Facts Matter // Current

E-Voting Machines Used in Disputed Franken, Coleman Race Failed Tests

E-Voting Machines Used in Disputed Franken, Coleman Race Failed Tests By Jason Leopold The Public Record Electronic... more

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Tool Developed to Detect Possible Fraud in Election Tabulating Software

Blogged by David Safier Tool Developed to Detect Possible Fraud in Election Tabulating Software Pima County, AZ, Election... more

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BREAKING:Federal Judge Compels GOP IT Guru Mike Connell To Give Deposition Under Oath

BREAKING: Federal Judge Compels GOP IT Guru Mike Connell To Give Deposition in Ohio '04 Election Case Submitted by David... more

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Cheerleader Sarah Palin - Vovs to Balance Budget in First Term - No Accountability/No SHAME?

Sara Palin has gone too far! Mainstream media should be all over this. Where are they? She is not just a cheerleader who will... more

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Legal experts question US Attorney's decision not to prosecute Obama 'assassination plot'

Legal experts question US Attorney's decision not to prosecute Obama 'assassination plot' Brad Jacobson ... more

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John McCain may be trying to sell himself as a "maverick" and a "straight talker" who will tell the truth no matter the consequences, but independent, non-partisan watchdog groups aren't buying it. But, since he wrapped up his party's nomination, John McCain has offered more of the same false attacks and smears. To date, independent, nonpartisan fact checkers have published more than 50 fact checks debunking John McCain's lies and distortions.

To hold John McCain accountable to his own standard, the Democratic National Committee will count and chronicle the lies here on the McCainPedia's "Count the Lies" page.

175 Fact Checks
CNN: McCain’s Claim About Creeping Tax Hikes Is False. In a campaign speech Tuesday, October 28, in Hershey, Pennsylvania, Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain accused Democratic opponent Sen. Barack Obama and his running mate, Sen. Joe Biden, of being inconsistent on taxes.…The Verdict: False. What McCain is doing here, in part, is comparing apples and oranges. He compares two different aspects of Obama's tax plan as if they were the same. And Biden never said people making less than $150,000 are the "only" people who would get a tax cut under Obama's policies. [CNN, 10/29/08: http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2008/10/29/fact-check-obama-biden-creeping-down-on-who-gets-tax-relief/]

Politifact.com: “Tiny” Ad Makes Large Error. Back in May, McCain made the claim in an address to the National Restaurant Association in Chicago. We rated that claim False. We examined it again in August when the ad first aired and again found the statement to be False. But the ad will be new to many viewers this week, so we are revisiting it here.McCain is distorting Obama's original comments…McCain twisted Obama's words when he claimed that Obama characterized the threat from Iran as tiny or insignificant. Obama never said that. ...This isn’t the first time Obama has talked about the grave threat posed by Iran. He has repeatedly characterized it as such during his campaign. Obama never said the threat from Iran was “tiny” or “insignificant,” only that the threat was tiny in comparison to the threat once posed by the Soviet Union. And if the McCain campaign was unclear on that point, it should have been clear after Obama's comment in May that "Iran is a grave threat." To continue to twist Obama's words, especially after that clarification, earns another False. [Politifact: http://politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/828/]

McClatchy: McCain Wrong on World Series. What happened: "No one will delay the World Series game with an infomercial when I'm president," the Republican presidential nominee told a crowd Tuesday in Hershey, Pa… Why that's wrong: It's not unusual for World Series games to start after 8:30 p.m., and according to the Web site Politico, the Fox executive who's responsible for the Obama ad purchase said the infomercial was replacing only the pre-game show. "Our first pitch for the World Series is usually around 8:30 anyway, so we didn't push back the game. It was really just about suspending the pre-game, you know, Joe Buck," said the account executive, Joe Coppola. "That's all we did." The request to delay the game came from Major League Baseball. McCain himself was responsible for shifting the time of the National Football League's 2008 opening game ... Penalty: 15 yards for misleading the public about Obama and the World Series. [McClatchy, 10/29/08: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/politics/AP/story/746704.html]

Complete list at link ... John McCain may be trying to sell himself as a "maverick" and a "straight talker" who will tell the truth no... more

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1 month ago

Did Sports Complex Contractors Build Palin's House for Free?

I found this post a couple weeks ago on Dailykos. Ted Stevens was found guilty today, so I thought I would post this on current today to see what others think? Did the "First Dude" build their house?

by stef - dailykos.com
Sat Oct 11, 2008 at 08:52:55 AM PDT

The prosecution just rested in the Ted Stevens trial, in which he is accused of accepting $250,000 worth of free renovations to his house from VECO, an oil pipeline company. VECO workers labored for months remodeling Stevens' home at the company's expense.

The Palin's two-story, four bedroom, four bath home on Lake Lucille is worth $552,000. "Todd Palin built the house with friends who were contractors, he said in a recent television interview."

At the same time the mighty Todd was building the house, the Wasilla Sports Complex was under construction right down the road. Just who were these "friends who were contractors" who did such a huge favor for the Palins by building their house for them? Was it payback for the sports complex contracts? Wayne Barrett of the Village Voice asks the question, below the fold.

stef's diary :: ::
I posted this question last week but I believe it deserves a second look in light of the corruption uncovered in Troopergate and the Stevens trial. Todd's explanation, I built the house with the help of a few buddies, defies belief. Todd! You're a fisherman, a snomobile champion, an oil worker, a caribou hunter, a government operative, AND a plumber, electrician, mason, carpenter? Wow! You are one Super Dude.

Wayne Barrett reports that after the $12.5 million Wasilla Sports Complex was approved, the design contract went to architect Blase Burkhart, "son of Roy Burkhart, who is frequently described as a "mentor" of Palin and was head of the local Republican Party." Roy Burkhart was also a Palin campaign contributor. Palin then appointed Blase Burkhart to the builder-selection committee, which awarded the construction contract to "Howdie Inc., a mostly residential contractor owned at the time by Howard Nugent." Nugent was a Palin campaign contributor, also.

What happened next is rather curious. Here's Barrett:

A list of subcontractors on the [sports complex] job, obtained by the Voice, includes many with Palin ties. One was Spenard Builders Supply, the state's leading supplier of wood, floor, roof, and other "pre-engineered components." In addition to being a sponsor of Todd Palin's snow-machine team that has earned tens of thousands for the Palin family, Spenard hired Sarah Palin to do a statewide television commercial in 2004. When the Palins began building a new family home off Lake Lucille in 2002—at the same time that Palin was running for lieutenant governor and in her final months as mayor—Spenard supplied the materials, according to Antoine Bricks, who works in its Wasilla office. Spenard actually filed a notice "of its right to assert a lien" on the deed for the Palin property after contracting for labor and materials for the site. Spenard's name has popped up in the trial of Senator Stevens—it worked on the house that is at the center of the VECO scandal as well.

Todd Palin told Fox News that he built the two-story, 3,450-square-foot, four-bedroom, four-bath, wood house himself, with the help of contractors he described as "buddies." As mayor, Sarah Palin blocked an effort to require the filing of building permits in the wide-open city, and there is no public record of who the "buddies" were. The house was built very near the complex, on a site whose city purchase led to years of unsuccessful litigation and, now, $1.3 million in additional costs, with a law firm that's also donated to Palin collecting costly fees from the city.

I found this post a couple weeks ago on Dailykos. Ted Stevens was found guilty today, so I thought I would post this on current... more

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1 month ago

The Year the Media Died 2008 - That Pretty Much Says It All Doesn't It?

I find it disheartening that you can't pick up a newspaper or turn on the TV and get impartial news. I DON'T want to... more

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1 month ago

ACLU Demands Information on Military Deployment Within US Borders

ACLU Demands Information on Military Deployment Within US Borders
Deployment Erodes Longstanding Separation Between Civilian and Military Government

NEW YORK - October 21 - The American Civil Liberties Union today demanded information from the government about reports that an active military unit has been deployed inside the U.S. to help with "civil unrest" and "crowd control" - matters traditionally handled by civilian authorities. This deployment jeopardizes the longstanding separation between civilian and military government, and the public has a right to know where and why the unit has been deployed, according to an ACLU Freedom of Information request filed today.

"The military's deployment within U.S. borders raises critical questions that must be answered," said Jonathan Hafetz, staff attorney with the ACLU National Security Project. "What is the unit's mission? What functions will it perform? And why was it necessary to deploy the unit rather than rely on civilian agencies and personnel and the National Guard? Given the magnitude of the issues at stake, it is imperative that the American people know the truth about this new and unprecedented intrusion of the military in domestic affairs."

According to a report in the Army Times, the Army recently deployed an active military unit inside the United States under Northern Command, which was established in 2002 to assist federal homeland defense efforts and coordinate defense support of civil authorities. This deployment marks the first time an active unit has been given a dedicated assignment to Northern Command.

Civilian authorities, not the military, have historically controlled and directed the internal affairs of the United States. This rule traces its origins to the nation's founding and has been reaffirmed in landmark statutes including the Posse Comitatus Act, which helps preserve the foundational principles of our Constitution and democracy.

"This is a radical departure from separation of civilian law enforcement and military authority, and could, quite possibly, represent a violation of law," said Mike German, ACLU national security policy counsel and former FBI Agent. "Our Founding Fathers understood the threat that a standing army could pose to American liberty. While future generations recognized the need for a strong military to defend against increasingly capable foreign threats, they also passed statutory protections to ensure that the Army could not be turned against the American people. The erosion of these protections should concern every American."

In order to assess the implications of the recent deployment, the ACLU requested the Departments of Justice, Homeland Security and Defense today to immediately make public all legal opinions, executive orders, presidential directives, memos, policy guidance, and other documents that authorize the deployment of military troops for domestic purposes.

Since the terrorist attacks of 9/11, the Department of Defense has dramatically expanded its role in domestic law enforcement and intelligence operations, including the National Security Agency's warrantless wiretapping programs, the Department of Homeland Security's use of military spy satellites, and the participation of military personnel in state and local intelligence fusion centers. The ACLU has repeatedly expressed concern about these incremental encroachments of the military into domestic affairs, and the assignment of active duty troops to Northern Command only heightens these concerns.

ACLU Demands Information on Military Deployment Within US Borders Deployment Erodes Longstanding Separation Between Civilian and... more

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1 month ago

Unprepared for a YouTube world

Bachmann, to Politico: Despite the way the blogs and the Democratic Party are spinning it, I never called all liberals... more

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5 responses

1 month ago

The presidential candidates' positions on the war on drugs

Every year we throw away billions on a failed program to punish addicts -- an approach both candidates should know doesn't work.

By Joe Conason

Oct. 20, 2008 | If Barack Obama or John McCain wants to find a federal program that wastes hundreds of billions of dollars, he can take the scalpel (or better yet the hatchet) to the national war on drugs. Economists, physicians, police chiefs and prison wardens have repeatedly concluded that the drug war has been a very costly failure over the past four decades, but then neither Obama nor McCain needs to hear the truth from any expert -- because each of them can draw on his own painful personal experience.

From opposite ends of the social and economic scale, both candidates have observed the casualties and injustices of American drug policy. Both should be able to understand why the system of punishment must be replaced by a paradigm of medical treatment. And both seem reluctant to discuss the subject for obvious reasons.

In "Dreams From My Father," his candid and moving memoir, Obama admits that as a young man he got high, using marijuana regularly, and that he was on the way toward something worse during his high school and college years. Although he stops just short of confessing that he snorted cocaine occasionally, when he could "afford" it, he has never denied using coke, as the book clearly implies. He watched at least one friend go to prison while others succumbed to heroin addiction.

After Obama overcame the angst that had had caused him to seek solace in dope, he tells of watching the devastation of Chicago's South Side -- and especially of the children who lived there -- by the crack epidemic. Government and society seemed powerless to prevent the ruin caused by crack and smack; the Prohibition-like policies that drove up prices, tempted kids to become dealers and corrupted the police force accomplished nothing.

As a community organizer, Obama came to know those alienated, dangerous kids and their families intimately. The only certainty for him was that the young people swept up into addiction, prosecution and incarceration were not to blame for their circumstances -- that they were "the consequences of a malnourished world."

Meanwhile, upstairs in the overnourished world, beer heiress and Senate wife Cindy McCain was scheduled to write her own memoir this year. Last spring she got an advance that reportedly came close to a million dollars for a book that would tell not only about her relationship with her husband, John, but, according to the Wall Street Journal, would also recount "her past battle with an addiction to painkillers." Originally scheduled to appear in September, her book was abruptly canceled only a month after the publisher bought it. The McCain campaign explained that with the demands of campaigning, she simply wouldn't have the time (despite the hiring of a ghostwriter).

But it is hard to imagine why she or husband John would want to excavate any unhappy memories of her Percocet period. Her battle with addiction included a series of major felony offenses in the early '90s, which included falsifying prescriptions, stealing drugs from a medical charity she founded and underwrote with her family fortune, and inducing doctors and other employees of that charity to help her obtain Percocet and other Schedule III narcotics illegally. The Drug Enforcement Administration opened an investigation of her after a former employee, whose name she had used to obtain drugs, reported her criminal misuse of her charity. At the time, seasoned defense attorneys in Arizona believed that she could face up to 20 years in prison if convicted on half a dozen counts (and that if her name had been José Lopez, she surely would have).

Every year we throw away billions on a failed program to punish addicts -- an approach both candidates should know doesn't... more

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1 month ago

DEA said Cindy McCain stole drugs from her charity

Now that the New York Times is bringing it up, here's the whole story.

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1 month ago

WHAT TEDDY ROOSEVELT SAID ABOUT CRITICIZING THE PRESIDENT

"The President is merely the most important among a large number of public servants. He should be supported or opposed... more

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6 responses

1 month ago

John McCain calls JFK's assassination an "intervention"

Note to John McCain: Assassination is not an "intervention" - IT"S MURDER! Marilynn_Murray, I think it was a... more

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20 responses

1 month ago

Trader Drove Up Price of McCain ‘Stock’ in Online Market

By Josh Rogin, CQ Staff - An internal investigation by the popular online market Intrade has revealed that a single... more

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1 month ago

McCain - Palin: Unethical conduct and lies

Given the deceitful distortions and inherent lies the McCain-Palin team, and particularly Mrs. Palin herself is telling about... more

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1 month ago

Iglesias: "I'm astounded" by DOJ's ACORN probe

Iglesias was fired because he would not do the work of the Republican Party in his court. Facts matter! Is the DOJ being used... more

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10 responses

1 month ago

Did John McCain mispronounce Joe the plumbers las name on purpose?

Last night during the debate John McCain mispronounced Joe the plumbers last name. Did he do it because if he pronounced it correctly, people with memories would associate his last name to Charles Keatings Son-in-Law, Robert M. Wurzelbacher Jr., who had pleaded guilty to three counts of misapplying $14 million from Lincoln, an Irvine, Calif., savings association.

Is Keatings Son-in-Law related to Joe the plumber? The last name is the same? Leads one to wonder if this is coincidence, or a smoking gun plumber? This article is from 1993, but it gives the name of Keatings Son-in-Law who has the same last name as Joe the plumber.

Keating Son-in-Law to Serve Prison Term

Published: December 13, 1993

A son-in-law of the former head of Lincoln Savings, Charles H. Keating Jr., must surrender next year to begin a 40-month prison sentence.

United States District Judge Mariana R. Pfaelzer imposed the sentence last week on the son-in-law, Robert M. Wurzelbacher Jr., who had pleaded guilty to three counts of misapplying $14 million from Lincoln, an Irvine, Calif., savings association.

Mr. Wurzelbacher, 39, was an executive with Lincoln's parent, the American Continental Corporation, which Mr. Keating controlled.

Prosecutors asked for a six-year sentence, saying Mr. Wurzelbacher had volunteered little of use to them after making a plea bargain.

Mr. Wurzelbacher's lawyer, Mark Beck, had asked for probation and community service. He said Mr. Wurzelbacher was likely to serve 26 months before parole.

On Tuesday, Judge Pfaelzer ordered Mr. Wurzelbacher to begin his sentence on Feb. 4. She said she would recommend that he be sent to prison camp at Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada.

Mr. Wurzelbacher did not plead guilty to the indictment charging him and others, including Mr. Keating and Mr. Keating's son, with looting Lincoln and swindling investors who lost money buying risky bonds. Instead, he admitted that he helped Lincoln extend loans to a hotel partnership in which he, Mr. Keating and other insiders had interests. He said he knew the loans were unlikely to be repaid.

Lincoln's failure in April 1989 cost taxpayers $3.4 billion, a record.

Last night during the debate John McCain mispronounced Joe the plumbers last name. Did he do it because if he pronounced it... more