Saturday, June 16, 2007

Rover is going down.

6/11/07:

VelvetRevolution’s Expose’ Of GOP Front Group ACVR:

Is It Close To Implicating Karl Rove In Illegal Activities?

More than two years ago, VelvetRevolution first exposed the American Center for Voting Rights (ACVR) as a GOP front organization dedicated to helping the GOP win elections by engaging in a campaign to disenfranchise voters through voter ID legislation, caging, and intimidation of voter registration orgs. ACVR was run by a host of Karl Rove operatives, including Thor Hearne, chief counsel for Bush/Cheney/04. Over the past two years, VR co-founder Brad Friedman has written dozens of exposes about ACVR.

VR launched a vigorous campaign against the Baker/Carter election reform commission because it included ACVR. ACVR wanted to use B/C to advance voter ID laws nationally. VR’s campaign marginalized the B/C report and its recommendations, including voter ID, were largely ignored.

With our help, ACVR has now been exposed as a major player in the US Attorney scandal enveloping Washington. We have learned and reported that ACVR demanded that many of the now fired US Attorneys initiate voter fraud charges to intimidate Democrat voters.

We believe that ACVR contacted US Attorneys Iglesias, Graves and McKay, all who were fired for not pursuing voter fraud charges.

We believe that ACVR worked hand in hand with Karl Rove in these matters and that ACVR had direct contact with the Justice Department’s voting rights section about these fired US Attorneys. Last month, immediately after we made the connection between ACVR, Rove and the US Attorney scandal, the ACVR website was suddenly taken off the Internet and references to it were scrubbed from various other sites.

We have also learned that Tim Griffin the interim US Attorneys who replaced Bud Cummins in Arkansas, was a right hand man for Karl Rove. We reported two weeks ago that Griffin was the man behind an illegal White House campaign to “cage” hundreds of thousands of voters in the 2004 election. Caging identifies voters who may have moved, like soldiers, the homeless and the poor. Griffin’s operation sent thousands of these voters letters which, when returned undelivered, were used to strike them from the voting rolls.

Monica Goodling, Alberto Gonzales’s top aide in recent hearings on the US Attorney scandal, mentioned in passing that there was a campaign of caging going on. Greg Palast, who has been recently guest blogging on BradBlog (co-founder of VR), disclosed copies of emails implicating Goodling and Griffin in this illegal caging campaign. We were able to tie Goodling’s testimony with Palast’s emails, and push this caging story into the mainstream media and to the attention of Congress Members.

After we reported this caging operation, three important things happened.

First, Tim Griffin abruptly resigned as interim US Attorney in Arkansas.

Second, John Conyers met with Greg Palast to review the emails involving the caging. Afterwards, Conyers stated that he “is not done with Mr. Griffin.”

Third, the mainstream media began reporting on ACVR’s connection to all these scandals. In the past month, Slate, NPR, and McClatchy newspapers have all reported on ACVR. In one report, ACVR director Hearn blamed BradBlog for all his troubles.

VR has initiated a campaign, both privately and publicly to urge Congress to issue subpoenas and hold hearings on ACVR involvement in the US Attorney scandal, the caging of voters, the false allegations of voter fraud, the frightening push of voter ID laws, and the connections to Karl Rove and the White House.

We will be urging that Congress subpoena all of ACVR’s emails, and question under oath all of the employees of ACVR. We plan to post a new reward for information about ACVR’s activities as they relate to the White House and voter disenfranchisement.

We believe that criminal laws may have been violated by ACVR and its directors in concert with Karl Rove, officials of the Justice Department and other private companies. We hope that a Congressional investigation will lead to criminal charges.

(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. The Lantern has no affiliation whatsoever with the originator of this article nor is The Lantern endorsed or sponsored by the originator.)

....And The Truth Shall Set Us Free

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