seemed just too outrageous. After all, a deliberate policy of mass immigration would have amounted to nothing less than an attempt to change the very make-up of this country without telling the electorate. There could not have been a more grave abuse of the entire...

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich is defending his decision to endorse a liberal Republican candidate in the special election for New York's 23rd Congressional District even though she is a Margaret Sanger Award winner and supporter of same-sex "marriage." New York Republican congressional candidate DeDe Scozzafava not only has the backing of Planned Parenthood and The Daily Kos, but her campaign has also received financial endorsements from the Republican National Committee and Republican leaders such as House Minority Leader John Boehner, House Minority Whip Eric Cantor, and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich. Gingrich recently said Scozzafava's election could be the...

<p>TEL AVIV – President Obama's presidential campaign focused on "making" the news media cover certain issues while rarely communicating anything to the press unless it was "controlled," White House Communications Director Anita Dunn disclosed to the Dominican government at a videotaped conference.</p>

Let's not mince words here: The entire finance and real-estate "industry" is filled with massive, pernicious fraud, and we now have only one question remaining - will The Government do its lawful and mandated job, that of prosecuting the bad actors, or has it joined with the fraudsters, become one with them, and thus, declare itself as a gang of mobsters rather than a legitimate government? The latter, of course will beg only the question of what should be an ordinary American's response. Let's start with what may be one of the most outrageous yet least-actionable examples: Alan Greenspan. Alan...

John McCain's campaign is still being audited by the Federal Elections Commission, while Obama – the only presidential candidate in history since the public finance system was established to decline public funds during the general election – may have escaped similar scrutiny by the FEC. An FEC spokesman told WND that the commission is obligated to complete an audit of McCain's campaign because he received public funds during the general election. "Under regulations, that is automatically audited by the FEC once you receive public funds," he said. "For the Obama committee, there's a possibility, just like with any other committee,...

ACORN wants people to register to vote – as long as they’re Democrats. Republican registrations go into the trash. Here is a first-hand account of how it happens. In February 2008, Fathiyyah Muhammad of Jacksonville, Florida, heard that ACORN was paying people three dollars for each voter they could register. ACORN paid her three dollars for each voter she registered, but Fatiyyah Muhammad says that the group threw out her votes and fired her when she brought them registrations of Republican voters. Fathiyyah Muhammad voted for Obama. “I’m a Republican,” she says, “and this was the first time that I...

BUFFALO, NY--The Erie County district attorney yesterday fired a long-time assistant who complained in media reports that the office had failed to properly investigate alleged 2007 election law violations. District Attorney Frank A. Sedita III said in a statement that he would not tolerate an assistant prosecutor, Mark Sacha, who violated "appropriate standards of professional behavior with impunity." In an interview last month with the Buffalo News, Mr. Sacha accused the office of giving a "pass" to Democratic operative G. Steven Pigeon for alleged election law violations during the 2007 campaign for Erie County executive. In his statement yesterday, Mr....

The State of Virginia has argued in a federal court filing that they can legally send out absentee ballots to active duty soldiers the day before an election. Restated again, the Democratic Chairwoman of the Virginia State Board of Election (appointed by the Democratic National Committee Chair Tim Kaine, in his capacity as Virginia Governor) Jean Cunningham just claimed a legal basis for massively raising the barrier to voting for soldiers at war.

JOHN KING (host): If you pick up Maureen Dowd's column in The New York Times this morning, she goes through Congressman (Joe) Wilson's statement, some of the other things, and she says in her -- she has come to the conclusion, quote: "Some people just can't believe a black man is president and will never accept it." Does the president believe that some of these attacks are based on his race? WHITE HOUSE PRESS SEC. ROBERT GIBBS: I don't think the president believes that people are upset because of the color of his skin. I think people are upset because...

Arrest warrants have been issued in Miami for 11 people suspected of falsifying information on hundreds of voter registration cards last year. The FBI and state authorities were making arrests Wednesday. The workers being sought were hired to register voters by the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, or ACORN. Prosecutors say they were first notified by ACORN about problems with workers in June 2008. Republicans and conservative activists have accused ACORN of fraud in voter registration drives around the country. ACORN officials say the Florida case proves the organization is committed to an honest process. The case involved...

Must go to the site for audio and see the Glenn Beck links too. http://www.washingtontimes.com/weblogs/watercooler/2009/sep/01/official-dishonesty-national-endowment-arts/

Barack Obama has apparently now been advised to shift the ground in the debate over health care reform, to get it away from discussions about specific provisions in the pending legislation (whether it will force us to unplug grandma or use our tax dollars to pay for others' abortions) and get it onto a far loftier moral high ground. This he did last weekend in a conference call to liberal clergy, urging them to endorse universal health care because of what he has decided is all part of the biblical injunction to "be our brother's keeper." Ostensibly, many moral theories...

In 2007, Rather filed his $70 million lawsuit against his old company saying he wasn’t allowed to defend his story because the top management of CBS’ parent company, Viacom, wanted to appease the Bush Administration and protect its business interests. Until now, the controversy over the Rather/Mapes story has centered almost entirely on one issue: the legitimacy of the documents – a very important issue, indeed. But it turns out that there was another very important issue, one that goes to the very heart of what the story was about – and one that has gone virtually unnoticed. This is...

The audacity of one final act of political corruption August 21, 9:04 AM · Leo Shishmanian - Ada County Conservative Examiner My heart goes out to Massachusetts senior Senator Ted Kennedy as he battles fatal brain cancer.  No one should have to suffer slowly toward their demise.  That said, Kennedy's latest--and perhaps his last--major act as a senator constitutes nothing short of blatant political corruption. Usually, politicians try to keep their wrongdoings shrouded from view in darkened rooms.  It's easier to get away with what you want when the lights are off.  For example: South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford...

Palmer, Alaska (AP) -- The mother of the man former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's daughter Bristol had planned on marrying has reached a plea deal in her drug case. Sherry Johnston pleaded guilty Wednesday to one count of possession with intent to deliver the painkiller OxyContin. Five other felony counts were dropped. Johnston was placed in pink handcuffs and taken to a correctional facility where she'll be held until her Nov. 20 sentencing.

WE'VE seen mass hysteria before, but we weren't then mad enough to make it government policy. ..... But that's nothing when compared with today's galloping paranoia over invisible gases, which threatens to shut not just one airport, but entire industries and power stations. This is the mass hysteria over global warming - a hysteria caught by millions of Australians who can no more explain why they're sure the world is heating to hell than they can explain why it's now cooling instead. All this would be frightening enough - another sign of our retreat from reason - but what makes...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House called Mahmoud Ahmadinejad the "elected leader" of Iran on Tuesday when asked whether President Barack Obama recognized the Iranian president after the country's disputed election. "This was a decision and a debate ongoing in Iran by Iranians, they were going to choose their leadership," White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said. "He's the elected leader."

Remember the last election and all the rhetoric from the Democrats about making sure every vote counted, and reaching out to "traditionally" disenfranchised voters and communities? Remember how they were constantly accusing Republicans of deliberately and maliciously alienating and suppressing minority voters? Remember all that? In fact, claims of specific instances of disenfranchised voters were alleged long before the One ran for office. It turns out that the brave men and women of our military are the most disenfranchised group of voters today. Literally. The Heritage Foundation has published the results and analysis of research performed by Hans A. von Spakovsky,...

We wrote here and here about the Justice Department's dismissal of a voter intimidation case against a group of armed Black Panthers who threatened would-be voters outside a polling place in Philadelphia. The Justice Department won the case after the defendants defaulted (a wise move by them, it turns out), but decided to give the victory away. This struck us as another instance in which the Obama-Holder Justice Department made its decision based on political considerations, rather than considerations of justice. This was a case in which members of a political organization showed up at a polling place in uniform...

Rather than holding their ground, the Obama administration has decided to revise the restriction that did not allow lobbyists to meet with government officials to discuss potential uses for the Federal stimulus money they have been allocated. Under the..

President Obama refunds cash to Kenyan aunt, convicted murderer, lobbyists By: Kenneth P. Vogel July 28, 2009 04:44 AM EST More than eight months after President Barack Obama won the White House, the remnants of his campaign organization is struggling to deal with some unfinished business: returning about $669,000 in tainted or illegal campaign contributions to a motley assortment of donors, among them a convicted murderer, Washington lobbyists and a number of foreign nationals, including his own aunt. But the 11 Chicago-based staff members still on the campaign’s payroll are finding it was a lot easier to rake in a...

His punishment: Not being permitted to brandish a deadly weapon within 100 ft. of a Philadelphia polling station until after the 2012 elections...

Is this what Time magazine meant with their July 6th cover, What Barack Obama Can Learn From FDR? Not one to let "a serious crisis to go to waste," Franklin Delano Roosevelt used the onset of the Great Depression as an excuse to immediately begin delivering New Deal dollars in unprecedented amounts - with laser-like political precision to electorally important parts of the country. He sailed to landslide reelection in 1936 on a federally-funded tailwind. The New Deal is now an old one - as direct mail guru Richard Viguerie describes it, "We've got money, you've got votes, let's talk."...

Just when you thought things couldn’t get more farcical in our nation’s capitol, the Al Franken Circus heads to town. Franken was declared the winner yesterday of the long-contested Senate race by the Minnesota Supreme Court with a razor-thin margin of 312 votes out of over 2.9 million votes cast. Norm Coleman chose to bow out of the race rather than continue the contest taking the fight to the federal courts. It is estimated the two camps have spent more than $1.7 million in legal fees through March, the end of the last FEC reporting period. Rumors abound that Coleman...

Al Franken confirmed to MN senate by MN supreme court.

Some Republican members of Congress want the U.S. Census Bureau to end a 2010 Census partnership with Acorn, the community organizing group that was hit by accusations of voter-registration fraud in the 2006 and 2008 elections. Acorn, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, signed up in February with the bureau to be a "2010 Census Partner," which includes, among other things, identifying job candidates, encouraging its members to participate in the count and distributing literature explaining the importance of the census. But in the wake of accusations that some former Acorn employees engaged in voter registration fraud in...

The National Republican Senatorial Committee spent almost $1 million last month on Republican Norm Coleman's attempt to win last year's U.S. Senate race. Coleman is attempting to overturn Democrat Al Franken's slender lead. The former senator's appeal of a trial court's decision that Franken won is awaiting a ruling from the Minnesota Supreme Court. That ruling could be issued any day. Last month, the NRSC spent $937,917 to help Coleman in that effort. Minneapolis law firm Dorsey & Whitney, home to Coleman attorney Jim Langdon, received $350,171 of that and Washington, D.C., law firm Patton Boggs, Coleman legal spokesman Ben...

The infamous Association of Community Organizers for Reform Now, more commonly known as ACORN, is changing its name. The new moniker, Community Organizations International (COI), is the nefarious organization’s attempt to change its thuggish image.  ACORN is under investigation for voter registration fraud in at least 14 states, the result of widespread allegations during the 2008 presidential campaign.  There are also mounting charges from a growing list of current and former ACORN employees with allegations ranging from threats and intimidation to systemic fraud and financial mismanagement. Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa), who has been battling for accountability from ACORN, reacted to...

CLEVELAND - Proceedings took a bizarre turn Friday as the man suspected of casting nine ballots in Cuyahoga County during last year's presidential election appeared in court, Fox 8 News reports. Darnell Nash proclaimed to the judge that he was a transvestite before pleading not guilty to nine counts of record tampering, nine counts of false registration and one count of illegal voting -- a total of 19 charges that includes several felonies. Prosecutors say that, with the help of the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (better known as ACORN), Nash voted using fraudulent names and addresses. ACORN...

President Obama should just join the cast of "I'm a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here!" It's not that farfetched; he's been on everything else. I'm still a fan, but there's a fine line between being transparent and being overexposed. Every time you turn on the TV, there's Obama. He's getting a puppy! He's eating a cheeseburger with Joe Biden! He's taking the wife to Broadway and Paris -- this is the best season of "The Bachelor" yet! I get it: You love being on TV. I love my bong, but I take it out of my mouth every once...

A review of Minnesota’s statewide database of registered voters revealed at least 2,812 deceased individuals voted in last November’s general election, according to a new report by the “traditional values” advocacy group Minnesota Majority. After obtaining the list of voters who participated in November’s election, the group hired an independent firm who specializes in “death suppression” for direct mailing lists to review the data. The process, which involved matching names and addresses to state death records, bore troubling results. According to Minnesota statute 201.13, the commissioner of health is to report monthly the name, address, date of birth, and county...

The Department of Justice on Tuesday said the state of Georgia's system cannot check driver’s license information and Social Security numbers to prove that prospective voters are U.S. citizens. Georgia’s voters have an entirely different perspective. Rasmussen Reports polling conducted during Election 2008 found that 77% said prospective voters should first be required to show a legal photo ID first. Georgia’s voters also held that view two years earlier despite a state judge’s ruling that a new law requiring a photo ID at the polls was a violation of the state constitution. Nationally, three-out-of-four U.S. voters (76%) said a person...

WASHINGTON - One out of every four ballots requested by military personnel and other Americans living overseas for the 2008 election may have gone uncounted, according to findings released at a Senate hearing. Sen. Charles Schumer, chairman of the Senate Rules and Administration Committee, said the study released Wednesday, while providing only a snapshot of voting patterns, "is enough to show that the balloting process for service members is clearly in need of an overhaul." The committee, working with the Congressional Research Service, surveyed election offices in seven states with high numbers of military personnel: California, Florida, North Carolina, Pennsylvania,...

Inconvenient Emails from the NY Times by: Bethany Stotts, May 19, 2009 Now that New York Times public editor Clark Hoyt has published his official story of the events surrounding the decision to spike Stephanie Strom’s investigation of ACORN’s alleged fundraising connections to the Obama campaign, it becomes imperative for this correspondent to reiterate that Strom personally attempted to mislead AIM just days after she cut off contact with Anita Moncrief. “The story involved allegations that Barack Obama’s campaign, in league with Acorn, a left-leaning community activist group, was guilty of technical violations of campaign finance law. Evidence supplied by...

A group of ACORN whistle-blowers known as 'ACORN-8' is making explosive allegations against their organization. The group contends that that ACORN has mishandled multi-millions of dollars of taxpayer funds and engaged in the breaking of federal law. The group is also calling on their fellow members to stop paying their dues until ACORN opens up its books for an accounting. And at the center of the whistle-blowers' concerns is an apparent conflict of interest that leads directly to Barack Obama.