And here's a more substantial report on the trial, which began on January 8th:
Based on testimony given last year in the preliminary hearing, there is no eyewitness who can identify the men as the vandals. There is a security guard who says he saw someone scurrying in the dark, acting drunk and urinating on a wall. There are police and the Firestone representative, who are to testify about the damage found and the repairs required.
Then there is the bulk of the alleged link between the defendants and the slashed tires: their purported statements in the weeks before the election about planning hijinks on GOP headquarters dubbed "Operation Elephant Takeover" and what they were heard saying after they returned to Democratic Party headquarters about the same time as the police say the tires were cut.
Four of the five men - all but Howell - are quoted by others in the criminal complaint as saying they took part.
Posts
20 comments:
Ooh that Kerry! I bet he planned just this sort of tire slashing attack back in his Vietnam days right after he scratched himself so he could get of the war and get elected to office.
James Tobin, of Bangor, Maine, President George W. Bush's New England campaign chairman, was convicted December 15, 2005, on telephone harassment charges "for his part in a plot to jam the Democrats' phones on Election Day 2002." Tobin was acquitted by the federal jury on "the most serious charge against him, of conspiring to violate voters' rights." Tobin will be sentenced March 2006 and "could get up seven years in prison and $500,000 in fines." [1] (http://customwire.ap.org/dynamic/stories/G/GOP_PHONE_JAMMING?SITE=JRC&SECTION=POLITICS&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2005-12-15-20-16-27)
As New England campaign chairman for Bush-Cheney '04 Inc., Tobin stepped down two weeks before the election when state Democrats accused him of involvement in a phone-jamming scheme on Election Day 2002. Tobin was later indicted for conspiracy.
Tobin served as national political director for publisher Steve Forbes' Presidential campaign. He is an employee of the Washington, D.C.-based, DCI Group and also has his own consulting firm, Tobin & Co., based in Bangor, Maine. During the 2004 election cycle was a Bush Ranger, raising at least $200,000 for the Bush 2004 reelection effort. [2]
Not that you can fix blogger, but perhaps you can file a bug report, or alert other commenters. There appears to be a blogger bug in which comments do not show up, and will not show up, unless the original commenter revisits the original post and tries to enter a new comment. And then.... The first comment will come back.
If your point is that there are idiots in both GOP and Democrat campaigns I'll grant you that, quxxo.
My comment seemed to go through OK. What I've been doing is clicking the "publish this comment" link - it will take you to the next page, then click on "back to Althouse" at the top of the column and it seems to work OK.
Quxxo, your implied claim that "all the kids at school are doing it" is a rather juvenile approach to addressing attacks on the democratic process.
Any attempts or plots to interfere with my ability to vote (or anyone else's) should be a capital crime(almost).
These crimes are perpetrated by the absolute dregs of our political class (both parties)and we are better off without them!
And I should know- I'm from Philly.
BTW, is this Milwaukee story getting national news coverage? This blog is the first I have heard of it since 2004.
quxxo - Do you ever have anything to say even remotely on topic?
Your response to intentional voter intimidation is ... what? Ignore reality? "Your side did it too. Neener, neener. I can't hear you."
Pathetic.
If we're trotting out cases, care to share any response to the multiple East St. Louis voter fraud and conspiracy convictions (which included the local Democratic Party chair)? They had a Democratic candidate who was perceived as racist, so the local black pols asked the County Democratic Committee to give them "Get Out The Vote" money - which they used to buy votes at $10 a pop.
How about the related Democratic precinct committeeman who was indicted for attempted murder? Seems he was working on a plan to plant crack cocaine on a witness and have her arrested, then changed his mind and decided to have her killed when she threatened to tell about the prostitution ring he was running out of City Hall.
Is there some reason all this outrageous behavior elicits shrugs of indifference from you instead of moral outrage?
Sigh. Why do I bother?
DEC, Jeff, you guys project too much.
I have never said anything like you claim I said. I never said it was okay by either side. I never claimed what you say I claimed. I never asked anyone to make the implication you say I asked.
You guys project so much, why is that?
Is there some reason all this outrageous behavior elicits shrugs of indifference from you instead of moral outrage? More projection from the slobbering Jeff? You do your flock an ill service.
But why did Ann post her post? She didn't say anything herself about her beliefs in the case. Or make any call to action for reform or even less regulation. It was a Rorschach test on her part to find the mentally defective in her echo chamber. You two jokers came through loud and proud.
You will both be getting some emails to discuss your new assignments.
Fascinating response, quxxo. Let's go to tape, shall we?
1. Ann's post.
2. Quxxo's reposnse:
"Ooh that Kerry! I bet he planned just this sort of tire slashing attack back in his Vietnam days right after he scratched himself so he could get of the war and get elected to office."
And I'm projecting?
My post never condoned election fraud.
My post was obliquely querying why Ann (not known in the blogosphere for her concern about elections) was bringing this up by contrasting her case with another.
I tit for tatted that's true, but I did not say either action was okay.
Ann titted with five minor campaign workers, I tatted with the Chimperor's New England campaign chairman, someone that donated $200,000 to Chimpski's campaign, and someone that was an unindicted co-conspirator in 2002 for the same exact crime.
I welcome Ann to the world of honest elections, and I look forward to her posts about Diebold, Black Box Voting, Voting Irregularities in Ohio and Florida. I look forward to Ann discussing how to make voting fair for everyone in 2006 and 2008.
AJ - I saw a lengthy mention of the story on Michelle Malkin's blog on Monday. But nothing nationally since the trial has been underway.
The defense has claimed that the tire slashing was part of a nationwide effort and this is getting a lot of play in WI blogs and talk radio. I thought for sure that this would be picked up natioanlly, but it must have been lost in the Alito hearing coverage. Go to www.jsonline.com for good local coverage.
In the meantime Jeffie, why don't you tell us more about your outrage about election fraud as committed by both sides, and what you are doing to make sure that everyone has a chance to vote and have their votes counted in 2006 and 2008?
Have you donated to Open Voting?
Quxxo, you feel very free to make fun of poeple's names, talk down to people, etc. from behind an anonymous profile. Now why is that?
I oppose every kind of voter fraud, election rigging and intimidation. That you automatically assume otherwise says much more about you than it does me.
Quxxo, you feel very free to make fun of poeple's names, talk down to people, etc. from behind an anonymous profile. Now why is that?
Oh yeah I forgot Jeffy, wingnuts hate anonymity and privacy rights, something our country was founded on and something the Supreme Court has repeatedly ruled in favor of. And nutjobs hate it when people that are not like themselves avail themselves of their rights. But you're just trying to smear and smear again through innuendo. Sigh.
I oppose every kind of voter fraud, election rigging and intimidation. That you automatically assume otherwise says much more about you than it does me. No, it is a logical inference from your post in which you explicitly called on me to decry examples of Democratic foul play, without once mentioning your distate for Rethuglican antics. I don't expect much from you, I don't expect much logic from any pastor.
Gotta go! TTFN!
So how long will quxxo be allowed to ruin the comments section? It's always got to be about quxxo! Look at quxxo! Isn't he/she/it clever and wry and liberal? When I see a "q" at the beginning of a post I just scroll past. This would be an acceptable solution, except that quxxo posts are on average 800-1000 words, 89% of which are part of quotations from other sources, 11% are faux-clever sneers propping up the quotations or maligning other commenters. Doing all that scrolling is causing me to develop carpal tunnel syndrome. Maybe I should sue for damages.
quxxo--
If you think that this story is worth mentioning, then you should start your own blog and post it there.
I also think that the reason why Ann blogged it is because it a) has to do with her state and b) has an interesting quote from the testimony.
Could you please stop ruining comments sections here?
Yevgeny Vilensky said...
quxxo--Could you please stop ruining comments sections here?
god, please! please...and take thers, goober, and all the various permutations of troll/stalkers with you.
quxxo--Could you please stop ruining comments sections here?
god, please! please...and take thers, goober, and all the various permutations of troll/stalkers with you.
I'll third that. Comments were better pre-quxxo. Now so many comment threads are strayed off topic into bickering. This thread is a perfect example.
I'm sure quxxo will claim we don't like him/her/it and are complaining because him/her/it is a liberal. But that's not the case. There are other liberal commenters here (I include myself in this category, at least the classical liberal category) who, while they may get into sharp debates with other commenters, don't manage to sideline and dominate every comment section. That's the difference between someone who comments in good faith and a troll.
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