Why Are We Back In Iraq?

Today's hearing in Ohio (see previous post) managed to garner a drop of attention in the Media. A drop. NBC4-TV in Columbus, Ohio mentioned it before it transpired, so did the Associated Press which was picked up by ABC in Chicago.

I haven't found a transcript yet but I'll keep looking.

John McCarthy of the Associated Press wrote a pretty good article (with an awful title: "Ohio Official Says Election Went Smoothly" instead of say "Ohio Official Pelted With Questions About Election Mishaps") about what happened which can be read everywhere from ABCnews to the Ohio News Network to Yahoo News to Wired to U.K.'s The Guardian to about thirty other Media Websites that I could find on Google News.

Cleveland Congresswoman Stephanie Tubbs Jones sat in with the U.S. House Administration Committee, though she's not part of it (Rep. Jones is just an American patriot concerned about our votes). Here are a few highlights from the A.P. article about her sharp exchanges with Ohio Secretary of State and Bush-Cheney 2004 Ohio Chairman J. Kenneth Blackwell: "Tubbs Jones questioned Blackwell about a telephone message delivered to thousands of voters just before the election to make sure they voted in the correct precinct, especially if they had not changed their registration and needed a provisional ballot. Tubbs Jones wondered why he didn't say in the message that voters had the option to use provisional ballots at their local boards of elections. Blackwell said, "It worked," several times, his voice rising as Tubbs Jones continued the question."

In response to a question by the highest-ranking Democrat on the committee, Rep. Juanita Millender-McDonald of California, J. Kenneth Blackwell answered "that to rig the machine allotment to favor Bush" was insane crazy tin foil headed and that "[i]t would have taken the collusion of 176 Democratic leaders. It's silly on its face to think there was some kind of bipartisan conspiracy."

I've got a story coming up (it's been coming up for two months now...but it's still not ready for as-Prime-as-I-get Time yet) about one of those 176 Democratic leaders in Ohio and it's not going to be a pretty one.

Time Out: Does anyone have March Madness? My team, Syracuse University, lost its first game so I've only been half-watching.

But the NCAAs are not the only show in town. Survey Saint Louis is running a you-gotta-see-to-believe Presidential March Madness poll that includes 64 notable Republicans. Why am I blogging about this here?

Because J. Kenneth Blackwell got sent home in the first round. Harley Barbour cleaned his clock by a "score" of 63.3% to 36.7%.

At least Syracuse won the Big East. Perhaps Blackwell needs to work on his "inside touch."

The only thing J. Kenneth Blackwell has won recently is a criminal referral filed by House Democrats Robert Scott, John Conyers, Jr., Sheila Jackson Lee, and Jerrold Nadler two months ago: The Raw Story. As John Byrne reported, "Among other matters, the referral is to request an investigation into voter intimidation, improper voter purging, perjury, possible misuse of Help America Vote Act funds, tampering with voting machines during Ohio’s recount and Blackwell’s misuse of the Great Seal of the United States in a campaign letter."

# posted by Ron Brynaert : 3/21/2005 11:03:00 PM