Bush Wackers Now Wacking for McCain

Launch of CyberGate Web Site to Fuel Coffers, Case to Unmask Rove, Connell as Key Culprits behind IT Theft of 2004 Ohio Election 

OhioNewsBureau – OpEdiTude

By John Michael Spinelli

COLUMBUS, OHIO: With Republican strategy kingpin Karl Rove and Mike Connell, the maker of the super sophisticated Matrix-style IT program two Ohio attorneys say tiled the Buckeye State to George W. Bush in 2004, and other hardcore Bush loyalists now working for Arizona Sen. John S. McCain, it’s little wonder that the same low-ball, personal smear tactics they spit-balled to take down McCain in 2000 and Democratic presidential candidate Sen. John Kerry in 2004 are now at work this year against Barack Obama.

The work of Rove’s alleged participation in decisions that led to the politicization of the US Justice Department or the shenanigans that were behind the political imprisonment of a Democratic governor of Alabama or how his grand plan for a permanent Republican majority included committing voter fraud in Ohio by tilting the state election system to President Bush in 2004, with the help of Mike Connell, a long-time, loyal Republican IT handyman, have yet to be examined in the crucible of a real court setting, where Mr. Rove and others would be under oath to tell the truth or be subject to perjury charges, among other offenses.

The OhioNewsBureau reported on the efforts of Ohio election lawyers Cliff Arnebeck and Bob Fitrakis to rejuvenate a federal lawsuit filed in 2006 alleging that Rove, Connell and company constructed an election Matrix of such sophistication and secrecy that no one, neither the Secretary of State at the time nor any member of Ohio’s election system, knew the level of chicanery and criminal activity taking place on their watch.

But as below-the-belt electioneering ads designed to hit below Obama’s belt on manufactured issues as juvenile and irrelevant as whether his ability to lead is impaired by his popularity with American voters or citizens of other countries or whether keeping tires inflated properly can save energy or whether he’s too tall, skinny or black to do the job are rolled out by McCain’s campaign, the Bush wackers who won their way to victory in 2000, 2002 and 2004 by mocking and lying about the strengths of an opposing candidate are now wacking their way for an upset win by McCain in November, an election feat that will keep them in power and keep all their secrets to construct an undetectable election system Matrix shrouded from public scrutiny.

Will Bush Wackers Get Wacked by Rove “CyberGate” Web Site?

Arnebeck and Fitrakis argue that the same Republican political hit squad that helped orchestrate a second term for Bush is back at it again in 2008, working behind the scenes and under the radar to keep Republicans in control of the White House. Control of the White House would prevent the Obama administration and a new US Attorney General from revealing their closely guarded secrets to fraudulently tilt elections to Republicans, thereby making Rove’s vision of a permanent Republican majority a reality.

But with a little help from a few friends, including a new Web site called “RoverCyberGate” that was launched Thursday by the Velvet Revolution (VR), whose Web Site says it’s a network of more than 120 progressive organizations reaching millions of people demanding progressive change through our VR Media, Electoral Reform, Conflict Resolution and Youth Revolution Campaigns, it may come to pass that enough funds will be raised to fuel the legal work of Arnebeck and Fitrakis to revive and retool their 2006 lawsuit, currently before Federal Court Judge Algernon Marbley, that offers a ray of sunshine into what the attorneys contend was Rove and company’s complicity in their far flung, secret Matrix-like scheme to tilt the election game board to their party and its candidates.

The new Web site sponsored by VR, which features several interviews, one of which was done by ABC but never aired, that are linked to YouTube.com, is made possible through the group’s fundraising prowess, which includes funding from various foundations and contributions from well-known celebrities who have tuned into their cause and this site.  

The Bush wackers now wacking for McCain have in recent weeks produced a series of attack ads that may be affecting polling numbers that show the gap between Obama and McCain is shrinking. But the ads are also generating an avalanche of counter criticism about what some say is their juvenile, stupid “know nothing” nature. The VR RoveCyberGate Web site hopes to capitalize on the backlash from the ads. The donation of funds would come at a time when Cliff Arnebeck, the lead attorney in the case known as King-Lincoln, which can be found here, and Bob Fitrakis, an outspoken professor of political science at Columbus State University who is also an attorney, need funding to push their case forward, with the hope of defending the 2008 election from the tactics they allege were used to steal the 2004 election in Ohio for President Bush.

Arnebeck to Lawsuit Interlopers: Get Off My Case

As they seek to lift the stay on their 2006 lawsuit, Arnebeck is fighting on two fronts. One skirmish is with interlopers to his case who he said in a telephone interview with OhioNewsBureau is using the case for their own ends. Arnebeck said he is fighting a motion filed to intervene in the case on the side of plaintiffs by Paddy Schaeffer and Marianne Lupo, two leaders of a fringe voter advocacy group called Ohio Election Justice Campaign.

Arnebeck said the duo has intentionally deviated from legal rules and common professional courtesy by piggybacking on his case, hoping to gain money and notoriety by creating a false appearance among potential donors and supporters that they are going to hold Rove, Connell or other partisan operative accountable for complicity in allegations of past election fraud and destruction of election records by holding them in contempt and by convening a grand jury. Arnebeck said he has filed motion with Judge Algernon Marbley, a federal district judge based in Columbus and in whose court Arnebeck’s lawsuit resides, to dismiss Schaeffer and Lupo as interlopers who only want to use the case for their purpose of raising money for themselves and their group. Arnebeck said the group’s blatant use of payment services like Paypal and other credit card companies to funnel funds their way is wrong at best and unethical at worst. He also cited one member of their group, Tim Kettler, an active candidate for the Ohio Senate who stands to benefit from their intervention through media coverage located in the district he’s running to represent, as a contact name on a media release sent out by the group.

“This is a serious civil rights lawsuit,” Arnebeck told OhioNewsBureau. “They (the interlopers) have extraneous purposes to this suit,” he said, noting that Schaeffer and Lupo have 21 days to respond to his motion to keep them out. “They are hyperactive,” he said, believing they will file their rebuttal before time has elapsed. Arnebeck said the Ohio Attorney General has responded to the group’s motion, saying they don’t have standing in the case, that it’s too late anyway and that they don’t comply with rules, among other faults that would warrant Judge Marbley denying them participation in the case on the side of plaintiffs.

Arnebeck to TRIAD: "Tag’em"

Arnebeck said his Issues are important public policy issues, like assuring the integrity of 2008 election. He cited one company, TRIAD, who he says have been “playing games with electronic tabulators from 2004,” that needs to be held accountable for its work then and now, since it is currently under contract with several Ohio counties and other states. He said he wants the Ohio Attorney General and Secretary of State, using their powers and authority to investigate and prosecute, to help him “Tag them” so everyone who does business with them knows their history. Because Cogliense said his agency is taking a back seat to Brunner, Arnebeck thinks the powers vested in the Secretary of Sate by the Ohio Constitution to commence investigations, issue subpoenas or directives should be used. However, Arnebeck is not interested in making enemies of friends, so he is careful to say that his won’t challenge these offices, but sure would like them to help out.

“She (Brunner) has the authority and power to take what ever actions are needed to protect elections,” he said, noting that because the US Justice Department and the FBI are still under the control of the Bush Administration, which he says is unlikely for obvious reasons to lift a finger to help him, this case is tailor made for a special prosecutor, who can marshal resources and forces at will. But we know that the law providing for a special prosecutor was not renewed when the Bush Administration took control of the executive branch of government.

In late breaking news on Friday, Green Party candidate Cynthia McKinney, who was defeated in her bid for re-election to a Congressional seat in Georgia, will join Arnebeck and company in Columbus tomorrow for a news conference outlining how they will work together to assure the integrity of the 2008 Ohio election.

Ohio AG: Legal Firemen Ready to Put Out Election Fires

In an telephone interview conducted Friday with Richard Coglianese, principal assistant attorney general who represents the Ohio Office of Secretary of State in civil court matters, and Michele Gatchell, an agency spokesman, regarding a conference call that took place at the end of July between attorney Arnebeck and Coglianese, and that included Stephen Spoonamore, an expert on data and Internet security who knows Mike Connell and his super sophisticated skills and who will serve as Arnebeck’s expert witness on why he thinks election fraud chicanery of the highest degree took place in 2004 and maybe at work this year, and a legal intern from the Ohio Secretary of State, Coglianese told OhioNewsBureau that he is overseeing an election litigation task force of some 40 lawyers who have been schooled and trained on election-law issues and cases that may arise, and that they full attention is focused on the election that is now only 88 days away and may see a voter turnout as high as 80 percent.

“We have every faith in the Secretary of State and Ohio’s bipartisan boards of election,” Coglianese said today. He noted that Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner is also fully focused on security issues, and through her powers and authority can issue directives, if need be, to take appropriate action. Coglianese said that while the passage of HB 3, an election reform bill approved largely along party lines by the Republican-led Ohio General Assembly gives the AG new investigative powers on election matters, his agency will wait for a referral from Brunner before taking any action on election matters in general or Arnebeck’s concerns in particular. 

Coglianese declined to provide details of the teleconference call, saying he felt “uncomfortable talking about the conversation” because it would be a “breach of professional courtesy.” He said say, though, that the agency is interested in and prepared for this year’s presidential election and that he has “what we need to represent the Ohio Secretary of State going forward in an appropriate manner.”

Coglianese, saying his role with the November election was tantamount to that of a fire chief, said the agency role in this year’s coming election is to be trained and prepared, just like that of a fire department whose firemen are trained and ready to fight a fire when it happens. But until that fire breaks out, Coglianese said his men and equipment would stay in the firehouse.

He did say, however, that the AG will submit a motion on Monday relating to Arnebeck’s federal law suit. He would not divulge what the nature of that filing would be nor would he confirm or deny that General Nancy Rogers, Ohio’s interim Attorney General, had been briefed on the case or was otherwise informed about his conference call. “We are ready for November 4th,” he said.

Brunner Eschews Rearview Mirror, Opts Only For Windshield

As the first woman to hold the office of Secretary of State, Jennifer Brunner has assiduously kept her attention focused on future elections, especially the 2008 election, whose successful outcome she believes with galvanize her win for a second term in office and give her one of the three key seats at the table of election district reorganizing that will take place in 2010. The other two key seats are governor and auditor, the former being held by first-term Democrat Ted Strickland and first-term Republican Mary Taylor. If Democrats can be as successful in 2010 as they were in 2006, State Senate and House districts will be drawn to favor Democrats, making their ascendancy to controlling the Ohio General Assembly as real as it’s been for Republicans, who have controlled both bodies for nearly a decade and one-half.

But for Brunner, a former common pleas court judge who stepped down to run for Secretary of State, following up on her talk during her campaign to look back at election irregularities from the 2004 election, when former Republican Secretary of State Ken Blackwell, who was a co-chair of the Bush-Cheney campaign in Ohio, was accused of working to swing the vote to Bush and whose agency was under contract with GovTech, a company run by Mike Connell that Arnebeck, Fitrakis and others say worked in the dark nether fields of cyber space to steal the election for Bush, has not been on her agenda.

She has taken up the issue of untrustworthy touch-screen voting machines through her nearly $2 million dollar study of them called EVEREST and set heads and pocketbooks spinning at Ohio’s 88 boards of election by saying the state needs to switch to paper ballots, and issuing other directives related to various security and operational election issues. But she has maintained a healthy distance from the issues of voter fraud and suppression championed by election- and voter-advocates.

Like super patriot Paul Revere riding the country side in the dark to warn of an impending attack by the British, Arnebeck says his intention to inform the public about what may happen in 2008, based on what he and experts like Spoonamore say happened in 2004, is not an effort to challenge any state body or group like the Attorney General or Secretary of State.

But Brunner can have her cake and eat it too by essentially doing nothing. Come Monday, the deadline for motions on his desire to lift the stay in his case on switching the focus from the past to the future, which will necessitate a call for various documents involving Rove and others to be gathered and held by the court, Brunner can do nothing, which is as good as doing something. By letting the deadline pass, Brunner can signal to Arnebeck to go forward with the heavy lifting in outing what Rove or Connell or others may have done to fraudulently skew elections to Republicans without her self laying any fingerprints on the case.

So contrasting what the Ohio AG files Monday, as Coglianese said his office will do, with what Brunner does or does not do will be interesting to see.

Whether she fears the accusations that will be thrown at her from Republicans who will say she’s on a witch hunt to get even for Bush’s win in Ohio in 2004 or whether she wants to keep Republican attack dogs sleeping so as not to generate a firestorm of stories and headlines that will be used against her when she gears up for re-election next year is a matter of pure speculation. But what is not speculation is her refusal to give any daylight to the basics of Arnebeck’s lawsuit, and her insistence that she is only concerned about future elections. For a police officer, this is like saying I don’t have time to chase down the last bank robbers because I want to prevent future bank robberies. While it makes political sense, it seems that not paying attention to history may allow history to repeat itself in 2008.

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