VELVETREVOLUTION.US :

VR today offers a $100,000 reward for hard information leading to the arrest and conviction of any person or persons who rigged the 2002 Senate race in Georgia in favor of Saxby Chambliss. That election pitted popular incumbent Max Cleland, a war hero, against conservative novice Saxby Chambliss. The pre-election polls showed Cleland with a comfortable lead but the end results had Chambliss winning by a wide margin.

Diebold whistleblower Chris Hood has stated publicly that, in the days leading up to that election, he was ordered by Diebold President Bob Urosevich (a GOP partisan) to place uncertified patches on hundreds of voting machines in the Democratic leaning counties of Fulton and DeKalb. Hood was told not to discuss these patches with Georgia elections officials. Documents provided by Hood show that Cathy Cox, the former top Georgia elections official, was unaware at the time that these patches had been placed on the machines.

Cyber security expert Stephen Spoonamore has stated that Mr. Hood gave him a copy of the Georgia patch and that he analyzed it and turned it over to the FBI Cyber Team in Washington for investigation. Spoonamore stated that the patch was a comparative patch and could have been used to flip the votes in the Diebold machines. He stated that in his expert opinion, Max Cleland was the real winner of that election and that Saxby Chambliss stole it with the Diebold machines.

Georgia uses paperless Diebold touchscreen machines for its elections. The machines it uses have been shown by computer scientists to be very vulnerable to manipulation and rigging with a computer patch or virus that can be installed in seconds.

VR wants to ensure that the December 2^nd runoff election in Georgia between Saxby Chambliss and Jim Martin is not manipulated by an uncertified patch placed on voting machines by persons who have a partisan interest in the results. In order to ensure a clean election without vote machine rigging, the person or persons who may have rigged the 2002 Chambliss race must be exposed and prosecuted. All tips will remain confidential and can be left by phone: 1-888-VOTETIP or by email: tips (at) velvetrevolution.us.

Just weeks before the appeal of former Alabama Governor Don Siegelman’s case is to be heard by the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals, more explosive evidence of DOJ misconduct has come to light by none other than a DOJ legal staffer who worked in the office that prosecuted Siegelman. > In short, that staffer, Tamarah T. Grimes, has provided emails that prove that Leura Canary, who had recused herself from the case, continued to follow every detail and provide advice and facts to the prosecutors. Ms. Grimes also provided emails showing that jurors had improper contact with the prosecution and that one juror had a crush on one of the prosecution team. Canary was a U.S. Attorney in Montgomery whose husband was Alabama's top Republican operative and who had for years worked closely with Karl Rove.

We interviewed Siegelman in July and he told us then that Karl Rove directed his prosecution and ordered the rigging of his election. It is time to get to the truth in this case and AG Michael Mukasey should not wait for the appeal court to rule. Mukasey himself should file to dismiss all charges against Siegelman.

VR has obtained an unaired major TV interview with Maryland’s top election official, Linda Lamone, in the weeks prior to the 2006 election. This is a must see video.

The dogged reporter who conducted the interview tried valiantly to get candid answers from Lamone (Administrator of Maryland's State Board of Elections and President of the National Association of State Election Directors) regarding the security and accuracy of the Diebold paperless touchscreen machines used in Maryland. Lamone, in response, said that respected computer expert Avi Rubin had done more than anyone to undermine confidence in electronic voting, that the reporter was living in a “fantasy land” to believe that voting machines are unsecure, and that source code used in the voting machines is “not relevant.” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YyWVB9RmwpE

Finally, rather than answer further questions, Lamore ripped off the microphone and stalked out of the interview. Wow, so much for transparency.

There is an interesting postscript to this interview. Despite the rabid opposition of Lamone, Maryland last year passed legislation outlawing paperless voting machines starting in 2010. Supporters of this new law argued that Lamone had no credibility since she was the person who helped cover-up and sanitize the SAIC report about the Maryland DRE machines. That report, leaked to VR in October 2006, http://www.bradblog.com/?p=3719, showed that the machines had hundreds of major vulnerabilities that could be exploited to compromise an election. Here is our video about that report. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j8EeaFyY4y4

Barack Obama was overwhelmingly elected by citizens in all regions of the country. Unlike the past two elections where the results were contested in two states run by partisans who rigged the results, this election was won hands down by the person who ran the best campaign. This is not to say that there were not massive problems with voting systems in many states. But this election did not come down to one state or county controlled by corrupt officials.

Four years ago, VR was formed out of the chaos of the 2004 election. Since then, we and all of you have fought a long battle to ensure that our elections are fair, honest and transparent. We demanded accurate voting machines and paper ballots. In this election, both Florida and Ohio, now with paper ballots, went Blue and there is no one questioning that result.

Over the past several months, we have raised the specter of a Man in the Middle computer attack on the vote tabulators controlled by partisan evangelicals. We identified Michael Connell as the key GOP IT expert who created these nefarious networks. We took legal action against Connell in the form of a federal deposition. Karl Rove responded by threatening Connell to either take the fall or keep his mouth shut. Connell’s Bush/Cheney attorneys did everything possible to keep Connell from testifying.

Two weeks ago, Rove was confidently saying that John McCain could win ten battleground states to become President. McCain was confidently telling everyone that he would win with a surge in the wee hours of election night.

Well, last Friday, something important happened: Michael Connell was forced to appear before Solomon Oliver, a Clinton appointed African-American federal Judge in Cleveland. After Attorney Cliff Arnebeck accused Connell in open court of rigging elections for Karl Rove, the judge ordered Connell to submit to a sworn deposition 18 hours before the polls were to open. On Monday at noon, Connell was placed under oath and grilled about election fraud, Man in the Middle attacks, Trojan horse manipulations and threats from Rove.

And guess what happened? Connell suddenly changed his tune. Connell said that to his knowledge there would be no tabulation manipulations of Tuesday’s election. And something else, Karl Rove wrote on his blog late Monday that Obama would win by a landslide even in those states he had previously predicted McCain would win.

In short, at VR, with all the help from you, our affiliates, our supporters and others, we played a role in helping to make this presidential election more fair than the past two. Our education campaign, our paper ballot campaign, our whistleblower campaign and our legal strategies worked. That’s what democracy is all about.

Thank all of you for your confidence in our work, your dedication and your kind and generous support. We hope to continue to do our small part to make our government more accountable to everyone.

The first deposition of Michael Connell took place yesterday in Cleveland. Connell was put on notice that he was being questioned about election fraud. Connell quickly adopted the posture of many Bush staffers who have been questioned about wrongdoing, such as Scooter Libby, Alberto Gonzales, Karl Rove, Stephen Hadley, Donald Rumsfeld and others. Attorney Cliff Arnebeck said that Connell is a classic ”Bush/Rove Team player” who was schooled on how to not answer.

Connell’s attorney helped Connell by telling him not to answer many questions including, “Who directed you to set up the Swift Boat Veterans For Truth IT Network.”

The only admission of substance was, after an initial denial, Connell said that he brought Triad and SmartTech into the Ohio election game. Of course, these are the two companies identified by Spoonamore as rigging the election, Triad by pulling hard drives prior to the recount and SmartTech by running the election results through its GOP servers in Chattanooga before they got to the Ohio election computers.

Mr. Arnebeck said that Connell denied that there were “any” problems at all with any voting systems and he never heard of any fraud. He said he did not “know of any vulnerabilities” to voting systems in Ohio. In other words, he said that everything’s fine, no one did anything wrong, and everyone should trust people like him to count their votes.

Mr. Arnebeck “Connell has just ensured that he is Exhibit A of the soon to be filed RICO lawsuit against Karl Rove et al for manipulating elections.” Arnebeck also said that Connell demonstrates the epitome of unethical conflicts of interest for running George Bush’s election IT network while counting the votes in the key state of Ohio.

The silver lining to all of this is that Connell and his handlers know that their gig is up. They should not believe for a minute that Connell’s two hour performance yesterday will do anything to slow down our investigation. Once the dust clears from today’s election, the attorneys will go full force to charge Connell and others with Racketeering and Corrupt Practices.

OK, tomorrow is Election Day and we expect many problems across the country. However, there are many people who are on the front lines trying to protect the vote. We want to remind you of a few of the things we are doing.

Today, Monday November 3, Mike Connell, known as the Republican IT Guru, will be deposed in Cleveland, Ohio at 12:00 noon EST. This is part of a long-standing voting rights violations lawsuit, King Lincoln v. Blackwell, which has been previously covered by The BRAD BLOG and by Velvet Revolution's Election Protection Strike Force. Mr. Connell's company, GovTech Solutions, created Ohio's 2004 election results computer network. Connell will be questioned on many topics including Man in the Middle attacks, remote trojan horses, threats from Karl Rove, and Triad's manipulation of the election. The judge has ruled that information considered to be trade secrets of Connell's company will be under seal, as will any information gathered about witness intimidation, specifically the allegations of Karl Rove sending word to Connell that unless he "takes the fall" for election fraud, Rove will see to it that Connell's wife will be brought up on money laundering charges. Hopefully, all other questions and answers regarding all other topics will be available on Monday afternoon. Regardless of what happens in this deposition, it will likely be a dramatic day with many revelations and will help ensure that Connell and his cohorts have not rigged this election.

On Election Night, Brad Friedman of The BRAD BLOG will be anchoring Nova M Radio's coverage from 3:00 p.m. to at least Midnight (and possibly later), PST. That coverage will be not of the horserace, but of the track conditions, with stories of disenfranchisement, voter suppression, long lines, last minute legal rulings, any challenges that arise, etc. The networks and cable won't give any attention to these issues, but you know we will! We'll have up-to-the-minute information and a number of live guests. Listen live at this link http://www.novamradio.com/live/. Find a radio station broadcasting the show here http://www.novaMradio.com.

We are also working closely with Video the Vote to make sure that people with video cameras are present to document problems with the election. VR is one of the VTV east coast coordinators. Check it out a www.videothevote.org and if you see something going wrong, call 1-866-OURVOTE.

We are also working with a new organization called The Uptake, www.theuptake.com, which is doing something similar to VTV but more instantaneous. The UpTake uses video phones to take footage and give audio reports that feed directly into the Internet. Nokia has donated video phones to them for use in this election and VR helped to fund this new technology. We expect to have UpTake reports coming in all day.

Also, remember to call our fraud hotline if you have a tip you want investigated, 1-888-VOTETIP. And check our Election Protection Strike Force for the latest election news.

Finally, check out our affiliate www.truevote.us and sign their most recent petitions.
Urge Media To Archive All Exit Poll Results http://truevote.us/nucleus/index.php?itemid=600&
Petition for International Election Observers http://truevote.us/nucleus/index.php?itemid=574
Stop Vote Flipping in West Virginia http://truevote.us/nucleus/index.php?itemid=397
Take Action: Help Ensure All Who Want to Vote Can http://truevote.us/nucleus/index.php?itemid=340

Yesterday, after a contentious three hour hearing in an Akron, Ohio federal court, the judge ordered Bush/Rove IT expert Michael Connell to submit to a two hour deposition less than 24 hours before the start of the 2008 election. The Court ruled that Ohio attorney Cliff Arnebeck can question Connell under oath about Man in the Middle computer manipulations, the use of Trojan horses to control election results from a remote location, and the role of Triad in election manipulations.

However, in a strange twist, the judge agreed with demands from Connell’s attorney to keep under seal any testimony about threats and intimidation of Connell by others including Karl Rove. This is seen as necessary to protect possible criminal charges against those who may have engaged in obstruction of justice in this case.

A couple of notes here: We believe that Connell should not pull an Alexander Butterfield by waiting for a direct question from Mr. Arnebeck as to what he knows about rigged elections. Instead, Connell should be prepared to come clean from the start knowing that this is just the beginning of the inquiry. We have lots of names and lots of people providing us information about these rigged elections. Connell is not longer under the protectorate of the Bush family. There is a new dynamic here and Connell can either fight it and go down with the ship or get out in front and cooperate with full immunity for him and his wife.

Also, Connell must now know that the gig is up—he can’t steal this election. If he has set up the network for such a theft, he knows that he has to shut it down prior to Tuesday because he will get caught. People must now be held accountable and Connell has a unique opportunity to do that by cooperating in full and telling what he knows about election rigging, White House email destruction, front groups, and orders from Karl Rove and others to do illegal things.

America’s most famous prosecutor, Vincent Bugliosi, sat down with VR for an interview about his new book, “The Prosecution of George W. Bush for Murder.” He lays out his case in great detail and promises that he will lead the prosecution if appointed to do so. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ULq9Ha7aKO8&feature=related This is a must see, candid interview about a criminal president. When asked why so many people have been afraid to take on the Bush Administration, Bugliosi blames the right wing fear machine. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B59IRr_1Nzk

Yesterday, Attorneys in Ohio filed papers in federal court to compel the immediate testimony of Michael Connell, the GOP’s top IT expert. In short, they argued that Connell, once a willing witness, has hunkered down after threats from Karl Rove and his minions. See Memo here. They allege that Connell is a witness to a crime to steal prior elections, and his knowledge will be helpful to ensure that next week’s election is not stolen.

Attached to the motion is a powerful affidavit from Stephen Spoonamore, a cyber-security expert advising the attorneys. Spoonamore states that the 2004 election in Ohio was attacked by a Man in the Middle King Pin computer manipulation that changed the results from Kerry to Bush. See Spoon Declaration here. This is a must read for everyone to see how this was, and can be, done.

The Ohio News Service picked up the story here.

This is our last Kelsie video of the campaign where she asks Senator McCain to enroll Sarah Palin in her fourth grade class so Sarah can learn about the cause of global warming. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y8JHqRQiCic

Non-Profit Election Watchdog Demands Failed Machines Be Removed from Service, Impounded

In a national press release today, Velvet Revolution called for elections officials in all states to immediately impound any voting machine that has flipped votes from one candidate to another. It has been widely reported in the media over the past week of early voting that Direct Recording Election (DRE, usually touch-screen) voting machines made by ES&S, Diebold, Sequoia and Hart InterCivic have been flipping votes, predominantly from Democratic candidates to Republican candidates, but in some reported cases, just the opposite. (See: http://www.bradblog.com/?page_id=6577 )

These vote flips were first reported in West Virginia and the elections official there quickly ordered the recalibration of some machines, but video has shown that recalibration does not correct the problem and the flips continue. (See: http://www.velvetrevolution.us/electionstrikeforce/2008/10/video_the_vote_captures_video.html)

Vote flipping has also now reported to have occurred in Texas, Tennessee, Missouri, Nevada, Colorado, Georgia and elsewhere.

“Machines that flip votes should never be recalibrated,” said Brad Friedman, co-founder of Velvet Revolution. “Accessing these election-ready machines in this way, when they are most vulnerable to malicious software and manipulation, is wholly inappropriate. It is outrageous that election officials have ordered such action. Instead, failing machines must be immediately removed from service, impounded for later inspection, and voters should be given paper ballots to assure their vote may be counted accurately."

VR also demands that the legal teams associated with the candidates step up and take immediate legal action to quarantine these faulty voting machines. The Obama campaign has made much of the fact that it has thousands of lawyers on the ground to ensure that this election is fair and everyone’s vote is counted. “Unfortunately, these lawyers, the lawyers for McCain and the lawyers for the DNC and RNC are AWOL and asleep at the wheel,” continued Friedman. “”We insist that they keep their promise to the voters by demanding that these machines be taking out of service immediately. We should not have to wait until after the election for a candidate to sue because voters were not allowed to properly register their votes."

VR has just issued a report on our Strike Force page called, “Thirteen Election Integrity Experts: E-Voting Problems and How to StopThem.” http://www.velvetrevolution.us/electionstrikeforce/2008/10/thirteen_election_integrity_ex.html

This important report is designed to wake up candidates of all parties about the dangers of electronic voting machine problems and manipulation. It details strategies and solutions that candidates should use to protect the vote -- and their political careers.

In test after test, electronic voting systems have been shown to be vulnerable to hacking from people who want to manipulate elections. Moreover, in the past week of early voting, these voting machines have repeatedly failed, flipped votes, and miscounted results. Therefore, it is crucial to the fairness of the upcoming election that citizens and candidates understand and take action against the menace of electronic voting machines and vote tabulators. This new report provides a road map on how to do just that.

The following election experts contributed to the report. Simon Ardizzone, filmmaker, “Hacking Democracy”; John Bonifaz, Constitutional Law Attorney, National Voting Rights Institute; Clint Curtis, computer programmer, E-voting whistleblower; David Earnhardt, Director, “Uncounted;” Dr. Robert Fitrakis, Attorney, Prof. of Political Science, Author, Editor; Brad Friedman, Investigative Journalist, Founder, BradBlog.com; Bev Harris, Founder, BlackBoxVoting.org; Holly Jacobson, President, VoterAction.org; Dr. David Jefferson, Computer Security Expert; Ion Sancho, Supervisor of Elections, Leon County, FL; Gov. Don Siegelman, Former Governor of Alabama; David Swanson, Washington Director, Democrats.com; Ellen Thiesen, Co-Director, VotersUnite.org

Reporter Rebecca Abrahams wrote this week at Huffington Post that on October 11, 2006, longtime Bush/Rove IT expert Michael Connell met with cyber security expert Stephen Spoonamore to learn how to destroy data on White House computer hard drives This was during the height of the United States Attorney scandal and during the tenure of Connell's former employee, David Almacy, as director of the White House Internet and E-Communications Director.

Abrahams quotes from Spoonamore's emails which reference notes taken at the time of the meeting. Connell was accompanied at the meeting by Randy Cole, the former President of Connell's company, GovTech Solutions, now running for Ohio Congressional seat 41. When Spoonamore realized that Connell and Cole were asking how to destroy White House data, he terminated the conversation and told them that what they were asking about was illegal.

Attorney General Michael Mukasey recently appointed prosecutor Nora Dannehy to investigate whether criminal charges should be brought against those involved in the US Attorney scandal. Today, in a press release, VR called for that investigation to include what role and knowledge Michael Connell and Randy Cole have regarding the destruction of White House computer data, and, as Abrahams suggests, whether Connell knows where the White House email backup is located.

Kelsie’s latest letter to Sarah Palin expresses shock that Sarah would not want girls who get hurt to get the best medical help. She blasts Sarah for not trusting her to make medical decisions. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YKXvzPUWoDM

Today VR offered $5,000 for information leading to the arrest and conviction of those responsible for the break-ins of the Seattle and Boston offices of ACORN. In both cases, property was destroyed or stolen. ACORN issued a press release about the reward which can be seen here. Tips can be given to us on our toll free hotline, 1-888-VOTETIP or by email – tips at velvetrevolution.us.

The GOP has pulled out all the dirty tricks this election to make sure Republicans win, not by getting people to vote, but by making sure that people don’t vote. One of its tricks is called caging, where the GOP sends a letter to a voter and when it is returned as undeliverable, the voter gets purged or challenged. In Michigan, this took a very cynical turn when the GOP got lists of people who had lost their homes due to the mortgage crisis and then sent voters at those addresses caging letters. Of course, many of them were returned and the GOP used those return lists to purge voters.

However, Obama lawyers, The Advancement Project and the ACLU sued a few weeks ago, and yesterday Judge Stephen J. Murphy of the U.S. District Court of Michigan's Eastern District concluded that the program of eliminating these voters from rolls is in violation of federal law. “This is a very significant ruling for Michigan voters," said Matthew Lund, the ACLU cooperating attorney and a partner at Pepper Hamilton LLP who argued the case, in a release. "The court recognized – and repeated several times – that the state of Michigan is conducting unlawful voter purges that clearly violate the National Voter Registration Act. Michigan voters who were removed from the voting rolls for no reason other than failure to receive their ID card in the mail will now be allowed to vote in November.”

Well, one down for the people who believe in the rule of law and the right to vote. Now let’s see a court decision debunking the ACORN voter fraud myth and ordering Michael Connell and Karl Rove to testify about vote manipulations.

Velvet Revolution today issued a press release calling for Republican candidate John McCain to fire computer expert Michael Connell from his campaign for covering up alleged election manipulations of Karl Rove and others. Mr. Connell, the GOP’s top computer expert, was subpoenaed based on a September 19^thcourt order to testify under oath in an Ohio federal lawsuit looking into serious allegations that Mr. Rove has directed a strategy to illegally manipulate elections through the use of computer technology. Rather than cooperate in the investigation, Mr. Connell hired attorneys close to the Bush/Cheney Administration and refused to appear for the deposition arguing client (GOP) confidentiality. Those attorneys have said that they will do everything possible to keep Mr. Connell from testifying before the November general election.

Mr. Connell’s refusal to comply with a federal subpoena looking into credible evidence that the upcoming presidential election will be manipulated is at odds with John McCain’s promise to run a clean campaign. Another GOP cyber security expert, Stephen Spoonamore, has stated that Mr. Connell has vast experience and knowledge of the GOP computer networks at issue in the federal lawsuit.Mr. Connell has admitted to Mr. Spoonamore that in his zeal to 'save the unborn' he may have helped others who have compromised elections.”

Cliff Arnebeck, the Ohio election attorney who issued the subpoena, said Friday that he is aggressively moving to enforce the subpoena. “Mr. Connell has information about how the votes are tabulated in key states in the upcoming election. In order to ensure that the election is fair and accurate, Mr. Connell needs to testify under oath and pursuant to a lawful subpoena about how these votes are tabulated, whether the tabulation will be compromised and whether anyone has directed him to compromise those tabulations.”

According to federal filings, Mr. Connell is working for John McCain to help him win the election. VR believes that until Mr. Connell testifies under oath about his apparent knowledge of election manipulations, he should not be working for Mr. McCain. If he does, the McCain campaign will appear to be in league with Mr. Connell to cover up criminal conduct and engaging in election tampering. This will call into question the results of the November election and again cast a shadow over our election process.

In our second of four ads prior to the election, nine-year old Kelsie writes to Sarah Palin about a story she read about the Taliban in Afghanistan burning books in the girl school. Kelsie says that she will never let Sarah take her books away. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DywfhNDbSRM

Today, VR offered a $100,000 reward for information from whistleblowers who have knowledge of election related criminal activity by Michael Connell, Randy Cole, Karl Rove and others. The full ad will be published this week in the Akron newspapers and you can see it here. The information must result in a conviction.

See a larger version

In light of Mike Connell’s stonewalling of the subpoena in this case, Velvet Revolution today called for Attorney General Mukasey to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate the conduct, actions and knowledge of Michael Connell and his confidential work for Karl Rove and George Bush vis a vis election manipulations and destruction of data. VR also called on Congress to hold hearings and place Mr. Connell under oath to testify about election rigging, destruction of White House emails, and spying on Congress. See PDF news release.

VR has an exclusive interview with former Diebold contractor Chris Hood which talks about many disturbing actions by Diebold during prior elections, including illegal, uncertified and unreported patches, and improper feeding of tabulation results by Diebold Chief Bob Urosevitch. This interview was prepared for a major news program special that was supposed to air two weeks before the 2006 midterm election. At the last moment, however, the special was killed by the corporate media. Check out this important ten minute interview. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SKnIghBsU58

There have been many new twists and turns the past few days in the Ohio federal case to protect the 2008 election by exposing those who have been accused of manipulating past elections. On September 22, the federal court lifted the stay in this case and ordered depositions to begin, starting with Bush IT Expert Michael Connell. (See Order in PDF) A few days later, Connell was subpoenaed and ordered to produce documents. He hired three high powered GOP-connected attorneys and filed a Motion to Quash (See Motion in PDF)and an affidavit stating that his information is confidential. (See Affidavit in PDF) His attorneys have refused to make him available for deposition and have indicated that they will not let him testify unless forced to by the court. Attorney Arnebeck intends to secure a court order to enforce the subpoena.

So Connell is using the Rove playbook of stonewalling to cover-up his possible criminal conduct in election manipulations. Fortunately, the Ohio federal courts will do everything necessary to protect this election so Ohio is not again the laughing stock for running an election suited for the third world. Moreover, there will be others subpoenaed who will talk rather than hide behind lawyers and fallacious assertions of confidentiality. Sorry, Mike, but you can’t hide by asserting that work you did for federal and state governments is confidential. You can’t hide by asserting that you possess trade secrets when you are covering up criminal activity. The time has come for accountability.

Last week, VR interviewed GOP Cyber security expert Stephen Spoonamore about the upcoming election and his testimony in the new Ohio litigation to take depositions of Karl Rove and others.

The video is posted in full below with ten short clips for You Tube viewing. This interview is so important and explosive that we urge everyone to watch it. Spoonamore says that the GOP wanted e-voting to steal elections but now foreign governments will be hacking and the winner will be determined by the best hackers. He says that if the GOP wins the hacking competition, McCain will win 51.2 percent with three electoral votes over Obama, and it will be a stolen election.

Spoon makes valid points about the people who have been implicated in much of the election thefts such as, “they are religious extremists.” He names those who know about stolen elections and he insists that the only way to protect this election is with paper ballots, hand counted. Check out this extraordinary interview here. >

http://www.velvetrevolution.us/prosecute_rove/images/SpoonIntvw3.wmv

VR will be releasing a new video ad every week until the election in the spirit of the famous “1964 Daisy Girl” ad featuring a young girl counting the petals of a flower as the countdown proceeds to the detonation of a mushroom cloud. Our first ad is called, “An Open Letter from Kelsie to John McCain - Thou shalt not kill,” and is on YouTube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vndUiYS_HRA

Yesterday, Ohio attorney Cliff Arnebeck asked the federal court in Columbus to allow him to place Bush IT guru Michael Connell under oath to ask him about his 20 year work for the Bush family, including his work for Jeb Bush in Florida 2000 and for Ken Blackwell in Ohio 2004. “The public has a need and right to know, before the next presidential election, that the top Republican IT expert shares a concern about the vulnerability of electronic voting systems to fraudulent manipulation, and that this is not just “conspiracy theory,” Arnebeck wrote. Arnebeck also advised the court that he would seeking depositions from others, including Karl Rove. See Court filing.

Attached to the filing are two affidavits, one from cyber security expert Stephen Spoonamore and the other from analyst Richard Hayes Phillips. The Spoonamore affidavit asserts that the election computer setup used by Ken Blackwell in 2004 provided the means and opportunity for the manipulation of the election results. “ The vote tabulation and reporting system, as modified at the direction of Mr. Blackwell, allowed the introduction of a single computer in the middle of the pathway. This computer located at a company principally managing IT Systems for GOP campaign and political operations (Computer C) received all information from each county computer (Computer A) BEFORE it was sent onward to Computer B. This centralized collection of all incoming statewide tabulations would make it extremely easy for a single operator, or a preprogrammed single "force balancing computer" to change the results in any way desired by the team controlling Computer C. In this case GOP partisan operatives. Again, if this out of state system had ANY digital access to the Secretary of State’s system it would be cause for immediate investigation by any of my banking clients.” See Spoonamore Affidavit.

The Hayes affidavit asserts that after reviewing hundreds of thousands of documents, ballots and other election records, “it is my conclusion that there is so much evidence of ballot alteration, ballot substitution, ballot box stuffing, ballot destruction, vote switching, tabulator rigging, and old fashioned voter suppression, that the results of the 2004 presidential election, would have been reversed” had there been a real investigation. See Hayes Affidavit. He insists that the time is now to take depositions from those implicated in the theft of that election.

We have a flash banner at the top of our website decrying George Bush for destroying the Republican Party. However, the Grand Old Party has sunk to another low with the campaign of John McCain. Bush lied us into war and now McCain is lying about virtually everything. Even in the face of blistering attacks from the press for exposing the lies, McCain keeps them up. http://factcheck.org So lying has now become the heart and soul of the GOP, to the chagrin of many in the party. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UY5Plqs5d98

We have a new 28 minute video of cyber security expert Stephen Spoonamore that everyone should see. He explains, in clear and understandable language, just how unsecure our voting system is and states without equivocation that he believes elections have been stolen with the Diebold and ES&S machines. Although Spoonamore is a Republican, he truly believes in fair and honest elections even if that results in his candidate losing. We all need to be extra diligent this coming election and heed Spoonamore’s warnings.

http://www.velvetrevolution.us/prosecute_rove/images/SpoonInt2005.wmv

Highlights from the video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SbmiGCSHQ1c
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SoPUZvaoyqw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_PjPsteoqk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ti3MlNgeCRQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-sHsfze_Xo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AtUx0lyijXg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W_JdUZzgu9I
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1xIZLizSnGc

'If You Want Our Votes, We Want Your Pledge'

VR has launched its newest campaign at StandingForVoters.org, calling on candidates across the country to pledge to challenge elections when necessary.

In recent elections, we have witnessed targeted disenfranchisement of voters, non-transparent, unverifiable electronic voting systems, and many other assaults on the election process. However, for various reasons, election challenges have been few and far between. In the upcoming election, let's make democracy the winner by ensuring that all candidates that have standing can challenge suspect elections!

Our new campaign allows candidates to sign the Standing For Voters Pledge or Super Pledge, stating that they will not concede and will challenge suspect elections. Candidates of any party, for any office, in any state, can sign. StandingForVoters.org helps to educate candidates about the problems with elections, the types of election challenges available, and how to decide when to contest an election. It asks voters to participate by getting their candidates to sign the pledges.

Print out the pledge card http://www.standingforvoters.org/PDF/StandingForVotersCard.pdf and get it to every candidate for signature. Here are more tips http://www.standingforvoters.org/voters.html:

Attend candidates' nights or other campaign activities, make a statement about the importance of election integrity and ask the candidates publicly to sign the Standing for Voters pledge.
Call radio shows where candidates are being interviewed and ask the candidates on the air to sign the pledge.
Write letters to the editor and op-ed pieces in your local newspapers urging candidates to pledge. You can also encourage the paper only to endorse candidates who have made the pledge.
Visit candidates' websites and send them emails asking them to sign the pledge. Include a link to StandingForVoters.org.
Talk to your local political clubs. Find out who has direct contact with candidates and enlist their help.
Once one candidate for a particular office has signed on, call their opponents and ask them to match that pledge.

Visit StandingForVoters.org and see who has taken the pledge so far! And then help us make that list much, much longer!

Two weeks ago, the Advancement Project and Project Vote raised concerns that as many as 600,000 people could be thrown off the Ohio voter rolls because of vote caging and challenges. And last week Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner responded with a long letter setting out the law and provisions regarding voter challenges in Ohio.

In short, Brunner made absolutely clear that she will not allow the wholesale challenge of voters. She stated that she will be informing all elections officials in the state that every challenged voter is entitled to due process such as notice and a hearing. Moreover, any voter purged from the voter rolls is entitled to cast his or her vote using a provisional ballot. A full copy of the Brunner letter is here.

We have been asserting for years that Diebold (now Premier Elections Systems) makes voting machines that don’t work, are unreliable and that have flipped elections. Just last week, Diebold was forced to admit that software in its machines has for a decade been dropping votes. These machines are being used in 34 states in the upcoming election.

Two years ago, The Brad Blog broke the Pentagon Papers of E-Voting stories about the SAIC report on the vast problems with Diebold vote machines. In short, Diebold had issued a 40 page redacted version of the SAIC report which whitewashed the problems. Computer cyber security expert Stephen Spoonamore got a copy of the 197-page unredacted report which listed hundreds of serious problems, and he released that report to us.

Well, Spoonamore did more than that – he took the report to the Maryland Board of Elections and confronted them with it at a public meeting. He told them that if he were handed such a report in the private sector, he would “shut down the system and open a fraud investigation.” The elections officials expressed shock that they had not ever seen the same unredacted report. And when the meeting was over, Spoonamore, with a concealed microphone, personally confronted the officials. And what did one of them say to him –that him having the report was “a security risk.” Following the confrontation, Spoonamore was contacted by law enforcement officials who demanded to know how he got the report. We can say now that the report came from a high official in the Executive Branch who wanted to expose Diebold.

We have this all in an exclusive video now posted on YouTube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j8EeaFyY4y4 This exclusive report was prepared for a major news program but was killed prior to the mid-term elections. Why was it killed, and why did we have to wait another two years before Diebold was forced to admit that its voting machines are unreliable?

There must be transparency in the election process and this report underscores why these machines should be investigated from top to bottom by independent investigators before even being considered for use in an election. The lesson is clear – we cannot trust the vote machine companies and we need paper ballots for all votes cast.

The untold story behind our new RoveCyberGate campaign is frightening. www.rovecybergate.com We have learned from attorneys that the Chambers of Commerce, both US and state, have a political arm that works closely with Karl Rove to raise hundreds of millions of dollars for the purpose of manipulating elections. That money is used to create fake front organizations as so-called “advocacy groups” to attack candidates who are not “pro-business.” The advocacy group donors are exempted from disclosure.

The attorney who is handling the RoveCyberGate case, Cliff Arnebeck , is one of the only lawyers in the country to ever sue the Chamber of Commerce over this practice. He did so in the case of Ohio Justice Alice Robie Resnick where the Ohio Chamber spent over $4 million to unseat her using the front group, Citizens for a Strong Ohio. In short, the Ohio Elections Commission and every court thereafter held that the Chamber criminally violated election laws by taking large amounts of undisclosed funds to make political attacks on specific candidates. http://www.thealliancefordemocracy.org/html/eng/2246-AA.shtml

This is a nationwide strategy to attack progressive candidates and stack the judiciary with pro-business judges. Big business benefits with hands off regulations, lax enforcement, and policies that pump billions of dollars into the coffers of energy, tobacco, pharmaceutical and military corporations. Since the election of George Bush, the Chamber of Commerce has been one of the largest lobbying organizations, spending almost $400 million. It intends to spend millions more in the upcoming election, much of illegally and unreported. We intend to expose the Chamber, the fake front groups, and the dishonest, partisan companies funding this anti-democratic operation.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3EUJ0_3ynmc

VR has launched a new campaign, www.rovecybergate.com, to galvanize citizens and the press to support investigations of Karl Rove and his cohorts for recent allegations of election manipulations. Just today, sources in the Department of Justice leaked that the US Attorney scandal investigation is now focused on a cover-up hatched out of the White House to protect Rove. According to many, such as ex-Alabama Governor Don Siegelman, the US Attorney scandal was part of Rove’s strategy to manipulate elections by ensuring that the White House could use the power of the Justice Department to target Democrats, cover up fraudulent elections, and intimidate organizations registering citizens to vote.

Our new campaign involves a multi-pronged approach: first we want as many people to send a letter to Congress asking that it hold public hearings on the allegations and that the Department of Justice appoint a special prosecutor to investigate. Second, we want to spread the word to citizens and the media, and therefore www.rovecybergate.com has all the press articles about the Ohio legal case targeting Rove; and third, we want to raise substantial funds to support the Ohio attorneys’ legal case—legal fees, expert witnesses, press, investigators, and depositions.

The catch phrase for the campaign is, “Protect Elections, Prosecute Rove.” The word prosecute can mean either civil or criminal action. In this campaign, we are supporting the civil action to get discovery and take depositions and, if criminal activity is exposed, the attorneys will refer that for criminal prosecution. Whistleblowers, such as GOP Cyber Sleuth Stephen Spoonamore and others are saying that Rove architected and directed the actual manipulation of votes in several elections. Spoonamore also says that the GOP has been “stealing elections” and “lying about it.”

Please visit www.rovecybergate.com to get the latest updates. And don’t forget to make a contribution, big or small, to the support the Ohio legal strategy. You can earmark your donation here.

King Lincoln/Cynthia McKinney News Conference

Columbus OH - The Green Party, which teamed up with the Libertarians to demand a complete recount of the 2004 Presidential election in Ohio, has endorsed the plaintiffs' in the King Lincoln Bronzeville Neighborhood Association v. Blackwell, motion to lift the stay placed upon the case during settlement negotiations with Secretary Brunner.

Please join 2008 Green Party Presidential candidate Cynthia McKinney, and us for a news conference on our mutual continuing efforts to assure the integrity of the 2008 Ohio election.

Our news conference will be held outside the King Arts Complex, 867 Mt. Vernon Ave., Columbus, OH at 12:00 Noon, this Saturday August 9, 2008.

GOP cyber security expert Stephen Spoonamore, in this exclusive must see interview, boldly accuses the GOP of stealing elections and lying about it. Please watch and send it to your friends. This interview was supposed to air on national television prior to the last election but was censored. Why was it censored? Who decided to censor it? Please ask Congress to investigate Spoonamore’s allegations. Go to www.rovecybergate.com and send a letter to Congress.

http://www.velvetrevolution.us/prosecute_rove/images/Spoon_Full.wmv

Interview transcript

Highlights from the Spoonamore Interview

Segment 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZAyEfovA404
Segment 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vTBLfgos5b8
Segment 3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SzKbigGoMoo
Segment 4: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9vNvweInGFs
Segment 5: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rX8fRwsTpoQ
Segment 6: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m9Kq4dxPwY8
Segment 7: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AsgY4_BB2lo
Segment 8: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jy1sz-xBxf8

VR will be posting articles for the next several months from former ABC reporter Rebecca Abrahams, who worked for over a year on an hour long ABC special about election problems. After numerous rewrites, ABC got cold feet and and killed the story. VR wants that story in the public domain so we have asked her to contribute to VR. This is a terrific honor and gives us exclusives on various matters that she has intimate knowledge. Here is the first of her contributions—the back story on the use of the Diebold vote machine patches in the 2002 Senate race between Saxby Chambliss and Max Cleland, a race which had Cleland leading in all polls yet the final results had him losing by three points.

By Rebecca Abrahams

The question of whether electronic voting machines can be manipulated has for some been the holy grail of conspiracy theories. But a large and growing body of evidence by computer scientists and cyber security experts has revealed that only one person, not a conspiracy, is needed to change the results of election. For years there have been reports of significant software glitches and successful hacks to electronic voting machines. The voting equipment manufacturers insist their systems are safe and secure, stressing that they have replaced flawed components. However, no one will ever know if corrections have been made, as the software that tabulates America’s votes remains a closely guarded secret by four private, for-profit companies. Indeed, experts from Princeton to Berkeley have repeatedly proven them wrong.

Meanwhile, whistleblowers continue to come forward accusing these companies of ignoring software glitches and in some cases, rigging the vote. Last week the New York Times highlighted examples of ongoing concerns regarding the security and accuracy of electronic voting machines -- Adam Cohen wrote of “secret patches” administered to Diebold touch screen voting machines in Georgia’s DeKalb and Fulton counties two weeks prior to the 2002 Senatorial election between incumbent Max Cleland and challenger Saxby Chambliss.

I am quite familiar with the controversy surrounding this election, as I spent almost two years investigating electronic voting fraud for ABC News. I interviewed a confidential Diebold contractor who says he installed the patch upgrade to these machines. He personally gave me the patch after my correspondent and I spent six hours interviewing him in an undisclosed hotel room hundreds of miles from our Washington news bureau.

This is the back story on the infamous “Georgia Patch.” The patch is known in cyber security circles by the provocative name, “RobGeorgia.zip,” was said to be a clock update patch that Diebold President Bob Urosevich gave to Diebold contractors two weeks before the election. Here is an excerpt from my February 2005 interview with the Diebold technician.

A: The patch was not certified, it was not known to the State of Georgia. In fact, the patch was applied in somewhat of a secret rush manner.

Q: Diebold applied it secretly?

A: Yes. They did. It was sort of done very quickly and there was no communication from my understanding with the State and we were told just to do it and do it very quickly.

Q: How could you have gained access to those machines?

A: We had access and control of all the machines in the state of Georgia.

Q: And who gave you that access?

A: The state of Georgia did. This was a fast implementation. I’ll just put a time window of 6 months or less on the implementation, and that’s not enough time to train poll workers and voters and election officials on how to use this complex technology. It’s just not enough time. So we were running the entire election in 2002 for the state of Georgia.

Q: What do you think was on the patch?

A: Something illegal. Something illegal. Had it been legal we would have taken it through the proper certification procedures and we would have applied it as the rules call for. So something illegal, known to be illegal, was put on those machines. That makes the election illegal.

***********************************************************************************

It is unknown what was really on that patch. What is known that any update to the equipment would have meant that Georgia’s electronic voting machines should have been recertified by independent testing authorities. That never happened.

In fact, when I asked Secretary of State Cathy Cox’s office if they knew of any such update, they said they had no knowledge of the clock patch. They did say that a patch to correct screen freezes was implemented that July but that was the only patch they were aware of. (click here to read their written response) This means that whatever was on the patch that the former Diebold contractor, and his colleagues inserted into the Diebold machines, was done unbeknownst to the State and, hence, was never certified. So, it’s anyone’s guess what that patch did.

Also, the screen freeze patch to the Diebold machines in July 2002 was never certified. However, since it was too close to the election, Secretary of State Cathy Cox decided to wait to certify the machines after the election in December. This means that voters were using uncertified equipment, in violation of state law, which should have made that election invalid.

According to my source, the secret software that was installed to fix the clock took over a minute to download. Despite the download of this software, the clocks were never fixed.

Diebold fought back with a strongly worded letter (click here). What’s interesting to note is that Diebold claims to have made only one system upgrade. But its spokesman David Bear did not say what the patch was for or when it was installed. So at least one of those patches is unaccounted for. And, again, the screen freeze patch was never even certified. Diebold also vehemently denied any back door vulnerabilities to its GEMS tabulation software – a statement that has been proven false by computer science experts Hugh Thompson, Avi Rubin of Johns Hopkins University and more recently by David Jefferson of UC Berkeley .

At that point, I still had no idea what was on the patch so I took it to cyber security expert Stephen Spoonamore to see if he could make sense of it. Spoonamore could not confirm what was on the patch without examining the machine hard drives. However, after reviewing the patch, he told me:

“It’s not a clock function. It’s a comparator function. It asked for three different fields on the front end, that’s information coming down from the screen into the operating system, sits on the operating system entry platform. At that point, this piece of code asks three fields, I don’t know what the three fields are and what their totals are, compares them against each other and sends them somewhere else. Well if it were me and I were to guess what that code is, it’s a vote flipping code. It’s not a clock function. That I know. But ostensibly, Bob Urosevich actually carried this himself, gave it to the people and told them this is a clock function. None of them are programmers. They installed it like they were instructed. But it’s not a clock function.”

While none of this information is new, and we may never know what was installed on the Diebold machines in Georgia, we do know that Premier Election Solutions (Formerly Diebold Election Systems) contractors will be on hand to assist poll workers in the coming presidential election. The question is: who will be overseeing the contractors? If Georgia 2002 is any indication, no one will.

Last night, Ohio election attorney Cliff Arnebeck appeared on the Peter B. Collins show and told the audience that he will question Karl Rove under oath as part of the targeted discovery in the federal legal case. “A RICO case is not limited by executive privilege … and President Bush cannot stop a civil RICO case with a pardon. Also, because of the Paula Jones case against President Clinton, where the Supreme Court held that a civil case and depositions can proceed against a sitting president, Rove will have to submit to our discovery,” Arnebeck said. Listen to Arnebeck here.

Arnebeck identified Rove as the bad guy who directed the manipulation of elections by illegally funding attacks on Democrats through the use of corporate monies. He stated that confidential sources have indicated that Rove and/or Rove minions have threatened and attempted to blackmail Bush IT guru Michael Connell and his wife Heather recently and this has seriously “compounded” Rove’s et al problems since, if proven, this will constitute a federal crime. For the first time, Arnebeck disclosed that Connell has offered to cooperate with the House Judiciary Committee about this matter.

Arnebeck expects to meet with law enforcement officials early next week to discuss this stunning development.

Today Attorney Cliff Arnebeck, who last week filed papers seeking discovery and depositions from Karl Rove and others for election manipulation, wrote to Attorney General Mukasey asking for protection for GOP IT guru Michael Connell and his wife Heather. Mr. Arnebeck stated that he had received credible confidential information from various sources indicating that Rove and his henchmen threatened Mr. and Mrs. Connell. In short, Rove et al, either directly or indirectly, demanded that Connell take the fall for the election manipulation or the Justice Department would target Mrs. Connell for some lobby related money laundering.

Arnebeck, an officer of the federal court, took these threats seriously. First he reported this to the federal judge handling the case, the Ohio Attorney General and the United States Attorney in Columbus. Next he wrote to Attorney General Michael Mukasey insisting on protection for the Connells.

The entire letter is set out below and more information is on The BRAD BLOG and on ePluribusMedia.

In a short interview with VR, Mr. Arnebeck stated that Rove et al “had just made things a lot worse for themselves. It is a federal crime to threaten a witness – they are engaging in obstruction of justice, blackmail, suborning perjury, and intimidation. These charges alone could land them in the penitentiary for a very long time.”

The complete, short email, sent from Arnebeck to AG Mukasey, follows in full below...

Sent: Thursday, July 24, 2008 10:51 AM
To: XXXXX
Subject: Report of Rove threats against witness Michael Connell

Dear Attorney General Mukasey:

We have been confidentially informed by a source we believe to be credible that Karl Rove has threatened Michael Connell, a principal witness we have identified in our King Lincoln case in federal court in Columbus, Ohio, that if he does not agree to "take the fall" for election fraud in Ohio, his wife Heather will be prosecuted for supposed lobby law violations.This appears to be in response to our designation of Rove as the principal perpetrator in the Ohio Corrupt Practices Act/RICO claim with respect to which we issued document hold notices last Thursday to you and to the US Chamber of Commerce Institute for Legal Reform. See: http://www.bradblog.com/?p=6189 and http://www.archive.org/d...tionFraudInOhioCourtCase.

I have informed court chambers and am in the process of informing the Ohio Attorney General's and US Attorney's offices in Columbus for the purpose, among other things, of seeking protection for Mr. Connell and his family from this reported attempt to intimidate a witness.

Concurrently herewith, I am informing Mr. Conyers and Mr. Kucinich in connection with their Congressional oversight responsibilities related to these matters.

Because of the serious engagement in this matter that began in 2000 of the Ohio Statehouse Press Corps, 60 Minutes, the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, C-Span and Jim VandeHei, and the public's right to know of gross attempts to subvert the rule of law, I am forwarding this information to them, as well.

Cliff Arnebeck, Attorney
###-###-####
Cell ###-###-####

cc: Robert Fitrakis, Esq.
Henry Eckhart, Esq

On July 17, VR sat down with the two Ohio attorneys who have filed to take targeted depositions of Karl Rove and others to expose their strategy of election fraud. The ten minute interview is a real eye opener because they talk about how they plan to bring back the rule of law to this country and hold those accountable who have undermined it over the past eight years. And they name names familiar to everyone—Jack Abramoff, Bob Ney, Ken Blackwell, Grover Norquist, Michael Connell and others. This is a must see video so watch it here.

VR was present at the Ohio press conference yesterday and filmed it. We will be posting an edited clip for YouTube shortly but for all those who want to see it unedited, you can watch it here in eight segments for a total of one hour and two minutes. We also have this available in high resolution for members of the press upon request.

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Part 6
Part 7
Part 8
Transcript from Ohio conference (Word document format)

Yesterday, Ohio Attorney Cliff Arnebeck launched a new legal strategy to expose a national strategy of election manipulation directed by Karl Rove. The implications are stunning. Arnebeck has asked the Ohio Federal Court to allow for targeted under oath depositions of key individuals including Rove, Bush IT guru Michael Connell, Jack Abramoff, Ken Blackwell and others. This will be the first opportunity ever to place these individuals under oath.

Arnebeck indicated that he has amassed a great deal of information from various sources including whistleblowers implicating Rove. He wrote in yesterday’s court filing that the “suspected lead perpetrator of this conspiracy against the civil rights of the plaintiffs and against the rule of law in the United States is Karl Rove…. Rove’s politicization of the Justice Department is currently being investigation by the US House Judiciary Committee.” See pdf.

Arnebeck also notified both Attorney General Mukasey and the Chamber of Commerce that he intends to “assert an Ohio Corrupt Practices Act/RICO claim against Mr. Karl Rove and others based upon their activities beginning in 2000 to illegally use corporate treasury money and government power to establish single faction dominance in the United States, military dominance in the world and generally undermine the rule of law as it had developed over the course of the past century.” See pdf 2 and Word doc.

VR was at the press conference and extensive coverage is here on our Election Protection Strike Force and on THE Brad Blog. Raw Story has also covered this with new details on the possible manipulation of the 2002 Senate Max Cleland Senate race. VR will have a complete video of the press conference up shortly.

Today, Ohio attorney Cliff Arnebeck, lead attorney in the lawsuit over the 2004 Ohio election contest, issued the following press release.

“Counsel for plaintiffs in the federal King Lincoln Bronzeville v. Blackwell case will hold a press conference at 11 AM Thursday July 17, 2008 in the Mezzanine conference room of LeVeque Tower.

We are filing to lift the stay in the case in order to proceed with targeted discovery in order to help protect the integrity of the 2008 election. We also will be providing copies of document hold notices to the US Chamber Institute for Legal Reform and the US Justice Department for Karl Rove Emails from the White House.

Our new data security expert in the case, Stephen Spoonamore, one of the leading authorities on data security in the world, is planning to attend the conference and will provide some of his perspectives in this matter.

Representatives from one of our plaintiffs, League of Young Voters, will also be attending.

We look forward to seeing you there tomorrow.

Cliff Arnebeck, Attorney for the Plaintiffs”

Velvet Revolution will be covering the press conference and will have video shortly. Stay tuned for some very important information regarding the suit.

Today Karl Rove refused to comply to a subpoena from the House Judiciary Committee to testify about his involvement in the political prosecution of ex-Alabama Governor Don Siegelman. Rove’s invocation of executive privilege was quickly rejected by the Committee. The question now is whether the Committee will hold Rove in contempt of Congress.

In our last post, Mr. Siegelman stated unequivocally on video that Karl Rove directed his political prosecution and he urged everyone to contact their Congress Members to demand that Mr. Rove be held in contempt.

This is a guy who has told Congress that he will not show up under subpoena unless he is not sworn to tell the truth, unless he has the questions in advance, and unless he is assured that nobody is writing down his answers. Now does that sound like somebody who's prepared to tell the truth?
...
We won't know the truth until Congress digs it out, and that's why it is so incredibly important that anybody that reads your blog or listens to it or watches it gets on the phone, gets on their computer, or writes Congress and tells them to hold Karl Rove in contempt if he does not show up to testify on July 10th.
...
[H]e needs to be held in contempt, needs to be arrested, needs to be brought in and made to sit before Congress and answer questions.”

Our YouTube videos of Mr. Siegelman and are getting thousands of views. We now have a new streaming 20-minute interview of Mr. Siegelman with tons of new powerful information including allegations that his last election for Governor was electronically manipulated—flipped—by GOP partisans directed by Karl Rove. Watch that video here.

For members of the media, we have high resolution footage of our Don Siegelman interview available for broadcast.

VR spent several hours with Ex Alabama Governor Don Siegelman recently discussing his political persecution at the direction of Karl Rove and his minions. We will have the complete interview posted tomorrow but we wanted you to hear what he has to say about Rove’s refusal to testify under subpoena by the House Judiciary Committee. We have two short YouTube videos where Siegelman emphatically asks everyone contact their Congress Members and demand that Rove be held in contempt.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=aVOEsipQy1g
http://youtube.com/watch?v=NsWS6SVyf6A

Rove has been subpoenaed to testify on July 10^th but his attorney last week informed the Judiciary Committee that he will not comply. Siegelman wants you to let Congress know that Rove must face the consequences of his actions. Please contact your Congress Members -- 202 224-3121 or www.house.gov.

VR and many of our supporters are very concerned about global warming and the environment. In supporting the research, development and extensive use of green technology that will better the environment and help prevent global warming, we want to recognize former President Jimmy Carter as a visionary leader of renewable energy.

THE MORAL EQUIVALENT OF WAR

Thirty years ago, President Carter cautioned us about dependence on foreign oil and provided a plan to lead us on the path to energy independence. He declared the "moral equivalent of war" on our energy crisis and

Installed solar power panels on the White House.
Created tax breaks for people who installed solar panels on their homes.
Installed a wood burning stove in the White House living quarters.
Signed into law November 1978, the Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act, PURPA, providing favorable terms to entrepreneurial companies that produced electricity from solar cells, wind turbines, and other renewable (i.e., non-fossil-fuel) resources.
Sought tax credits to spur individuals and businesses to insulate their homes, stores, and factories, thus reducing energy use.
Established tax incentives for Gasahol (now called ethanol).
Created the Energy Department and provided substantial funding dedicated to the research and development of "green technologies" such as solar and wind turbines; as well as coal, nuclear, and domestic sources of oil and oil shale with the goal of making America energy independent.
Proposed a bold and sweeping $142 billion energy plan, with 113 parts, which would achieve energy independence by 1990.
Set a goal of obtaining a fifth of America's needs from renewable energy by the turn of the century.
He lobbied for acceptance of a tax on gasoline--rising to 50 cents a gallon--if consumption did not decline as mandated, as well as a tax on "gas guzzler" cars.
Made speeches urging energy conservation and independence.

On July 15, 1979 President Carter said:

“Our excessive dependence on OPEC has already taken a tremendous toll on our economy and our people.... This intolerable dependence on foreign oil threatens our economic independence and the very security of our nation.

Point One: I am tonight setting a clear goal for the energy policy of the United States. Beginning this moment, this nation will never use more foreign oil than we did in 1977– never. From now on, every new addition to our demand for energy will be met from our own production and our own conservation. The generation-long growth in our dependence on foreign oil will be stopped dead in its tracks right now and then reversed as we move through the 1980s, for I am tonight setting the further goal of cutting our dependence on foreign oil by one-half by the end of the next decade — a saving of over four and a half million barrels of imported oil per day.

Point two: To ensure that we meet these targets, I will use my presidential authority to set import quotas. I’m announcing tonight that for 1979 and 1980, I will forbid the entry into this country of one drop of foreign oil more than these goals allow. These quotas will ensure a reduction in imports even below the ambitious levels we set at the recent Tokyo summit.

Point three: To give us energy security, I am asking for the most massive peacetime commitment of funds and resources in our nation’s history to develop America’s own alternative sources of fuel — from coal, from oil shale, from plant products for gasohol, from unconventional gas, from the sun."

THE SOLAR PANELS

In 1979, to set a good example and spur the development of solar and other forms of renewable or "green" technology, President Carter had 32 solar panels installed on the West Wing of the White House. These panels were visible from Pennsylvania Avenue to show a commitment to clean energy development. They were dedicated in a Rose Garden ceremony on June 20, 1979. These 32 solar thermal collectors heated the water for the "Mess" in the White House and remained on the White House for seven years. In 1986, they were removed for roof repairs, and never reinstalled.

These solar panels ended up on the campus of Unity College in Maine. In 1992, Unity College's development officer Peter Marbach tracked them down to a warehouse in Virginia, and requested they be donated to the school on permenant "loan.” Sixteen of the panels were then refurbished and restored, using funds from donations. One of the leading donors was the actress Glenn Close. These 16 panels were then installed on the school's cafeteria, and heated the water for the school's cafeteria for some 12 years, and the rest were put into storage. Unity college, like President Carter, practices energy conservation and renewable energy development. In 2004, after the 16 panels wore out and stopped functioning, Unity kept them on the cafeteria roof as a symbol to inspire the development of renewable energy. VR salutes Unity College’s commitment to renewable energy.

DOCUMENTARY: "A ROAD NOT TAKEN"

Being historical artifacts, Unity College decided to donate two of the panels in storage to museums for posterity. One panel was selected to be given to the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library and Museum in Georgia, and one for the Smithsonian Museum in Washington, DC. Two Unity College students, Sara Trunzo and Jason Reynolds, drove down in a Dodge Ram pickup, converted to run on vegetable oil, delivering one panel to the Smithsonian, and one panel to the Carter Museum and Library in Atlanta, Georgia.

This journey was documented in a film by Swiss directors Roman Keller and Christina Hemauer called, "A Road Not Taken". The film made its debut at the Maine International Film Festival, and is truly a documentary worth seeing. www.miff.org Here are some highlight clips from this documentary: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7gQSAlO277o If you can help with national distribution of this film, please contact: Shannon Haines: info@miff.org

THE JIMMY CARTER LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

One of the panels is now on display at the Jimmy Carter Library and Museum in Atlanta, Georgia. This exhibit is a testament to President Carter's vision toward renewable technology.

The White House no longer employs solar panels. We urge the next President to renew a commitment to renewable energy and to provide incentives and funding for the development of these technologies.

This time, let's make sure that it is a road taken.