Award winning civil rights lawyer Bartle Bull witnessed the 2008 voter intimidation in Philadelphia by the New Black Panthers. He surmised their purpose was to keep watchful eyes out of the polls so people would not know what was happening inside.

Now in 2010, we have a pretty good idea what Mr. Bull meant. Because in Houston, poll watchers for a group dedicated to election integrity called ‘True the Vote’ are being harassed because of what they are seeing inside the polls. And it might come as a surprise who is doing the harassing.

Not only are street operatives harassing True the Vote poll watchers, but Representative Sheila Jackson Lee and her confederates are urging law enforcement personnel to crack down – but on the poll watchers!

Lee’s thug tactics are doomed to backfire. The notion of connected elected officials prodding law enforcers to threaten law abiding citizens is an affront to decency. It is the sort of behavior which citizens around the country, in places like Wheeling, Allentown and Highland Park find particularly outrageous.

True the Vote is a group of citizen volunteers, often old ladies or stay at home moms. I should disclose they are also a client of mine. They are dedicated to exercising rights under Texas law to stand watch and record illegal activity in the polling place.

To some, this constitutes intimidation. To the rest of America, this is called public service.

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Did Google Money & Influence Buy FTC Decision?

Yesterday we reported that the FTC’s decision to close it’s investigation into the Google WiSpy affair came less than a week after President Obama attended a $30,000-plate fundraiser at the California home of senior Google executive Marissa Mayer. It also came four days after Google, after months of denials, admitted for the first time that its “Street View” video cameras were intercepting emails, passwords and website addresses sent by unsuspecting Internet users.

Now we’ve learned that on September 28, 2009, Becky Burr, another Google lobbyist at Wilmer Hale, emailed White House officials Susan Crawford and Andrew McLaughlin asking for a meeting to request the White House’s assistance in urging the Federal Trade Commission to back off on privacy. Ms. Burr’s email request was as follows (PDF of email exchange can be found here See pages 50-52):

“Wondering if we can get together to discuss the movement away from a ‘notice and choice’ privacy paradigm to a more prescriptive normative approach? This is an emerging theme in the academy, and seems to be gathering favor at the FTC. The move has some worrisome implications for innovation, and it seems important for the FTC to have administration input on this… Let me know if this is something of interest.”

Ms. Crawford replied the same day and suggested that White House Deputy Chief Technology Officer Andrew McLaughlin – himself a former Google employee who was sanctioned earlier this year for emailing privately through his Gmail account with his former Google colleagues about policy issues that benefited his former employer — should also be a part of that meeting. As documents unearthed by Consumer Watchdog indicate, Mr. McLaughlin agreed to meet with Ms. Crawford and Ms. Burr, suggesting Friday, October 2nd.

The outcome of that meeting is not clear, and while the email exchange occured before the WiSpy scandal broke, what it clearly demonstrates is Google’s willingness to use its close relationship with senior White House officials to pressure regulatory agencies to back off privacy policies it did not like.

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ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) – The number of write-in candidates for Alaska’s U.S. Senate seat has swelled to about 150 amid an effort by conservatives to target the write-in candidacy of GOP Sen. Lisa Murkowski.

The number by Thursday’s write-in deadline had grown from just a handful earlier this week.

Murkowski mounted her bid after losing the primary to tea-party backed Joe Miller, and some conservatives have urged Alaskans to make their own write-in runs

Those conservatives include Dan Riehl, who issued a call on Andrew Breitbart’s Big Government website to “highlight the chaos brought about by Lisa Murkowski’s seemingly unending quest for power” with her campaign. (more…)

In the past 15 years, I’ve debated in favor of a national sales tax, testified before Congress on the merits of a national sales tax, gone on TV to advocate for the national sales tax, and spoken with dozens of reporters to explain why the national sales tax is a good idea. Even though I prefer the flat tax, I’ve been an ardent defender of sales tax proposals such as the FAIR tax because it would be a great idea to replace the current system with any low-rate system that gets rid of the tax bias against saving and investment. I even narrated this video explaining that a national sales tax and flat tax are different sides of the same coin – and therefore either tax reform proposal would significantly improve prosperity and competitiveness.

I will continue to defend the FAIR tax and other national sales tax proposals that replace the income tax, but I wonder whether this is a losing battle. Every election cycle, candidates that endorse (or even say nice things about) the FAIR tax wind up getting attacked and put on the defensive. Their opponents are being dishonest, and their TV ads are grossly misleading, but they are using this approach because the anti-FAIR tax message is politically effective. Many pro-tax reform candidates have lost elections in favorable states and districts, largely because their opponents were able to successfully demagogue against a national sales tax.

The Wall Street Journal reaches the same conclusion, opining this morning about the false – but effective – campaign against candidates who support a national sales tax.

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In today’s edition of Coffee and Markets, Brad Jackson and Ben Domenech are joined by Francis Cianfrocca to discuss the latest GDP numbers, Obama’s fiscal train wreck, and his views on the economy shared this week on the Daily Show.

We’re brought to you as always by BigGovernment and Stephen Clouse and Associates. You can find our iTunes feed at CoffeeandMarkets.com. If you’d like to email us, you can do so at coffee[at]newledger.com. We hope you enjoy the show.

Related Links:

Roubini: U.S. Heading for “Fiscal Train Wreck”
Obama No Longer Bothering to Lie Credibly: Claims Financial Crisis Cost Less Than S&L Crisis
Obama on the Daily Show
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It’s been revealed that the Obama White House is trying to beat Marco Rubio to keep Hispanic-Americans from having a choice when it comes to political parties. This is the second time Democrats have done this, and the fact that they’re willing to take down another minority candidate to do so shows that it’s the Democrats, not Republicans, who are trying to keep minorities down in America today.

With the White House’s approval, President Bill Clinton tried to convince Congressman Kendrick Meek—an African-American Democrat—to drop out of the U.S. Senate race in Florida, and support independent (and former liberal Republican) Charlie Crist.

They did this for one reason: They want to deny minorities a choice, deceiving them into thinking that only the Democratic Party cares about minorities. They are happy to take down minority candidates—even Democratic candidates—to perpetuate this falsehood.

This is the second time Democrats have done this to a Hispanic. In 2001, Miguel Estrada was nominated to a seat on the nation’s second-highest federal court, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. Estrada was an American success story, a child immigrant from Honduras who didn’t speak English, who went on to be a top graduate from Columbia, then Harvard Law School, later clerking for the Supreme Court and serving under the U.S. solicitor general in both Democratic and Republican administrations. He’s a partner at Gibson Dunn, one of America’s top law firms.

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Have this year’s negative political ads really “taken dirty to a whole new level, as CNN’s Anderson Cooper frets? Is a “return to civility…a relic of a bygone era,” as President Barack Obama laments?

Er, not exactly.

If anonymous political speech, the other widely decried villain of this political season, helped found the United States, attack ads are as American as apple pie. If you fancy yourself a patriot or a history buff, you will most certainly approve this message, which is taken from statements made by, for, and against the nation’s founders. For historical sources, go here.

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California’s progressive-era experiment in direct democracy was supposed to elevate the voters above the special interests, allowing voters make law themselves through the statewide initiative process. That this process is now virtually owned by the special interests is yet another example of the immutable Law of Unintended Consequences in government.

A brief perusal of the California Secretary of State’s initiative campaign finance disclosure website shows that some $120 million dollars has been raised by 53 groups supporting or opposing California’s nine November ballot initiatives. By comparison, California’s two major candidates for governor have raised or given to their campaigns $176 million to date, exclusive of independent expenditures and political party spending on both sides.

Initiative spending

What’s common about most of this spending is that it is fairly transparent in that we know the identities of the people, the labor unions and the companies writing the checks. Sure, there are cut-out committees that ship money to each other in an attempt to obfuscate their spending, but, with a spreadsheet and enough patience, a person can figure out who is funding whom.

For instance, you can crack open the disclosure page for the biggest No on Prop. 23 committee and see that they’ve raised more than $23 million. This includes $1 million from Hollywood director James Cameron, $700,000 from America’s richest man, Bill Gates, millions more from rent-seeking Silicon Valley venture capitalists who hope to grow wealthier off the economic pain of average Californians. You can also see that the National Wildlife Federation gave $3 million. Sadly, here is where campaign disclosure gets weak, because the National Wildlife Federation doesn’t have to disclose its donors since contributions on an initiative are considered nonpartisan and thus, not subject to the stringent disclosure rules as money destined to directly influence a partisan campaign.

This oversight is especially egregious when it comes to Prop. 22, a densely written amendment to the California constitution (already the third-largest in the world) that consumes eight pages of fine print to accomplish its purpose: constitutionally lock in redevelopment agency protections to protect them from pressure to reform.

California’s redevelopment agencies are supposed to target so-called “blight.” What they often do instead is use eminent domain to take property from one set of owners and give it to another so as to increase the tax base for a city.

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If You Can’t Beat Them, Choke Them–

This MoveOn.org goon had heard enough.

Don’t expect this to make it on the front page:

Jesse Kelly supporter James Massee was exercising his 1st Amendment rights when a Gabrielle Giffords supporter came up and choked him.

Publius Pundit reported:

At the first debate at the University of Arizona between Democrat Gabrielle Giffords and Republican Jesse Kelly, a fictitious group called Republicorp showed up trying to convince people that the Republican Party is bought off by Wall St (despite the FACT that most contributions from Wall St went to Obama).

Well, it appears that these may be the Chicago goons we were looking for. Since they cannot tolerate any dissent, one of the “Republicorp” liberal activists tried to shut up a Jesse Kelly supporter who was telling the crowd about Gabrielle Giffords’ record of voting with Nancy Pelosi… By choking him.

Here’s the video:

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In the final days leading up to Tuesday’s critical vote, reports are making the rounds on the Internet that Democrats have acknowledged that they will lose the House of Representatives..

“[John] Kerry was touring Boston Medical Center and decided to enlighten everyone around him by laying his philosophy about the 2010 elections on everyone. This is what he said:

‘We have an electorate that doesn’t always pay that much attention to what’s going on so people are influenced by a simple slogan rather than the facts or the truth or what’s happening,’

Exactly. A simple slogan like, oh I don’t know, ‘Yes We Can.’ Or maybe ‘Hope and Change.’”

Of course, the mainstream media continues to carry water for the Democrats. The question is: If the Democrats are so resigned to loosing, then what’s going on in Harris County, Texas?  In recent days, tension in the county has been at a fever pitch as local Democrats spread fear and warn of voter intimidation. RedState reports that even the local Democrat party has gotten involved by posting an inflammatory message on its website. View the article for the screen shot.

“Notice the words in the first paragraph:

URGENT – THE TEA PARTY IS TRYING TO KEEP YOU FROM VOTING IN THIS ELECTION. DON’T LET THEM!

And further down in the message:

WE CANNOT LET THEM GET AWAY WITH THIS. WE FOUGHT TOO HARD FOR THE RIGHT TO VOTE TO LET A BUNCH OF BIGOTS AND THUGS TAKE IT AWAY FROM US NOW.

Nice, isn’t it. This is how the Dems are operating in Texas, folks. And contrary to what they are saying in the email above, it is the Dems who are intimidating Ms. Engelbrecht’s trained via -Texas- law poll watchers. They are even suing her.”

ACORN and groups like it are known for operating under the radar and rarely cause trouble in strict law enforcement states. For example, the Virginia chapter of ACORN in Virginia Beach, VA had several members arrested after one of their “typical shakedown protests.”  So why mess with Texas? The answer lies on the website of the Soros and Rockerfeller funded America Votes. Click pictures to enlarge.

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Senator Tom Coburn (R-O K) put out a report this morning titled “Federal Programs to Die for: American Tax Dollars Send Six Feet Under” showing rampant waste, fraud and abuse in government programs.  This report has put together programs totalling $1 billion in federal monies given to the dead.  For those to say that cutting waste, fraud and abuse is an empty slogan, this report shows that stopping checks to the dead is a means to save one billion of your tax dollars.

Delaware Republican candidate for Senate Christine O’Donnell was stopped from citing “waste, fraud and abuse” as a means to lower the estimated $13.6 trillion national debt during a debate aired on CNN.  According to a Daily News transcript published on October 14, 2010:

Arguably the toughest moment for O’Donnell came when she was asked to outline what programs she would cut to slash government spending and reduce the national deficit, two major themes of the Tea Party platform.  Before she responded, Blitzer told her she could not simply say cut waste, fraud and abuse because “everybody says that.”

This report shows that the elimination of waste, fraud and abuse is an important element of a comprehensive program to reduce the federal debt.  According to the Coburn Report, dead people received checks from the federal government in the form of Stimulus, aid to cool and heat homes, housing, prescription drugs, and medical supplies.  Dead people are receiving checks from Uncle Sam and you are paying for it.

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What have you done for liberty today?

In his Daily Show appearance last night, President Obama made a very revealing—and presumably inadvertent—statement about those in Congress who have supported his radical agenda.

In the context of many congressional seats being up for grabs in what pundits and prognosticators are predicting to be a GOP wave election, Obama stated that many of his allies in Congress voted for politically tough bills because they believed “it was the right thing to so” despite being in conservative-leaning districts.

On the surface, what the President says sounds so noble. These politicians are doing what they think is right. They’re standing up despite outside pressure! Except they aren’t standing up for the right people: their constituents. “Doing what they think is right” is warm and fuzzy code for “what Nancy Pelosi / President Obama tells them is right.”

Elected officials aren’t supposed to vote for what is right in their minds alone. What seems right in the halls of power amidst meetings with tax-eater special interests and arm-twisting White House political hacks is quite likely not what’s right for the people elected officials are supposed to represent. This sort of backwards thinking, internalized even by the President, is exactly why the American electorate is upset with the political status quo. Elected officials are supposed to vote for what is right in the minds of their constituents for whom they work.

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Tea Party groups in New Jersey are outraged over ads that have mysteriously surfaced in support of a supposed Tea Party candidate.  The sponsored ads on Google are being served up all over the web, in places like BlogTalkRadio, in support of one Peter DeStefano, and direct viewers to the website of njteapartycoalition.org.

The problem is, the NJ Tea Party Coalition, the owners of that website, did not purchase any such ads.

“I find this ad extremely troubling,” Brian Baldwin of the NJ Tea Party Coalition told local press. “We did not authorize this nor are we supporting Mr. DeStefano.”

What’s worse is that the group – and every Tea Party group in NJ that I’ve communicated with – has been denouncing DeStefano as a “fake” Tea Party candidate for months now.  They’ve all been complaining about this to the appropriate authorities for some time now.  After seeing these latest ads, Tea Party leaders in NJ are urging their members and other like-minded leaders to contact the local election officials and the Secretary of States’ office to look into DeStefano’s candidacy.

After hounding the press about their suspicions, some in the media had taken notice of the Tea Party’s claims in NJ.  And they agreed.

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Yesterday, the White House blog asked “as special interest billionaires continued to pour secret donations of millions of dollars each into front groups supporting Republicans, we asked the obvious question: “What do they expect in return?“”   They added, “Congressional Republicans have made clear that lobbyists have a seat at the table even when they are formulating their party’s broader strategy and governing vision.”

People in glass White Houses shouldn’t throw stones.

• “Google’s Marissa Mayer is hosting President Obama for a Democratic party fundraiser tonight. Tickets are $30,000-a-head….” – San Francisco Chronicle, October 21, 2010

• “After analyzing the unencrypted WiFi payload data captured by its Street View cars, Google now admits that the system captured entire e-mails, URLs and even user passwords.” - ZDNet, October 23, 2010

• “The Federal Trade Commission [has] closed its investigation into Google’s collection of consumer data through its Street View cars….”  San Francisco Chronicle, October 27, 2010

The FTC decision is a classic DC whitewash, but it a pattern for this administration which has repeatedly given Google “get out of jail free” cards, no-bid contracts and undisclosed lobbying and business access to top administration officials.  And when Big Government exposed the administration coordinating privately with Google, what happened?

Nothing.

That isn’t true everywhere.

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Retired Sandra Day O’Connor has had a busy month this month despite her retirement. Just this week she sat in on a federal appellate panel which struck down as unconstitutional Arizona’s law which requires voters prove that they are citizens. Apparently, it is an undue burden on non-citizens to prove that they actually are allowed to vote before giving them a ballot. Nice to see circular reasoning still prevails on the 9th Circuit.

Then, she appeared in a robocall at 1am in Nevada to campaign for a ballot proposition for so-called “merit selection” of judges. Part of the controversy is interesting since federal judges are required to refrain from political activity (for good reason) and appearing in a robocall clearly is political activity. There was, of course, the stunt of scheduling a modest number of robocalls at 1am to ensure massive media coverage of the proposition that might otherwise go unnoticed. It’s clever, really. Generate a moderate amount of controversy to bring attention to your candidate or cause, it’s been done before.

The interesting part of that story isn’t that she was doing robocalls (though that is a problem). The interesting part is what this proposition would entail. So-called “merit selection” of judges is simply a euphamistic way of saying “we’re going to take away the right to vote for judges from the citizens and give it to politicians and special interests.”

Of course, they don’t frame it like that. They say “oh, the special interests corrupt the process” and “judges have to raise money which means they’ll be tempted to trade favors” and “elections mean partisan politics and special interests can play mischief with judicial elections”. See, it’s all about reform.

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What happens when a group of everyday citizens does their part to alert the authorities to potential vote fraud? Apparently, Democrat drone media is unleashed to crush the effort. Check out this Houston, Texas ABC affiliate, Channel 13 News, report claiming leaders of King Street Patriots “may serve jail time,” quoting the Democrat Party as their source:

King Street Patriots is the organization that launched True the Vote, an initiative to encourage citizens to help improve elections by reviewing voter rolls and volunteering to work at the polls. Their honest intentions were met with coordinated lawsuits and an ethics complaint filing by Soros funded Leftist groups Texans Together and Texans for Public Justice, as well as the Texas Democrat Party. The ABC/Channel 13 report is only the most recent example of the mindless media coverage of King Street’s efforts, including ambush interviews of poll watchers inside of polling places.

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What is it with the League of Woman’s Voters and the Pledge of Allegiance?

For the second time in less than a week a congressional debate began with a request for the recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance, and for the second time in a week the League of Woman’s Voters moderator said no, and for the second time in a week the audience got up and said it anyway.  One would think that with all of the bad publicity after last week’s incident, the League would have “gotten it.” But Tuesday night the League of Woman Voters proved that they aren’t too “quick on the uptake.”

The Pennsylvania 18th Congressional district debate between Republican incumbent Tim Murphy and his Democratic party challenger Dan Connolly was about to begin when Murphy asked the moderator for the pledge. As the moderator Susan Reuther began to make excuses, the crowd stood up and took action on their own.

After the Pledge of Allegiance was recited, moderator Susan Reuther dealt with her obvious consternation over the spontaneous show of patriotism by scolding Candidate Murphy who asked for the pledge.

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