Up next in Senate recount: Which ballots to count

The Minnsota Star-Tribune reports:

All must agree on absentee votes; result could tip scales.

Beginning a critical new stage in Minnesota's U.S. Senate recount, the campaigns of Sen. Norm Coleman and Al Franken are expected to spend today and Sunday identifying absentee ballots that they believe were improperly rejected and should now be counted.

Click to read more

John Lennon Has an Important Message For You

Ohio TV Station: Was GOP "IT Guru" Crash Accident Or Murder?

"Ohio TV Station: Was GOP "IT Guru" Crash Accident Or Murder?"
The story of whistleblower, key witness about to testify that 04 election was stolen, GOP IT guru, threatened by Rove, warned of his safety thru sabotage & feared for his life Connell who died in a fiery plane crash has finally been picked up by TV's MSM.

http://digg.com/politics/Ohio_TV_Station_Was_GOP_IT_Guru_Crash_Accident_Or_Murder?OTC-em-st1

DN!: Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) Calls for Independent Counsel to Investigate Cheney and Rumsfeld for Violating Torture Laws

Susan Wilk has sent you a story from Democracy Now!, a daily independent radio and TV news program:

Democratic Congressman Jerrold Nadler of New York has urged Attorney General Michael Mukasey to appoint an independent counsel to investigate Vice President Dick Cheney, former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, and other senior Bush administration officials for violations of the law relating to the torture of prisoners in US custody. Nadler is the chair of the Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Civil Liberties. [includes rush transcript]

To read, listen to, or watch the whole story:
http://www.democracynow.org/2008/12/23/rep_jerrold_nadler_d_ny_calls

---

This email has been sent at the request of a visitor to our website. If you wish to ensure that you do not receive any future messages from Democracy Now!, please accept our apologies and visit http://www.democracynow.org/optout

Video: Steven Spoonamore Named Connell

Rove Threatened Blackmail - Background

More Background
http://thejournal.epluribusmedia.net/index.php/state-news/ohio-news/34-ohio-news/127-rove-threat-to-blackmail-gop-it-mastermind-triggers-immunity-request-to-ohio-ag-by-election-lawyers

Thrown Under the Bus

WASHINGTON, Dec. 20 PRNewswire-USNewswire

Michael Connell, the Bush IT expert who has been directly implicated in the rigging of George Bush's 2000 and 2004 elections, was killed last night when his single engine plane crashed three miles short of the Akron airport. Velvet Revolution ("VR"), a non-profit that has been investigating Mr. Connell's activities for the past two years, can now reveal that a person close to Mr. Connell has recently been discussing with a VR investigator how he can tell all about his work for George Bush. Mr. Connell told a close associate that he was afraid that George Bush and Dick Cheney would "throw [him] under the bus."

http://news.prnewswire.com/DisplayRel...

Connell Had Cancelled Previous Flights

Connell had canceled at least two previous flights on fear of sabotage.

The man who knew too much

An article in the Telegraph (UK):

 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/3885913/George-Bush-aide-dies-in-plane-crash.html

Scott Horton's take:

A Troubling Black Box Death
By Scott Horton

http://www.harpers.org/archive/2008/12/hbc-90004069

Michael Connell was well-known to those who follow the "black box" voting drama. A voting technology expert from Akron, Ohio, Connell faithfully served the Republican Party, and in particular its chief electoral guru, Karl Rove-faithfully, that is, up until a few months ago. Under subpoena and court order, Connell was compelled to testify about his role in managing the 2004 election tabulations in Ohio. In that race, Connell both served as information technology consultant to the Bush-Cheney campaign and, under contract with the state of Ohio, managed the vote tabulation from servers he maintained in Chattanooga, Tennessee. He emerged as the focal witness in the current controversy over voting machine manipulation in Ohio. In 2004 exit polls put Kerry on top, but official results in black box districts, strongly at variance with the exit polls, gave the state, and the race, to Bush. After Connell was reportedly threatened by Karl Rove, an attorney for the plaintiffs in the litigation appealed to Attorney General Mukasey for protection late last summer. Now Connell is dead, the victim of a crash on the approach of his plane to the Akron airport on Friday. The Akron Beacon Journal reports:

Mr. Connell, founder and chief executive of New Media Communications in Richfield, died instantly when the single-prop airplane he was piloting crashed into a vacant house about three miles short of the Akron-Canton Airport. State Highway Patrol Lt. Eric Sheppard said Mr. Connell's plane was in communication with the airport control tower just before the crash, but he could not detail whether the radio transmissions were calls for help. "We have no reason to believe at this point it was anything other than an unfortunate crash," Sheppard said.

Connell had recently come into public view in connection with a lawsuit raising allegations of vote fraud in 2004:

Šthe lawsuit alleges that by 9 p.m. on Election Night 2004, the results were switched from the state server to one set up by Connell's, in the former Pioneer Bank Building in Chattanooga, Tenn. It is alleged the same server was used to bundle and remove White House e-mails regarding the 2005 federal prosecutor firing scandal. Mr. Connell tried to fight the subpoena, but a judge ruled against it and he gave a deposition on Nov. 3. It was through the fight over the subpoena that attorneys who brought the case learned that Mr. Connell and his wife had allegedly been threatened with federal prosecution by Rove.

Bob Fitrakis, one of the Columbus attorneys who filed the lawsuit, a former Green Party candidate for president and a political blogger known for his conspiracy theories on election stealing in Ohio, said word of Mr. Connell's death ''sent a chill down my spine."

Larisa Alexandrovna also links Connell to another important technology controversy: the "disappearance" of millions of emails connected with Karl Rove from the White House servers. The emails had been repeatedly subpoenaed and the White House had claimed they were "lost," a response which few are buying.

Mike Connell set-up the alternate email and communications system for the White House. He was responsible for creating the system that hosted the infamous GWB43.com accounts that Karl Rove and others used. When asked by Congress to provide these emails, the White House said that they were destroyed. But in reality, what Connell is alleged to have done is move these files to other servers after having allegedly scrubbed the files from all "known" Karl Rove accounts.

Connell may very well have died as a result of an innocent accident, but the circumstances are such that some observers will never believe that. He will be viewed as "the man who knew too much."

NYU professor and Harper's Magazine contributor Mark Crispin Miller discusses the case on today's Democracy Now.

Connell was warned not to fly

This detailed piece by Wayne Madsen is based on information from reliable sources.

MCM

Mike Connell was warned not to fly before plane crash

Mike Connell was warned not to fly before plane crash
By Wayne Madsen

Online Journal Contributing Writer

Dec 22, 2008, 00:27

(WMR) -- WMR has learned from knowledgeable sources in Ohio that Republican Party computer networking guru Mike Connell was warned not to fly in anonymous warnings conveyed to principals in the ongoing federal civil lawsuit of King Lincoln Bronzeville Neighborhood Association v. Blackwell, stemming from GOP-engineered vote fraud in the 2004 Ohio presidential election, as well as a potential Ohio racketeer-influenced criminal organization (RICO) criminal proceeding against former Bush White House aide Karl Rove and Blackwell, in the conspiracy to illegally steer Ohio's 20 electoral votes to the Bush column in 2004.

Connell's Piper Saratoga single-engine plane crashed during the evening of December 19 in Uniontown, Ohio, as it was preparing to land at Akron-Canton airport. There were no other passengers and Connell was killed in the crash. Connell had flown to College Park, Maryland, the previous day. Connell, who lived in Akron with his wife Heather and four children, often flew to Washington for activities related to his IT businesses.

Connell's name surfaced as a key player in Rove's election fraud conspiracy after this year's July 17 Columbus news conference hosted by Cliff Arnebeck, the Ohio attorney who has been representing plaintiffs in the federal civil suit against former Republican Secretay of State J. Kenneth Blackwell. On the phone at the conference was John McCain campaign adviser and computer security specialist Stephen Spoonamore who identified Connell as a key player, as well as potential trial witness, in the GOP's conspiracy to flip Ohio votes in the 2004 election.

Spoonamore and Connell had reportedly worked together on foreign elections in programs sponsored by the International Republican Institute (ISI) and the National Endowment for Democracy (NED). Both had traveled abroad together on special election projects to ensure "fair voting" procedures.

For the first time, WMR has learned that the GOP vote flipping conspiracy was in place earlier than the November 2004 general election and was used to deny votes to Democratic candidates John Edwards and Dennis Kucinich in the March 2, 2004, Democratic primary. John Kerry won the primary with 52 percent of the vote to 34 percent for Edwards and 9 percent for Kucinich.

After Connell was identified as a potential witness in the civil case against Blackwell and a possible criminal Ohio RICO case against Rove, Blackwell, and perhaps others, the plaintiff attorneys received a tip from a high-level source in the McCain presidential campaign that Rove had issued a threat against Connell. Connell had worked for the 2008 McCain presidential campaign on the development of its web pages.

WMR has learned from our Ohio sources that five threats against Connell were conveyed to the election fraud plaintiff attorneys with the last tip being "Connell is in danger." One of the threats reportedly made by Rove to Connell was that Connell could forget about a pardon from President George W. Bush if he did not "take the fall" in the event criminal charges were brought and that his wife Heather, who was used as a majority stockholder for one of Connell's web design companies, GovTech Solutions, would be prosecuted for illegal lobbying. Connell's other company is New Media Communications, Inc.

We have also learned that one additional tip was relayed to Connell's wife and it was to the effect that Connell "was in danger and he should not fly his plane."

Connell's firms received contracts to place its servers behind the House of Representatives firewall courtesy of then-House Administration Committee Chairman Bob Ney (R-OH), later jailed for his role in the Jack Abramoff lobbying-influence peddling scandal. Connell also designed and ran the web sites for the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence and the House Judiciary Committee. WMR has learned that through effective GOP control of these web sites, the Bush White House was able to monitor all committee e-mails and documents, including planning documents for House Judiciary Committee impeachment hearings against Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney.

We have also learned that Connell's IT firm did classified web site development work for the CIA.

Based on the threats against Connell, the federal judge hearing the civil suit King Lincoln v. Blackwell,conveyed to Connell that the court would protect him if he came forward. On October 17, 2008, Connell's attorneys attempted to quash an October 8, 2008, plaintiff subpoena for his court appearance. On October 31, U.S. Judge Solomon Oliver denied the motion to quash the subpoena and ordered Connell's deposition to proceed on November 3, the day before Election Day. WMR has learned that on Friday, October 31, Connell was nervous and "beet red" during the hearing to quash the subpoena. On Monday, November 3, Connell was composed and it is believed that his top shelf law firm had been selected by Rove to represent Connell for the deposition. Rove's intent was to ensure that there would be no deposition from Connell before the November 4 election.

WMR has also learned that Connell was prepared to testify before the House Judiciary Committee about the election fraud in Ohio and other states but that the offer of testimony was not acted upon senior staffers for House Judiciary Committee Rep. John Conyers (D-MI). A source in Columbus told us that some of Conyers' senior staffers on his committee and in is office are not to be trusted on issues related to election fraud.

In addition, Rove and the Bush White House attempted to forestall testimony by election officials in Mahoning County and Youngstown, Ohio, on election fraud in 2004 by promising to have former Rep. James Traficant (D-OH), who is currently imprisoned after being convicted of corruption, released early in return for their silence. Traficant is not scheduled for release from federal prison until Sept, 2, 2009.

Previously published in the Wayne Madsen Report.

Copyright © 2008 WayneMadenReport.com

Wayne Madsen is a Washington, DC-based investigative journalist and nationally-distributed columnist. He is the editor and publisher of the Wayne Madsen Report (subscription required). 

Copyright © 1998-2007 Online Journal
Email Online Journal Editor

MIKE CONNELL DEAD

Stark Co. plane crash: Who was Michael Connell?

http://www.wkyc.com/print.aspx?storyid=103520

Michael Connell was killed when the Piper Supercub he was piloting crashed three miles short of an Akron-Canton Airport runway. He leaves behind a wife and four children.

Connell, 45, of Bath Township, is considered to be one of the Republican Party's top computer experts. He led the companies that designed websites for the GOP and a virtual who's-who list of republican political leaders including President George W. Bush, Senator John McCain, as well as national organizations. Connell developed a host of federal government software and data management systems. Connell is also said to be a close confidant of the Bush family.

Earlier this year Connell was subpoenaed to testify in an Ohio federal court regarding voter fraud just days before the November presidential election. His alleged intimate knowledge of White House and Capitol Hill email systems has been a hot topic of conversation for Washington insiders regarding the Karl Rove/White House email scandal.

Connell founded New Media Communications, based in Cleveland, is the CEO of GovTech Solutions, based in Akron, and is associated with several other successful IT, marketing and advertising enterprises. His companies have won numerous awards for the development of political websites, marketing campaigns, and use of technology. New Media Communications placed third on the prestigious Weatherhead 100, a list compiled by Case Western Reserve University's Weatherhead School of Management that recognizes Northeast Ohio's fastest growing companies.

© 2008 WKYC-TV

courtesy: www.connelldonatelli.com

Karl Rove and Death

This message from Mark Crispin Miller is so disturbing, I am posting it without comment, in its entirety:

Back in the Nineties, the right compiled a "Clinton death list," and kept it circulating as a part of their long propaganda drive against that president. They also spread a lot of rumors of a coming federal crackdown, muttering of black helicopters in the skies, and "jack-booted thugs" preparing to drag all good patriots away.

All that stuff was paranoid mythology, based loosely on some actual events (the FBI's assault at Ruby Ridge, which took place under Bush the Elder, and the massacre of the Branch

Davidians in Waco) and lots of heated fantasy (such as the notion that the Clintons whacked

Vince Foster).

Whereas Clinton's enemies made much of his imaginary homicides and fascist plans, they've

mostly been stone-silent on the subject of Bush/Cheney's overt strikes against US democracy

(e.g., the Patriot Act, etc.)--and on the many unexplained and/or suspicious deaths that have occurred throughout the dark years of this presidency.

The list is long. There's Ray Lemme, the Florida investigator who, just after he told Clint Curtis that he'd nailed the truth about the Bush Republicans' election fraud, "committed suicide" in Georgia; Deborah Palfrey, the "DC madam," who threatened to go public with her client list, then suddenly "committed suicide"; Athan Gibbs, whose company, TruVote, which specialized in non-computerized vote-counting, was starting to compete with Diebold and ES&S et al.--and who died young on a highway when his car was crushed by a big truck; Don C. Wiley, the Harvard biologist who also suddenly, and wholly inexplicably, "committed suicide" (a terminus apparently related to the Bush regime's own work with lethal germs).

There are a lot of others, too. Instead of trying to name them all, let's concentrate for now

on those with clear links to Karl Rove.

From Velvet Revolution:

Karl Rove was working with Phil Gramm when a witness died:

In 1985, Gramm was linked to a campaign contribution shakedown run out of a Small Business Administration (SBA) office in El Paso. He was never subjected to a complete investigation or negative press coverage, however, because on February 19, 1988, a leased Rockwell Aero Commander 680 crashed and exploded shortly after taking off from El Paso International Airport. All aboard, the pilot, his wife and son, were killed. The pilot was local businessman Don McCoy who, a day earlier, had agreed to give testimony in an FBI investigation that had threatened both Senator Gramm's protégé at the SBA, and some of the city's most prominent business leaders.

Karl Rove was one of Enron's biggest shareholders. Questions surround the "suicide" of Enron's Cliff Baxter.

Rove was working on John Ashcroft's Senate campaign when his opponent, Mel Carnahan, was killed in a plane crash. Ashcroft lost the race.

Paul Wellstone was killed in a plane crash after speaking out loudly and publicly against starting the Iraq War. Rove was the political strategist in the White House.

[For an overview of the abundant evidence of foul play in Wellstone's case, see

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0975276301/qid=1146178680/sr=2-1/ref=pd_bbs_b_2_1/103-8142988-0768628?s=books&v=glance&n=283155--MCM.]

And now Mike Connell. Quite the pile of bodies following Rove around.

--~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~

For more News From Underground, visit http://markcrispinmiller.com
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MN Recount Numbers

See the numbers at the Minneapolis Star Tribune's sit: http://senaterecount.startribune.com/ballots

Chris Matthews Takes Neocon Apologist to Task

Minnesota Recount Updates Dec 17th - Video

Coleman Adds Challenges As Board Asks For Them To Be Reduced

230+ Franken challenges left to count as board reconvenes 9am

MN Supreme Court to hear recount case

Franken campaign spokesperson believes that the recount will be completed on Friday.

Watch it all live on The UpTake! (provided here for your convenience)

Shoes for Bush

Nobel Economist: Bail Out Homeowners, Not Banks

"We should be helping at the bottom end, not at the top," he says.

read more | digg story

New GOP Memo- actual Union Busting MEMO

1. This is the democrats first opportunity to payoff organized labor after the election. This is a precursor to card check and other items. Republicans should stand firm and take their first shot against organized labor, instead of taking their first blow from it.More at link

read more | digg story

Judicial Ruling Brings Franken Closer to Senate Win

Al Franken received a lot of good news in his attempt to wrest, from Stormin' Norm Coleman, the Senate seat once held by Paul Wellstone. Franken's odds of winning improved a great deal after a judicial ruling and one from the Minnesota SoS.

read more | digg story

Election News from Mark Crispin Miller

CA: Humboldt County - Local elections office commended

http://www.times-standard.com/localnews/ci_11161383

CA: Humboldt County - Editorial - A glitch that should never have been
http://www.times-standard.com/editorials/ci_11161384

CA: Humboldt County - Our Votes are Too Important...

http://www.mitchtrachtenberg.com/ourvotes.html

CA: Humboldt County - Diebold Voting Software Lost Ballots in California County
http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2008/12/unique-election.html

MN Senate Race:The Latest News

LA Times sez: Either Coleman or Franken has won. Gee thanks.

Best News Headlines of the Week

Best Headline of the Week:

George W. Bush Attends His Own Hanging

Thank you, LA Times

Franken Ahead 22 Votes Now, Campaign Says

"If true (the official state and newspaper numbers show a margin more favorable to Coleman, owing to the many challenges each campaign has logged), the tally underscores just how incredibly close the Minnesota race has become."Regardless of the outcome, he should challenge the rejection of the absentee ballots in court.

read more | digg story