Crossposted from Occupy For Accountability

Two weeks ago we published a letter we received at our whistleblower Post Office Box from a shadowy group of cyber sleuths called “The Protectors.”  In short, the letter stated that the group installed a firewall on servers that were going to be used by Karl Rove to manipulate election results.  Moreover, the letter stated that the group also caused the catastrophic failure of Team Romney’s ORCA get out the vote project.

At the time, we questioned whether these were two separate attacks and whether the ORCA attack, if separate, would be moral and legal.  We have gathered additional information and have concluded that ORCA and the digital manipulation scheme were most likely two prongs of Karl Rove’s plan to rig election results and that The Protectors’ firewalls may have caused the failure of ORCA and was therefore more than likely legally justified.  

-By Terry Frieden 

November 2, 2012- Washington (CNN) - The Justice Department Friday announced that it is dispatching more than 780 federal observers and monitors to 23 states to watch for potential problems which would violate voting rights protected by federal law.

The Justice Department said it was sending observers to 51 jurisdictions in those states to help enforce federal voting rights laws which protect ballot access.

In addition to concern about discrimination based on languages and ethnicity, the federal officials will be ensuring voters with disabilities are accommodated, and ensuring that no procedures are used to subject voters to different procedures on the basis of race, color or national origin.

Many of the locations being targeted for the 2012 general election have appeared on similar lists for past elections. Justice officials say the federal monitors will maintain low profile positions, and will not be involved in the voting process unless problems arise.

The total of 780 officials is about the same size as the contingent sent to watch the 2008 presidential election.

-By Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

October 29, 2012- American democracy is under assault.

In one super-PAC alone, Karl Rove and the Enron grifter Ed Gillespie, have assembled $200 million from big polluters and Wall Street moguls to buy the 2012 election.

Two of the Koch Brothers, Charles and David, pledged $130 million to elect candidates who favor unrestrained corporate profiteering.

The senators and congressmen they fund and elect are not representing the United States-they are representing Koch and its oil industry cronies, Big Pharma, and the Wall Street banksters currently mounting a hostile takeover of our government.

I have no problem characterizing these corporate-centric super-PACs as treasonous. We are now in a free fall toward old-fashioned oligarchy; noxious, thieving and tyrannical.

The most corporate-friendly Supreme Court since the Gilded Age had declared in its notorious Citizens United decision that corporations are people and that money is speech. Those who have the most money now have the loudest voices in our democracy while poor Americans are mute.

The Republican True the Vote project is a well-funded scheme with training sessions for activists across the country. Will it work?

-By Steven Rosenfeld

August 24, 2012- I was nervous getting onto the flight to Denver. Since 2004, I have been a national radio producer, investigative reporter, author and consultant—writing about how elections are won, lost, bungled and improved, with a big focus on voter registration. But I had never snuck into a meeting of right-wing voting vigilantes who are the frontline of a national voter suppression strategy, and where the main speaker was a man whose new book I’d aggressively debunked days before, in an AlterNet article lauded by a leading election law blog and Washington Post . The meeting was a state summit organized by a group called True The Vote. The author was John Fund, who absurdly claims that more than 1,000 felons voted illegally in Minnesota in 2008, sending Democrat Al Franken to the U.S. Senate, where he was the final vote that passed Obama's health care reform.

On at least four occasions over the past year, a person or persons made phone calls to county enforcement agencies, spoofing the victim's phone number, and/or reporting fictitious criminal activity calculated to bring a SWAT team ready to deal with an armed and dangerous resident.

These four events include:

·     Attempted SWATTing of Michael Stack, Montgomery Township, New Jersey, June 23RD, 2011.

·     Attempted SWATTing of John Patrick Frey, Los Angeles, California, June or July 2011.

·     Attempted SWATTing of Erick Erickson, Macon, Georgia, May 27TH, 2012.

·     Attempted SWATTing of Brett Kimberlin, Bethesda, Maryland, May 31ST, 2012.

Thom Hartmann: CISPA...The Patriot Act for the Internet?

Richard Stallman: CISPA nearly abolishes people's right not to be unreasonably searched

We need your continued support to help us fight for the 99%.  When you make a donation of $25 or more, we will send you a free DVD of the renowned documentary, Dominoes!

Progressive filmmaker John Lawrence Ré has offered us his terrific uncensored 60 minute film, Dominoes – described as a rollercoaster ride through the the Vietnam War years, from Watts burning in 1965 as Black America tried to take back their lives, to the student rebellions around the world in 1968, to the last US helicopter fleeing Ho Chi Minh City in the spring of 1975.  It’s a trip  --  uncannily similar to what is developing this year across the world with the Arab Spring and the Occupy Movement --  you won’t want to miss as it plays out against a wall to wall soundtrack featuring Santana, Neil Young, The Rolling Stones, Grateful Dead, Van Morrison, BB King, Marvin Gaye and many more.  Check out the trailer below:

Check out this clip of CSNY.

Under Law, Judicial Conference Must Refer Issue to US Attorney General

WASHINGTON – Congresswoman Louise Slaughter, Ranking Member of the House Rules Committee, together with 19 Members of Congress, today sent a letter to the Judicial Conference, requesting that the Conference follow the law and refer the matter of Justice Clarence Thomas's non-compliance with the Ethics in Government Act of 1978 to the Department of Justice. Throughout his entire tenure on the Supreme Court, Justice Thomas has checked a box titled "none" on his annual financial disclosure forms, indicating that his wife had received no income, despite the fact that his wife had in fact earned nearly $700,000 from the Heritage Foundation from 2003-2007 alone.