John Conyers - Mental Giant

A few weeks ago, the usual suspects took me to task over my criticism of Rep. John Conyers. Well, Thursday, Conyers (D-Mich.), the senior minority member of the House Judiciary Committee, will formally object to the counting of the Ohio electoral vote in the 2004 presidential election.

I guess winning by over 100,000 votes wasn't quite enough for Rep. Conyers. Hugh Hewitt is correct when he says "if it's not close, they can't cheat". Thankfully it wasn't close, so fortunately, they can't cheat in Ohio.

As for Washington state, that's a different story.

Clearly yours,

FFF

>As for Washington state, that's a different story.

700 plus ballots mysteriously appear after the second recount shows the Republican wins, all in heavily Democratic King County. Stealing an election hasn't been this brazen since Daley stole the presidential election for Kennedy in 1960, or Johnson's first senate election. Those Democrats sure how to lie, cheat and steal. The question is, how well will they be able to polish our Iron Crosses? I know that you, like me, prefer that one be able to perform surgery on them.

Later.

Democrats steal from the homeless

In addition to being stupid and deceitful, it appears that Rep. Conyers also employs people on his staff who steal from the homeless:

_____________________

Where did turkeys go?

Gleaners asks if Conyers' staff helped needy people

January 5, 2005

BY JOEL THURTELL

FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER

The director of a Detroit food bank wants to know what happened to 60 turkeys -- 720 pounds of frozen birds -- that his charity gave to members of U.S. Rep. John Conyers' local staff two days before Thanksgiving to give to needy people.

Conyers' Detroit office promised an accounting of any turkey distribution by Dec. 27, but the Gleaners Community Food Bank had received no paperwork as of Tuesday, said the charity's director, Agostinho Fernandes.

Fernandes said he became suspicious that the turkeys didn't get to poor people after hearing from a friend that a federal court worker had said he was offered free turkeys from a member of Conyers' staff.

Conyers' press secretary Karen Morgan said Tuesday that she was told that some of Conyers' staffers gave the turkeys to poor people whose names were provided by the state Family Independence Agency. A fax with those names, she said, was to be sent Tuesday or today to Gleaners.

Maureen Sorbet, a spokeswoman for the FIA, said Tuesday, "I spoke to the central FIA office in Wayne County, and they were unaware of the turkey situation.

"Normally, we don't provide names" of FIA clients, Sorbet added. "Sometimes at Christmastime we might if people self-disclose. It's remotely possible."

By mid-afternoon Tuesday, Fernandes said he had received nothing from Conyers' office.

"I've got to tell you that our mission of feeding hungry people has been violated by the people who should have been guardians of our mission," Fernandes said.

Fernandes said Conyers staffer Elisa Grubbs signed a Gleaners invoice Nov. 23 acknowledging she picked up the turkeys on the congressman's behalf. Fernandes sent the Free Press a copy of the invoice.

Morgan said the staffers who picked up the turkeys had promised to provide Gleaners with an accounting by Dec. 27. Morgan said she would ask Conyers to call the Free Press to answer questions about the turkeys, but he did not.

Morgan said Tuesday that she had been assured that a list of recipients exists, but added that she had not seen it.

"You can imagine how we feel," Fernandes said. "They didn't pay anything. This was donations to them to help the needy. We get calls from different representatives who want to put together food baskets for their needy constituents and you have faith that these people are going to bring the food to the people it's intended to go to."

A Conyers staff member who asked not to be named for fear of reprisal told the Free Press that Grubbs and her cousin, Conyers' Detroit deputy chief of staff Marion Brown, along with a former Conyers aide, DeWayne Boyd, picked up the turkeys and later gave contradictory accounts of what happened to the birds.

The unnamed staff member raised concerns in a memo sent to both the FBI and House ethics committee. Conyers was the target of an informal ethics committee inquiry last year following a Free Press investigation about use of staff members during work hours for political campaigns.

Boyd, who was fired from Conyers' Detroit office in 2002, was convicted on seven counts of fraud last month in U.S. District Court in connection with a scam he ran from Conyers' office in 1999.

Boyd, Brown and Grubbs did not return Free Press calls.

A spokesman for the ethics committee could not be reached for comment.

A spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's Office declined comment.

Contact JOEL THURTELL at 248-351-3296 or [email protected]

LOL! That's rich coming from a Republican. Even assuming that the Democrats "stole" the election, I'd just say they learned their lesson from katherine Harris and the Selection of 2000. Isn't it about time you moved on, Mr. Sore Loserman?

>I'd just say they learned their lesson from katherine Harris

Ms. Harris was required by the Florida CONSTITUTION to certify the results on a day proscribed BY LAW. If she hadn't certified the results she would have been breaking THE LAW and her oath of office to obey the CONSTITUTION.

So, if you want to have any credibility, you might want to make your point using an argument that isn't patently idiotic.

Helpfully yours,

FFF

>>I'd just say they learned their lesson from katherine Harris

>

>

>Ms. Harris was required by the Florida CONSTITUTION to certify

>the results on a day proscribed BY LAW. If she hadn't

>certified the results she would have been breaking THE LAW and

>her oath of office to obey the CONSTITUTION.

i wasn't refering to that, O Mental Giant. I was referring to the disenfranchisement of tens of thousands of black voters during the Selection of 2000 by the aforementioned Ms. Harris through the use of a questionable "felons" list that proved to be highly inaccurate. It certainly would have counteracted the 537 vote margin, but alas it could not change Bush's 4-3 victory in that Selection.

Informationally yours,

Neal

>>>I'd just say they learned their lesson from katherine

>Harris

>>

>>

>>Ms. Harris was required by the Florida CONSTITUTION to

>certify

>>the results on a day proscribed BY LAW. If she hadn't

>>certified the results she would have been breaking THE LAW

>and

>>her oath of office to obey the CONSTITUTION.

>

>i wasn't refering to that, O Mental Giant. I was referring to

>the disenfranchisement of tens of thousands of black voters

I've asked this question before, and I'll ask it one more time because no one has yet to answer it - all I get is black helicopter scenarios straight from the fever swamps of the Left.

Here we go........

Can anyone name a SINGLE concrete example of black disenfrancisement. It's been FOUR YEARS since that election and The New York Times has yet to run a specific story of where this happened - just vague generalized charges. No one has been arrested. No one has had charges brought against them. No one has named a specific precint where this happened, No one has paraded a person in front of the camera with a credible story of how they were denied their right to vote. Since there were TENS OF THOUSANDS of blacks who had this happen to them, you'd think they could prop ONE up in front of the camera. Where's the Rosa Parks of the 2000 election?

Could it be because THERE WAS NO DISENFRANCISEMENT??

Also, think about this.......

Black precints are DEMOCRAT precints. We're suppose to believe that the Democrats in charge of those precints didn't want their own voters to vote? Could you please explain that logic to me?

You guys are like those Japanese that were found on islands, years after the war ended who thought the WW2 was still going on.

Ever heard of MOVEON.org? It's long past time to mooooooooooove on. Bush won. Soreloserman lost.

Thank God.

And since 2000, you've keep losing Senate and House seats and lost the Presidential election that would have fired the "appointed" President. Keep up the good work guys - you're on a roll!

Thankfully yours,

FFF

RE: FFF- Mental Giant

Let's see: katherine harris is the secretary of state AND the Bush campaign chair for Florida. No conflict of interest there.

Florida List for Purge of Voters Proves Flawed

By FORD FESSENDEN

Published: July 10, 2004

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/07/10/national/10florida.html?hp=&adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1089468250-fDeU9Gaz4EqlkGpEWc

CzZg

Florida election officials used a flawed method to come up with a listing of people believed to be convicted felons, a list that they are

recommending be used to purge voter registration rolls, state officials acknowledged yesterday. As a result, voters identifying themselves

as Hispanic are almost completely absent from that list.

Of nearly 48,000 Florida residents on the felon list, only 61 are Hispanic. By contrast, more than 22,000 are African-American.

About 8 percent of Florida voters describe themselves as Hispanic, and about 11 percent as black.

In a presidential-election battleground state that decided the 2000 race by giving George W. Bush a margin of only 537 votes, the effect

could be significant: black voters are overwhelmingly Democratic, while Hispanics in Florida tend to vote Republican.

Elections officials of Florida's Republican administration denied any partisan motive in use of the method they adopted, and noted that it

had been approved as part of a settlement of a civil rights lawsuit.

"This was absolutely unintentional," said Nicole de Lara, spokeswoman for the Florida secretary of state, Glenda E. Hood, an appointee

of Gov. Jeb Bush, the president's brother. "The matching criteria were approved by several interested parties in the lawsuit, and the court.

I don't know how it got by all those people without anyone noticing." (Nicole: Was it "UNintentional" in 2000, too? And don't you think in

the four years since then, that the state has had enough time to get it right?).

Jill Bratina, a spokeswoman for Governor Bush, said: "The governor is complying with the law and complying with the settlement.

Recognizing now that there is a discrepancy, the Department of State is looking into the options." ("Recognizing discrepancies NOW"?

Do you think that could have something do with the fact that the MEDIA is actually paying attention this time around?

Anita Earls, one of the lawyers for plaintiffs in the civil rights suit, said state officials had not given them the kind of access to data

that might have uncovered the flaw. Nicole! Is this one of the "interested parties" who "approved the matching criteria?" If so, she says

y'all didn't give them access. Ooops!

The method uses race as one of several factors in determining whether a felon has registered to vote. If a voter's first name, last name

and date of birth are the same as those of a convicted felon but the race is different, the name is not put on the list for potential purging.

But the database of felons has only five variables for race: white, black, Asian, Indian and unknown. And a voter registered as Hispanic

whose name and birth date matched a felon's would be left off the purge list unless his race was listed as unknown. I wonder how

many Hispanics don't "know" what their race is..... hmm?

A spokeswoman for the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, Kristen Perezluha, said the felon database used F.B.I. criteria for

judging race and so never listed Hispanic. (Hmm...who got the Devious Award of the Day for figuring out this loophole?

Florida undertook a similar purge of voter rolls in 2000, but that list was shown to include the names of many who were not felons. The

new effort at such a purge, begun by Governor Bush's administration in May, was supposed to be free of those problems. But after a

state judge last week ordered the release of the current list, it became clear that thousands of felons who had been granted

clemency were still on it.

Democrats said yesterday that the latest disclosure should be the last straw. "Either this administration is acting incompetently in regard

to voters' rights,'' said Scott Maddox, the Democratic state chairman, "or they have ill will toward a certain class of voters. Either way, it's

unacceptable.'' Gee, Scott, do you think there just MIGHT be enough evidence to demonstrate "intent to defraud?"

"The honorable thing to do,'' Mr. Maddox added, ''is throw the list out and not purge people erroneously on the eve of election."

Some county election supervisors have said they are reluctant to use the state's list to purge the names of any voters. The law leaves that

responsibility to the county officials, but it is unclear how many will use it. "It's an impossible task to do properly," said Ion Sancho, the

supervisor in Leon County, in the Florida Panhandle.

The paucity of Hispanic voters on the felon list was first reported Wednesday, by The Sarasota Herald-Tribune, but officials said then that

the problem was not systematic. After The New York Times examined the data, state officials acknowledged that the method for matching

lists of felons to those of voters automatically exempted all felons who identified themselves as Hispanic.

Hispanic Republicans outnumber Hispanic Democrats by about 100,000 voters in Florida. But more than 90 percent of the

approximately one million registered blacks there are Democrats. The exclusion of Hispanics from the purge list explains some of

the wide discrepancy in party affiliation of voters on the felon list, which bears the names of 28,025 Democrats and just 9,521

Republicans, with most of the rest unaffiliated.

RE: FFF- Mental Giant

And why are there no lawsuits you ask? yet another republifacist dirty trick:

Whiff of Voter Suppression Fouls the Air

by Bob Herbert

The big story out of Florida over the weekend was the tragic devastation caused by Hurricane Charley. But there's another story from Florida that deserves our attention.

State police officers have been going into the homes of elderly black voters in Orlando and interrogating them as part of an odd "investigation" that has frightened many voters, intimidated elderly volunteers and thrown a chill over efforts to get out the black vote in November.

The officers, from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, which reports to Gov. Jeb Bush, say they are investigating allegations of voter fraud that came up during the Orlando mayoral election in March.

Officials refused to discuss details of the investigation, other than to say that absentee ballots are involved. They said they had no idea when the investigation might end, and acknowledged that it might continue right through the presidential election.

"We did a preliminary inquiry into those allegations and then we concluded that there was enough evidence to follow through with a full criminal investigation," said Geo Morales, a spokesman for the Department of Law Enforcement.

The state police officers, armed and in plain clothes, have questioned dozens of voters in their homes. Some of those questioned have been volunteers in get-out-the-vote campaigns.

I asked Morales in a telephone conversation to tell me what criminal activity had taken place.

"I can't talk about that," he said.

I asked if all the people interrogated were black.

"Well, mainly it was a black neighborhood we were looking at -- yes," he said.

He also said, "Most of them were elderly."

When I asked why, he said, "That's just the people we selected out of a random sample to interview."

Back in the bad old days, some decades ago, when Southern whites used every imaginable form of chicanery to prevent blacks from voting, blacks often fought back by creating voter leagues, which were organizations that helped to register, educate and encourage black voters. It became a tradition that continues in many places, including Florida, today.

Not surprising, many of the elderly black voters who found themselves face to face with state police officers in Orlando are members of the Orlando League of Voters, which has been very successful in mobilizing the city's black vote.

The president of the Orlando League of Voters is Ezzie Thomas, who is 73 years old. With his demonstrated ability to deliver the black vote in Orlando, Thomas is a tempting target for supporters of George W. Bush in a state in which the black vote may well spell the difference between victory and defeat.

The vile smell of voter suppression is all over this so-called investigation by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.

Joseph Egan, an Orlando lawyer who represents Thomas, said: "The Voters League has workers who go into the community to do voter registration, drive people to the polls, and help with absentee ballots. They are elderly women mostly. They get paid like $100 for four or five months work, just to offset things like the cost of their gas. They see this political activity as an important contribution to their community. Some of the people in the community had never cast a ballot until the league came to their door and encouraged them to vote."

Now, said Egan, the fear generated by state police officers going into people's homes as part of an ongoing criminal investigation related to voting is threatening to undo much of the good work of the league. He said, "One woman asked me, 'Am I going to go to jail now because I voted by absentee ballot?'"

According to Egan, "People who have voted by absentee ballot for years are refusing to allow campaign workers to come to their homes. And volunteers who have participated for years in assisting people, particularly the elderly or handicapped, are scared and don't want to risk a criminal investigation."

Florida is a state that's very much in play in the presidential election, with some polls showing John Kerry in the lead. A heavy-handed state police investigation that throws a blanket of fear over thousands of black voters can only help President Bush.

The long and ugly tradition of suppressing the black vote is alive and thriving in the Sunshine State.

http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0817-14.htm

RE: Democrats steal from the homeless

As a former Michigander, I read this article and cringed. But, just because one Democrat did it you shouldn't blame the entire Democratic party.

I sincerely hope there is a formal investigation of "Turkey-Gate" and that (if guilty) he is prosecuted to the full extent of the law. Stealing from the homeless is despicable. x(

But, can someone explain to me why a company would use a member of Congress to distribute holiday turkeys? There are so many local, reputable organizations that could have used the turkeys. Why in the hell did the company use a Congressional office to handle the task of feeding the homeless? Something doesn't add up.

RE: Democrats steal from the homeless

>As a former Michigander, I read this article and cringed.

>But, just because one Democrat did it you shouldn't blame the

>entire Democratic party.

You do know, don't you, that you are the same One Finger who posted that cartoonish trash from the insane, universally despised psycopath known as Fred Phelps and then attempted to use that to impugn the entire "Right Wing"?

And yet, here you are, a mere 3 days later, saying how unfair it is to attribute the bad acts of one little individual Democratic Congressional Staffer to Democrats generally.

Can't you at least pretend to apply the same ethical and behavioral standards to yourself and to your political allies as you do to those who have different political views?

RE: FFF- Mental Giant

I'm familiar with Bob Herbert's hysteria. However, the little problem is that NO ONE HAS BEEN CHARGED! It's merely people saying they "felt" intimidated. NO ONE kept them from going to the polls.

NEXT!

Clearly yours,

FFF

RE: FFF- Mental Giant

I'm a little confused..........

Are you upset that black felons weren't allowed to vote (which by law they aren't allowed to do) or are you upset that hispanic felons WERE allowed to vote? Where's the disenfrancisement?

Your example makes no sense. Where's the person who had the right to vote but wasn't allowed to do so? Where are the people barring the doors so that Miss Jane Pittman couldn't ener the polling station?

Once again you prove my point: no one can come up with a single documented instance of where someone was barred from voting who had the right to do so. And why is that? BECAUSE IT DIDN'T HAPPEN.

Move on Dorothy Org!

Repeatedly yours,

FFF

RE: Democrats steal from the homeless

No, he won't do that because you don't understand his (and the other Repiglican shills) whole purpose here: to try to divert attention from the cesspools of mega-scale corruption otherwise known as The Bush Administration and the Republican Congressional Leadership. What are Enron, and Halliburton, and Texas redistricting, and Geneva Convention violations, and unilateral invasions, and concentration camps, and on and on and on when compared to some minor chiseling by a Democratic Congressional staffer? You obviously don't understand what's important to Republiscum!

RE: FFF- Mental Giant

>I'm familiar with Bob Herbert's hysteria. However, the little

>problem is that NO ONE HAS BEEN CHARGED! It's merely people

>saying they "felt" intimidated. NO ONE kept them from going to

>the polls.

>

>NEXT!

>

>Clearly yours,

>

>FFF

KKK (Ooops, I mean) FFF-

The fact that charges weren't filed YET, does not mean a crime wasn't committed or that people were unjustly intimidated. In Florida right before the election, I was pulled over by police. I happened to be wearing a Kerry button. It was a case of mistaken identity and they let me go eventually. However, the person they were looking for had a bench warrant out on him. He and I shared the same name and birthdate. Because it was a big case, They called for back up. There were 5 police cars which responded including the head of the precinct.

Interestingly enough, two different officers and the precinct captain all said the same thing to me independently. Each said it when they were alone with me. They each said something simular to. "I see you are a John Kerry supporter, you probably do belong in jail."

I found it interesting that not one, but three people felt they had to try to make me uncomfortable about supporting Kerry.

In the end, I left and was not taken in, but it was clear that this must happen quite a bit in Florida.

RE: Democrats steal from the homeless

>You do know, don't you, that you are the same One Finger who posted that cartoonish trash from the insane, universally despised psychopath known as Fred Phelps and then attempted to use that to impugn the entire "Right Wing"?

OK, you caught in a moment of being inconsistent. I did infer that the slim-ball Phelps was representative of the right wing. Some right wingers may be better than others but they're all usually too extreme for me. I guess I just haven't found one yet I'd like to have as a close friend.

As for Trilingual statement concerning my political affiliation, I am NOT a Republican!!! I'm highly insulted that you'd lump me into that category. I will admit that I was an active Republican (delegate to the State Convention and actually voted for Nixon).

However, I left that party in 1976 and actually had the county clerk change my status. (In Utah you have to declare a party to vote in the primary elections.) I've voted 90% Democratic or third-party ever since. When in Michigan I actually voted for John Conyers.

RE: Democrats steal from the homeless

Why do you keep mentioning Enron as if it were a Bush problem. Enron was supported by the Clinton administration to the extent that he sent his Commerce Secretary and Trade Secretary along with the Enron people to make presentations to foreign countries to drum up business for Enron. Bush refused to cover up for Enron. Yet according to you Enron is a Bush problem.

Also Halliburton was also given contracts without opposition by the Clinton administration yet for some reason that seems to show up below your screen. Wonder why.

As to the felon list, the person responsible for the felon list was not Katherine Harris. It was a democratic official. The counties that had voting problems were all democratic counties with the ballots designed by the democratic officials. The counties in Washington that seem to keep finding more ballots when they were needed were all democratic counties with democratic officials and at that democratic officials that swore years ago that they were going to clean up the voting lists and give us clean elections. What happened this year? 3500+ votes more counted than were even signed up on the voting lists. When some of the names on the voting register were checked, they were people who had died months before the election. The voting problems in Ohio were also all in democratic counties. See the pattern here?

RE: Democrats steal from the homeless

Yes, i do see the problem.

You are either smoking too much crack or listening to too much Sean Hannity. Both can be fatal.