In our earlier investigation revealing the outfit behind the misleading and illegal robo-calls made to North Carolina voters just days before a critical primary election, we reported that questions have been raised about the connections between that group -- the D.C.-based nonprofit Women's Voices Women Vote -- and the Hillary Clinton presidential campaign.

We noted, for example, that WVWV Founder and President Page Gardner has donated generously to Clinton and to HILLPAC, but has given nothing to the Obama campaign, according to OpenSecrets.org. We also noted that WVWV Executive Director Joe Goode previously worked as a pollster for Bill Clinton, and that WVWV board member John Podesta is the former chief of staff for President Clinton as well as a Hillary Clinton donor.

There are other connections that we did not mention, but that have been pointed out in comments here and at other sites. For example, Maggie Williams is a former member of WVWV's leadership team, according to Sourcewatch.org; she also served as chief of staff to First Lady Hillary Clinton and to the Clinton Foundation in New York, and she was named the manager of Clinton's campaign in February. And Holly Schadler, WVWV's attorney, helped set up the Back to Business Committee in 1994 to defend Bill and Hillary Clinton from attacks by political enemies.

But one of the most striking connections between WVWV and the Clinton campaign -- and one particularly relevant to a story involving what appear to be voter suppression efforts right before an election -- was pointed out to us by a reader. He notes that the firm in charge of voter outreach for WVWV is MSHC Partners, whose president is Hal Malchow. Sourcewatch.org reports that Malchow was a member of WVWV's leadership team.

At the same time, MSHC also does direct mail and outreach for the Hillary Clinton campaign. In fact, the campaign owes MSHC $807,000, according to Politico.com.

Labels: facing south, hillary clinton, MSHC, north carolina primary, Page Gardner, robo-calls, voting rights, women's voices women vote

ABC News reports on the North Carolina robo-call scandal:

A group responsible for misleading automated phone messages to North Carolina voters has drawn the attention and ire of state officials in at least seven other states.

Women's Voices Women Vote, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit voter outreach group, says it has been active in 24 states trying to register unmarried women to vote. Mailings and phone calls from the group, however, have confused thousands of presidential primary voters and caused headaches for state election officials.

In Wisconsin, officials rebuked the group for disregarding the state's primary registration deadline. Arizona's secretary of state called the group's mailings "misleading and deceptive" for suggesting that voters were legally required to send back the enclosed registration forms. Michigan officials fielded thousands of phone calls regarding mailings to deceased voters and those who were already registered, according to news reports. In Virginia, the state police launched an investigation out of concern that the groups mailings could be a part of a identity theft scam.

Last week, North Carolina voters received automated messages -- known as robocalls -- from the group telling them to expect a voter registration packet in the mail, nearly two weeks after the mail-in voter registration deadline for the state's presidential primary.

Election watchdogs say the group's track record of missteps, first uncovered by the Institute of Southern Studies, is surprising considering its connections to several well-experienced political operatives, including former Clinton White House chief of staff John Podesta.

Labels: abc news, facing south, north carolina primary, robo-calls, voting rights, women's voices women vote

Women's Voices Women Vote broke the law, as we charged in our recent investigation.

That's according to North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper, who this afternoon stated that the deceptive "robo-calls" conducted by Women's Voices -- exposed by Facing South -- were, as our report suggested, "illegal." Here's part of Cooper's statement (pdf):

On Wednesday, Cooper and his consumer protection team demanded that the organization Women’s Voices Women Vote stop breaking state law with prerecorded calls to North Carolina residents. The organization said Wednesday the calls would stop.

The robo-calls told residents that they would be receiving a voter registration form in the mail that they needed to sign. But the deadline to register by mail has passed, and some call recipients already were registered, causing confusion.

"Regardless of the motivation, the robo-calls violated the law and they needed to stop," Cooper said in a statement.

At first, Cooper did not make it clear if Women's Voices would face penalties for the illegal calls. But as Under the Dome later reported:

Cooper spokewoman Jennifer Canada said the attorney general's office will continue to investigate the calls before deciding on any sanctions.

Cooper also gave out a number to call for information about this and other suspect calls: 1-877-5-NO-SCAM.

Labels: facing south, north carolina primary, robo-calls, roy cooper, voting rights, women's voices women vote

Our investigation posted earlier today about deceptive and likely illegal "robo-calls" made to North Carolina voters is making quite a splash. Here's some coverage you can find of the story:

Robo calls to register too late (Politico)

Women's Voices apologizes (Politico)

Nonprofit Women's Voices Women Vote stops suspicious robo calls (TPM Muckraker)

By hook or by crook (Talking Points Memo)

D.C. group behind robo calls (Under the Dome/Raleigh News & Observer)

Our report is also a top-recommended item at Daily Kos.

We'll keep you posted on story developments ...

Labels: dailykos, facing south, politico, talking points memo, tpm muckraker, under the dome, voting rights, women's voices women vote

By Chris Kromm
Facing South

Who's behind the mysterious "robo-calls" that have spread misleading voter information and sown confusion and frustration among North Carolina residents over the last week?

Facing South has confirmed the source of the calls, and the mastermind is Women's Voices Women Vote, a D.C.-based nonprofit which aims to boost voting among "unmarried women voters."

What's more, Facing South has learned that the firestorm Women's Voices has ignited in North Carolina isn't the group's first brush with controversy. Women's Voices' questionable tactics have spawned thousands of voter complaints in at least 11 states and brought harsh condemnation from some election officials for their secrecy, misleading nature and likely violations of election law.

First, a quick recap: As we covered yesterday, N.C. residents have reported receiving peculiar automated calls from someone claiming to be "Lamont Williams." The caller says that a "voter registration packet" is coming in the mail, and the recipient can sign it and mail it back to be registered to vote. No other information is provided.

The call is deceptive because the deadline has already passed for mail-in registrations for North Carolina's May 6 primary. Also, many who have received the calls -- like Kevin Farmer in Durham, who made a tape of the call that is available here -- are already registered. The call's suggestion that they're not registered has caused widespread confusion and drawn hundreds of complaints, including many from African-American voters who received the calls.

The calls are also probably illegal. Farmer and others have told Facing South the calls use a blocked phone number and provided no contact information -- a violation of North Carolina rules regulating "robo-calls" (N.C. General Statute 163-104(b)(1)c). N.C. Attorney General Roy Cooper further stated in a recent memo that the identifying information must be clear enough to allow the recipient to "complain or seek redress" -- something not included in the calls.

It is also a Class I felony in North Carolina "to misrepresent the law to the public through mass mailing or any other means of communication where the intent and the effect is to intimidate or discourage potential voters from exercising their lawful right to vote."

The calls have been denounced by the N.C. State Board of Elections, as well as by voter advocacy groups including Democracy North Carolina, which called them "another in a long line of deceptive practices used in North Carolina and elsewhere that particularly target African-American voters."

Yesterday, I placed a call to the Virginia State Police, which had investigated similar suspicious robo-calls before that Virginia's primaries last February. Their investigation concluded that the source of the calls was Women's Voices Women Vote.

Facing South then contacted Women's Voices, and staffer Sarah Johnson confirmed they were doing similar robo-calls in North Carolina; they later admitted that they were the ones behind the deceptive "Lamont Williams" calls.

So who is Women's Voices Women Vote, and why are they making shadowy and legally-questionable calls that are causing North Carolina voters so many headaches?

The D.C.-based nonprofit, led by well-connected Washington operatives, claims in a press release they sent to Facing South [PDF] that the North Carolina calls are part of a 24-state effort targeted at a list of 3 million voters, especially unmarried women. The robo-calls, which never mention Women's Voices, are followed by mailings that include information on how to register to vote. They plan to mail some 276,000 packets in North Carolina alone.

But since last November, in at least 11 states nationwide, Women's Voices -- sometimes working through its Voter Participation Center project -- has developed a checkered reputation, drawing rebukes from leading election officials and complaints from thousands of would-be voters as a result of their secretive tactics, deceptive mailings and calls, and penchant for skirting or violating the law. For example:

* In Arizona last November, election officials were "inundated with complaints" after Women's Voices sent a mailing erroneously claiming that recipients were "required" to mail back an enclosed voter registration form. Many who received the mailing were already registered; the mailing also gave the wrong registration date. Secretary of State Jan Brewer denounced the group's tactics as "misleading and deceptive." A similar mailing in Colorado that month "[drew] fire and caused confusion," according to a state press release.

* In Wisconsin, state officials singled out Women's Voices for misleading and possibly disenfranchising voters, stating in a press release [PDF]: "One group in particular -- Women's Voices. Women Vote, of Washington, D.C. -- apparently ignored or disregarded state deadlines in seeking to register voters," sending in registrations past the January 30 deadline and causing "hundreds of Wisconsin voters who think they registered in advance" to actually not be.

* Michigan officials ended up "fielding tons of calls from confused voters" after Women's Voices did a February mailing to "380,000 unmarried women" -- including numerous deceased voters and even more that were already registered. Sarah Johnson of Women's Voices "seemed confused by the confusion," the Lansing State Journal reported.

* A 1.5 million-piece Women's Voices mailing in Florida falsely stated: "To comply with state voting requirements, please return the enclosed application." Pasco County's elections supervisor called it "disingenuous"; another said it created "a lot of unnecessary panic on behalf of the voters," reported local newspapers. Sarah Johnson of Women's Voice said, "I'm sorry to hear that."

* By March, Women's Voices was backing off the erroneous "registration is required" language, but there were still problems. For example, a mailing in Arkansas allowed that "registering to vote is voluntary," but a clerk in Washington County reported that "the majority [of forms] sent back to the county come from registered voters, causing needless labor for office employees."

Problems with the group's tactics have also been documented in Louisiana, Kentucky and Ohio.

In each state, the Women's Voices campaigns have brought the same news and the same themes, again and again: Deceptive claims and misrepresentations of the law -- sometimes even breaking the law. Wildly inaccurate mailing lists, supposedly aimed at "unregistered single women," but in reality reaching many registered voters as well as families, deceased persons and pets. Tactics that confuse voters and potentially disenfranchise them.

For such a sophisticated and well-funded operation, which counts among its ranks some of the country's most seasoned political operatives, such missteps are peculiar, as is the surprise expressed by Women's Voices staff after each controversy.

In at least two states, the timing of Women's Voices' activities have raised alarm that they are attempting to influence the outcome of a primary. As we reported earlier, in Virginia, news reports surfaced the first week in February that prospective voters were receiving anonymous robo-calls telling voters that they were about to receive a voter registration packet in the mail.

The timing of the calls was astoundingly off: As the Virginia State Police confirm, the calls were made Feb. 5 and 6 -- about 10 days before the then-critical Virginia primary, but more than two weeks after the deadline for registering in the state had passed (Jan. 14). The Virginia State Board of Elections was deluged with calls by confused voters -- many who were already registered. When they heard the calls from Women's Voices, they feared that they really weren't.

Because of the horrible timing and their secretive nature, state officials assumed the calls and mailings were part of an identity theft scheme. When the Virginia State Police investigated, they found Women's Voices was behind them. Women's Voices was unapologetic after the controversy, merely issuing a boilerplate press release trumpeting the success of the program.

Now Women's Voices is plunging North Carolina into the same confusion. State officials tell Facing South they are still receiving calls from frustrated and confused voters, wondering why "Lamont Williams" is offering to send them a "voter registration packet" after the deadline for mail-in registration for the primaries has passed.

In correspondence with North Carolina election officials, Women's Voices founder and President Page Gardner merely said that the disruptive timing was an "unfortunate coincidence" -- a strange alibi for a group with their level of resources and sophistication.

There are other questions about Women's Voices' outreach efforts. Although the group purports to be targeting "unmarried women," their calls and mailings don't fit the profile. Kevin Farmer in Durham, who first recorded the call, is a white male. Many of the recipients are African-American; Rev. Nelson Johnson, who is a married, male and African-American, reported that his house was called four times by the mysterious "Lamont Williams."

And as Farmer asks, "Why are they using a guy for the calls if the target audience is single women?"

Some have also questioned the ties between Women's Voices operatives and Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Hillary Clinton. Gardner, for example, contributed $2,500 to Clinton's HILLPAC on May 4, 2006, and in March 2005 she donated a total of $4,200 to Clinton, according to The Center for Responsive Politics' OpenSecrets.org. She has not contributed to the Obama campaign, according to the database.

Women's Voices Executive Director Joe Goode worked for Bill Clinton's election campaign in 1992 as a pollster; the group's website says he was intimately involved in "development and implementation of all polling and focus groups done for the presidential primary and general election campaigns" for Clinton.

Women's Voices board member John Podesta, former Chief of Staff for President Bill Clinton, donated $2,300 to Hillary Clinton on April 19, 2007, according to OpenSecrets.org. Podesta also donated $1,000 to Barack Obama in July 2004, but that was well before Obama announced his candidacy for president.

"The reports from other states are very disturbing, especially the pattern of mass confusion among targeted voters on the eve of a state's primary," Democracy North Carolina's Bob Hall tells Facing South. "These are highly skilled political operatives -- something doesn't add up. Maybe it's all well-intended and explainable. At this moment, our first priority is to stop the robo-calls and prevent the chaos and potential disenfranchisement caused by this group sending 276,000 packets of registration forms into North Carolina a few days before a heated primary election. We need their immediate cooperation."

While Hall says his group has "begged" the group to stop the mailings, Women's Voices has refused to do so -- even though the mail-in voter registration deadline for the primaries passed April 11.

State election officials say they are bracing for the deluge of confused phone calls and complaints that are sure to follow.

[UPDATE: Bob Hall tells us that Women's Voices is now cooperating and trying to stop the North Carolina mailing. The mailing has apparently left the mail house but there’s still a chance it can be stopped before it gets into the mail system.]

Reporting and research assistance by Sue Sturgis

Labels: north carolina primary, voter participation project, voting rights, women's voices women vote

The RealtyTrac foreclosure report for the first quarter of 2008 is out. It shows foreclosures increasing more than 23% nationwide as compared to the fourth quarter of 2007, and a disturbing 112% year-over-year increase from the first quarter of 2007.

RealtyTrac CEO James J. Saccacio says in the report that "Foreclosure activity in the first quarter increased on a year-over-year basis in 46 out of the 50 states and in 90 of the nation’s 100 largest metro areas, demonstrating that most regions of the country are seeing more foreclosures."

Florida was fourth highest on the list with one foreclosure per 97 households, double the national rate. There were 87,893 foreclosures in Florida, a 178% increase over the first quarter of 2007 and a 17% increase over the fourth quarter of 2007. Georgia was sixth on the list, with one foreclosure per 136 households. Tennessee was number thirteen, with one foreclosure per 216 households.

The total number of foreclosures in Southern states including Texas was 197,425. The average percentage increase in foreclosures was 30% from Q4 2008, and 108% year-over-year from Q1 2007.

States with the lowest rate of foreclosure were West Virginia, Mississippi, Alabama, Kentucky, and South Carolina. All of those states, however, saw an increase from Q4 2007 except Mississippi, which had a reduction of -7.66%.

In related news, nationwide home vacancies hit a new record of 18.6 million unoccupied homes, or 2.9% which is the highest number on record since 1956. Analysts say foreclosures are a factor, but so are falling prices, which are making buyers wait for the market to bottom out. According to the Bloomberg report, Fannie Mae says home prices may decline up to 5.8% in 2008, the most on record.

Labels: economy, foreclosure

As we reported earlier today, illegal robo-calls giving false voter information to mostly African-American households in North Carolina are very similar to calls made to voters in southern Virginia before that state's primary this spring (as well as Ohio last year).

The Virginia State Board of Elections believed that the calls, which asked voters to return a "voter registration packet" that the caller said would be coming in the mail, were an attempt at identity theft.

Several Facing South readers have asked our opinion: are these calls attempted ID theft or voter deception?

It seems unlikely the bogus calls are related to identity theft, for two reasons:

(1) Why would identity theft criminals make a robo-call ahead of time, announcing their plans? Since they're one-way calls, they can't get personal information over the phone -- the calls just announce their plans.

(2) As far as we know, the mysterious "voter registration packets" never actually arrive, making it impossible for the would-be ID thieves to get the information they want.

(3) Finally, the timing: the calls always come shortly before an election. When a voter receives the call, it makes them think they aren't registered, and therefore shouldn't vote. Very clever, and strong evidence that confusing and discouraging voters, not ID theft, is the crime at hand.

ALSO: Our cross-post of the original piece is a top-rated diary at DailyKos. Over there, we have two more reports of "Lamont" in Ohio.

Labels: north carolina primary, voter registration, voting rights

UPDATED at 10:22 am with information about Virginia -- CK

As reported yesterday in the Raleigh News & Observer, African-American households are receiving anonymous robo-calls with misleading information about voting. Facing South has now learned that those calls are very similar to tactics recently used in Virginia and Ohio, suggesting they may be linked to a national voter deception strategy.

In one North Carolina call, the caller falsely states that voters must send in a "voter registration packet" before voting. The State Board of Elections released a transcript of the call (you can also listen to it at the Democracy North Carolina website):

"Hello, this is Lamont Williams. In the next few days, you will receive a voter registration packet in the mail. All you need to do is sign it, date it and return your application. Then you will be able to vote and make your voice heard. Please return the voter registration form when it arrives. Thank you."

Facing South has learned that voters in Virginia received calls with the same message before that state's Feb. 12 primaries -- although, the Virginia State Board of Elections curiously viewed it as an attempt at identity theft, not voter disenfranchisement. As WAMU 88.5 reported:

State police and elections officers in Virginia are warning residents about a possible identity theft scam. The state board of elections says at least a dozen people in central and southern Virginia have received automated phone calls this week telling them to expect a voter registration packet in the mail. The residents say they were instructed by the caller to fill out the packets and mail them in. State Board of Elections Secretary Nancy Rodrigues says the state did not make these calls and does not register voters in that manner.

I called the Virginia State Board of Elections, and a spokeswoman told me they did not have transcripts of the calls and did not know whether or not they came from "Lamont Williams." She said they had referred the matter to state police.

Facing South has also learned that, last year, voters in Ohio received almost the exact same calls, using the same name of the supposed caller in North Carolina. In November 2007, a voter in Columbus, Ohio wrote in to the Buckeye State Blog with this eerily familiar story:

I just got a weird robo-call that I suspect may be a form of voter suppression, albeit kinda braindead. From memory, a stentorian voice reminiscent of James Earl Jones says: "Hello. This is Lamont Williams. In a few days you should be getting a voter registration form in the mail. Please fill it out and return promptly and you will be able to vote. Thank you."

Since the election is Tuesday, the message is nonsensical. Also, I can't find any information on this Lamont Williams. The caller ID was blocked ("unknown caller").

As Bob Hall at Democracy North Carolina said in a statement:

This is another in a long line of deceptive practices used in North Carolina and elsewhere that particularly target African-American voters. In our view, this phone message plainly violates North Carolina law. We ask the Attorney General, State Bureau of Investigation, and the State Board of Elections to investigate, expose, and prosecute the sponsors of these calls.

(H/T reader AS)

Labels: north carolina primary, voting rights

That's the question posed in an article published today by CommonDreams.org and written by Ann Wright, a veteran of the U.S. Army and Army Reserves and a former U.S. diplomat who resigned from the State Department in 2003 over her opposition to the Iraq war. She discusses 15 cases involving deaths of women soldiers in Iraq following rapes that have been classified as suicides but which occurred under, as she writes, "extremely suspicious circumstances":

8 women soldiers from Fort Hood, Texas (six from the Fourth Infantry Division and two from the 1st Armored Cavalry Division) have died of "non-combat related injuries" on the same base, Camp Taji, and three were raped before their deaths. Two were raped immediately before their deaths and another raped prior to arriving in Iraq. Two military women have died of suspicious "non-combat related injuries" on Balad base, and one was raped before she died. Four deaths have been classified as "suicides."

One of the suspicious deaths was that of U.S. Army Private LaVena Johnson in July 2005. The Army said Johnson died of a self-inflicted M-16 shot, but her parents were suspicious, since she called home daily and gave no impression of being upset. They were also concerned about bruising on her face, as well as a bullet wound that looked more like it had come from a pistol than an M-16 -- as well as the fact that someone had glued white gloves on her hands, which had been burned.

As Johnson's family and friends began collecting evidence through the Freedom of Information Act and other sources, their suspicions grew. It turns out the young woman's M-16 was found perfectly parallel to her body -- which was found inside a burning tent. A witness said he heard a gunshot and when he went to check found the tent on fire and a body inside. And then they found a CD of photographs:

The photographs revealed that Lavena, a small woman, barely 5 feet tall and weighing less than 100 pounds, had been struck in the face with a blunt instrument, perhaps a weapon stock. Her nose was broken and her teeth knocked backwards. One elbow was distended. The back of her clothes had debris on them indicating she had been dragged from one location to another. The photographs of her disrobed body showed bruises, scratch marks and teeth imprints on the upper part of her body. The right side of her back as well as her right hand had been burned apparently from a flammable liquid poured on her and then lighted. The photographs of her genital area revealed massive bruising and lacerations. A corrosive liquid had been poured into her genital area, probably to destroy DNA evidence of sexual assault.

Despite the bruises, scratches, teeth imprints and burns on her body, Lavena was found completely dressed in the burning tent. There was a blood trail from outside a contractor’s tent to inside the tent. She apparently had been dressed after the attack and her attacker placed her body into the tent and set it on fire.

Investigator records reveal that members of her unit said Lavena told them she was going jogging with friends on the other side of the base. One unit member walked with her to the Post Exchange where she bought a soda and then, in her Army workout clothes, went on by herself to meet friends and get exercise. The unit member said she was in good spirits with no indication of personal emotional problems.

The Army investigators initially assumed Private Johnson's death was a homicide and indicated that on their paperwork. However, shortly into the investigation, a decision apparently was made by higher officials that the investigators must stop the investigation into a homicide and to classify her death a suicide.

As a result, no further investigation took place into a possible homicide despite strong evidence available to the investigators.

Other stories recounted by Wright are just as shocking. She is calling on Congress to demand further investigation into the women's deaths. All Americans should join her in that call.

(Photo of LaVena Johnson courtesy of www.lavenajohnson.com)

Labels: Ann Wright, LaVena Johnson, military, violence against women

As Fair Food activists gather today in Miami to deliver the first 75,000 signatures on a petition urging Burger King to eliminate slavery and human rights abuses from Florida's tomato fields, new information has come to light about who was behind online postings attacking the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, an advocacy group that has been pressuring the company to take action. Turns out Burger King Vice President Stephen Grover posted the remarks using his daughter's online identity, the Fort Myers News-Press reports:

...[O]ften during the past year, when articles or videos about the coalition were posted on YouTube and various Internet news sites, someone using the online names activist2008 or surfxaholic36 would attach comments coalition member Greg Asbed has called "libelous."

This one, from surfxaholic36, is representative: "The CIW is an attack organization lining the leaders pockets ... They make up issues and collect money from dupes that believe their story. To (sic) bad the people protesting don't have a clue regarding the facts. A bunch of fools!"

Although Shannon Grover also uses the name surfxaholic36 -- mostly on social networking sites -- she said the anti-coalition posts are her father's alone.

"I don't really know much about the coalition and Burger King stuff," she said, reached by phone at the family's Miramar home Friday. "That was my dad. My dad used to go online with that name and write about them."

Asked if she'd ever written about the coalition online, she was adamant: "No, that was my Dad. That was him."

The petition campaign was launched following the December 2007 discovery of a slavery operation in which farm bosses in Immokalee are accused of locking tomato pickers inside trucks and beating those who tried to escape. The case represents the seventh slavery prosecution in Florida agriculture in the past decade. A Senate hearing held earlier this month focused on the inhumane conditions.

The petition calls on Burger King to follow the lead of Yum Brands and McDonald's by signing an agreement with CIW to improve wages for tomato pickers, adopt a zero-tolerance policy for slavery and monitor conditions for farmworkers. The company is currently working with the Florida tomato growers' lobby to fight the advocates.

Labels: coalition of immokalee workers, Fair Food, farmworkers, Florida, slavery

During presidential candidate John McCain's visit to New Orleans yesterday, reporters asked him about Pastor John Hagee's statements that Hurricane Katrina was God's judgment against New Orleans for a gay pride parade. While Hagee has endorsed McCain -- an endorsement McCain has said he's glad to have -- the Arizona Senator wants to make it clear that he does not endorse Hagee's remarks. Here's what he had to say:

"It's nonsense, it's nonsense, it's nonsense, it's nonsense, it's nonsense. I don't have anything additional to say. It's nonsense, it's nonsense, it's nonsense, I don't have anything more to say….it's nonsense. I reject that categorically."

But McCain's rejection of Hagee's Katrina comments didn't stop him from getting in a dig at Sen. Barack Obama's relationship with the controversial Rev. Jeremiah Wright, who by the way will be the guest tonight on the PBS show Bill Moyers Journal. Asked about whether commenting on surrogates and endorsers is interfering with the campaign, McCain answered:

I didn't attend Pastor Hagee's church for 20 years. There's a great deal of difference in my view between someone who endorses you and other circumstances.

Labels: barack obama, Bill Moyers, Hurricane Katrina, jeremiah wright, John Hagee, john mccain, new orleans

Are Sens. Clinton and Obama fighting hard for North Carolina?

Earlier this week, columnist Rob Christensen suggested that the Democratic presidential hopefuls were largely bypassing the state, given that the result -- an Obama victory -- is considered a foregone conclusion:

While this was once seen as a possible make-it-or-break-it state in the Democratic presidential nomination fight, it seems increasingly likely that the candidates will be paying more attention to Indiana, which also holds its primary May 6. [...]

North Carolina's second-fiddle status is already evident. Obama and Clinton have each spent only one day in North Carolina this month. The state Democratic Party canceled a debate proposed for Raleigh on Sunday after Obama declined to participate.

The Clinton campaign didn't get that memo, reports the Wall Street Journal -- they're pouring millions of dollars into the state to keep the contest close:

[Clinton] is widely expected to lose North Carolina's Democratic presidential primary on May 6, but that isn't stopping her campaign from spending millions of dollars on advertising and holding rallies in dozens of communities throughout the state.

Clinton wants to avoid the kind of blowout loss to Sen. Barack Obama she suffered in South Carolina in January. She is trying to demonstrate the breadth of her support to Democratic elected officials and other superdelegates who will sway the decision on the party's nomination.

Obama is responding in kind: he'll be leading a major rally at the Dean Dome in Chapel Hill this coming Monday.

It appears North Carolina is still very much a hot battleground.

(H/T Political Wire)

Labels: barack obama, hillary clinton, north carolina primary, rob christensen

A bizarre dognapping case is drawing to a close in Texas, with a contested Shih Tzu returned to its original owners -- and a mayor's political career in ruins.

Last summer, in the small town of Alice, Rudy and Shelly Gutierrez left their pet Puddles with Mayor Grace Saenz-Lopez while they went on vacation. The next day, Saenz-Lopez called and told them Puddles was dead and buried. A few months later, a Gutierrez relative spotted the dog at a groomer's -- but Saenz-Lopez refused to return it. The mayor claimed the dog, who she re-named Panchito, had been neglected.

The Gutierrez family filed criminal charges and a civil suit. In January, Saenz-Lopez was indicted on felony counts of tampering with and concealing evidence (that being the dog); a hearing on those charges is set for Monday. In February, after the town's residents began circulating a recall petition, the mayor stepped down. In her resignation letter, she apologized for the trouble and said she did what she thought was best for the animal.

This Thursday, a District Judge ordered the dog returned to the Gutierrez family -- who reportedly "cried with jubilation." Less happily, Saenz-Lopez faces up to 10 years in prison.

Labels: criminal justice, friday dogblogging, texas

It appears either Georgia or Mississippi will be the first state to carry out the death penalty after last week's Supreme Court decision:

Georgia first execution in nearly a year set for May 6

The Department of Corrections on Wednesday scheduled the execution of condemned killer William Earl Lynd for 7 p.m. May 6. He is to be put to death by lethal injection.

AG asks state high court to set convicted killer's execution

Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood is asking the state Supreme Court to set Earl Wesley Berry's execution no later than May 5.

Normally, the AG's office requests the state Supreme Court to set an execution date within 30 days of filing the motion.

But [Assistant Attorney General Sonny] White said Berry has already had the benefit of the 30 days allowed by state law.

Executions are also scheduled for late May and early June in Virginia.

According to Amnesty International, the U.S. executed more people in 2007 than 17 other countries including Iraq, Vietnam, Yemen, and Afghanistan. Only four countries executed more prisoners: Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Iran, and China.

Labels: death penalty

We got an anonymous comment yesterday from someone responding to Chris's recent post about the South Carolina church sign asking if "Obama" and "Osama" were brothers. As comment moderator, I aim to avoid spreading misinformation in our forum. But I wanted to share this particular comment with readers, because it repeats a lie that unfortunately is believed by too many Americans and that needs to be confronted. Here's the relevant excerpt:

This is just another case of "just don't get it!" The sign has NOTHING TO DO WITH RACE or POLITICS. It has everything to do with RELIGION. The church is trying to get people in America to get their heads out of the sand and recognize a religious problem. I thought that was what churches were supposed to deal with.

Radical Islamists have declared war on America and the rest of the "Infidels" in the western part of this world. They have very plainly stated their intention is to kill us. They teach it in their schools where Obama attended.

It's true, unfortunately, that radical Islamists have declared war on America and want to kill us. And it's true that there are schools where this ideology is taught.

However, Obama did not attend them.

During his family's stay in Indonesia, the young Obama attended both Catholic and Muslim schools. But the Muslim schools he attended were no more "radical" than the Catholic ones. These were mainstream institutions, where children learned about religion, yes, but also basic subjects like reading and math. These schools were nothing like the madrassas that "educated" Afghanistan's Taliban, where students were taught a narrow interpretation of the Qur'an through rote repetition.

But in fact, the very idea of madrassas as terrorist factories may be mistaken -- at least according to a 2006 Washington Quarterly article titled "The Madrassa Scapegoat" by Johns Hopkins Professor Peter Bergen and Los Angeles Times writer Swati Pandey:

...[C]areful examination of the 79 terrorists responsible for five of the worst anti-Western terrorist attacks in recent memory—the World Trade Center bombing in 1993, the Africa embassy bombings in 1998, the September 11 attacks, the Bali nightclub bombings in 2002, and the London bombings on July 7, 2005—reveals that only in rare cases were madrassa graduates involved. All of those credited with masterminding the five terrorist attacks had university degrees, and none of them had attended a madrassa. Within our entire sample, only 11 percent of the terrorists had attended madrassas. (For about one-fifth of the terrorists, educational background could not be determined by examining the public record.) Yet, more than half of the group we assessed attended a university, making them as well educated as the average American: whereas 54 percent of the terrorists were found to have had some college education or to have graduated from university, only 52 percent of Americans can claim similar academic credentials.

For a thorough debunking of the Obama madrassa myth, see Jonathan Alter's Newsweek story from last January titled "Behind the 'Madrassa Hoax,'" which explains how this untruth was spread by right-wing media and used to slime not only Obama but also the Clinton campaign, which was wrongly named as the source of the misinformation. Also, Media Matters for America has assembled a timeline showing how the smear was spread.

Labels: barack obama, Election 2008, hillary clinton, media, politics

Over the last few years, a quiet but powerful alliance in Mississippi of African-American lawmakers, immigrant rights advocates and labor unions had successfully defeated a series of punitive bills aimed at the state's fast-growing Latino and new immigrant population.

But last month, that string of victories came to an end. Gov. Haley Barbour signed into law a bill with the most far-reaching employer sanctions in the United States. David Bacon reports:

The Mississippi bill, SB 2988, requires employers to use an electronic system to verify immigration status, called E-Verify. That system has only recently been developed by the Department of Homeland Security, and by the department's own admission, is not a complete record. Its accuracy is unknown, but by comparison, the Social Security database of U.S. workers, compiled since the 1930s, contains millions of errors.

The Mississippi bill goes much further, however. Employers are absolved from any liability for hiring undocumented workers so long as they use the E-Verify system. But it will become a felony for an undocumented worker to hold a job. Anyone caught "shall be subject to imprisonment in the custody of the Department of Corrections for not less than one (1) year nor more than five (5) years, a fine of not less than one thousand dollars ($1000) nor more than ten thousand dollars ($10,000) or both." Anyone charged with the crime of working without papers will not be eligible for bail.

Behind the scenes, the bill was considered not just a defeat for immigrant rights advocates, but was also a blow to the progressive coalition that was just beginning to blossom in Mississippi:

In the Jackson Clarion-Ledger, University of Mississippi journalism professor Joe Atkins called the law "a new xenophobia ... that threatens once again to lock down the state's borders and resurrect the 'closed society' that once made it the shame of the nation."

According to the Mississippi Immigrant Rights Alliance, the bill got the support of many Democratic state legislators because party leaders "wanted the house to bring out at least one bill dealing with immigration to relieve the political pressure being put on members (i.e. white Democrats), by right-wing forces in their districts. Many Black Caucus members were persuaded to go along. Unfortunately the bill they brought out was the worst of the six the Mississippi Senate passed."

The Black/Brown/progressive alliance had defeated 29 pieces of anti-immigrant legislation in 2007, and 19 such bills in 2006. But it broke down this year:

The 2008 legislative session was different, however. [Mississippi Immigrant Rights Alliance director Bil] Chandler describes three factions in the party -- the Black Caucus at one end, white conservatives hanging on at the other, and "liberals who will do whatever they have to do to get elected" in the middle.

When white Democratic moderates began caving in -- paving the way for the bill's final passage -- Chandler wrote a letter to Howard Dean of the Democratic National Committee, which concluded:

"State party leaders who "would go along to be accepted, rather than show the courage necessary for positive change... are peddling racist lies against immigrants that violate the core of the party's progressive agenda."

The bill is slated to go into effect July 1.

Labels: haley barbour, immigration, mississippi, mississippi immigrant rights alliance

Remember Pastor John Hagee of Cornerstone Church in San Antonio, the televangelist who told a radio show that Hurricane Katrina was God's judgment against New Orleans for a gay pride parade? Well, he's back at it. Think Progress reported on comments Hagee made this week on another radio show when asked to clarify his earlier remarks:

The topic of that day was cursing and blessing. … What happened in New Orleans looked like the curse of God, in time if New Orleans recovers and becomes the pristine city it can become it may in time be called a blessing. But at this time it's called a curse.

Hagee, you may recall, is the same religious leader whose endorsement presidential candidate John McCain solicited, accepted, and said he's still "glad to have." We wonder if Hagee's remarks will come up during McCain's visit today to the still-recovering city. We also wonder if North Carolina's GOP leaders gave any thought to Hagee's statements when they decided to run ads linking Obama to the controversial comments of Rev. Jeremiah Wright over McCain's protests.

P.S.: Well, apparently Hagee's comments will come up during McCain's visit to New Orleans, thanks to MoveOn.org.

Labels: Hurricane Katrina, jeremiah wright, John Hagee, john mccain, MoveOn.org, new orleans

In Florida, car drivers have over 100 choices for personalized license plates. But a Florida lawmaker now wants the state to offer a more divine option:

The Florida Legislature is considering a specialty plate with a design that includes a Christian cross, a stained-glass window and the words "I Believe."

Rep. Edward Bullard, the plate's sponsor, said people who "believe in their college or university" or "believe in their football team" already have license plates they can buy. The new design is a chance for others to put a tag on their cars with "something they believe in," he said.

If the plate is approved, Florida would become the first state to have a license plate featuring a religious symbol that's not part of a college logo. Approval would almost certainly face a court challenge.

The legal problem, the Florida ACLU says, is that such a plate "sends a message that Florida is essentially a Christian state" and gives the "appearance that the state is endorsing a particular religious preference."

Critics have good reason to fear religious favoritism is involved: when asked if he'd support an "I Don't Believe" plate for atheists, Rep. Bullard said probably not.

Labels: ACLU, church and state, Florida, religion, religious right

New Orleans residents who lost their homes in Hurricane Katrina were five times more likely to experience serious psychological distress a year after the disaster than those who did not.

That's among the findings of a new study presented earlier this month at the annual meeting of the Population Association of America in New Orleans. The research was conducted by Narayan Sastry of the University of Michigan and Mark VanLandingham of Tulane University. They examined the mental health status of New Orleans' pre-Katrina residents one year after the disaster.

Blacks reported much higher rates of serious psychological distress than whites. Almost one-third of blacks were found to have a high degree of distress, compared to just 6 percent of whites. Those with higher incomes and more education were much less likely to experience serious psychological distress, while those born in Louisiana were much more likely to suffer serious distress.

"Our findings suggest that severe damage to one's home is a particularly important factor behind socioeconomic disparities in psychological distress, and possibly behind the levels of psychological distress," Sastry said. "These effects may be partly economic, because, for most families who own their home, home equity is the largest element of household wealth."

The researchers note that severely damaged or destroyed housing may also prevent people from returning to their community, which in turn affects social ties and employment. Given the magnitude and permanence of a housing loss, they say, the psychological consequences of the experience could be profound and lasting.

(FEMA photo of destroyed homes in New Orleans by Marvin Naumann)

Labels: Gulf Coast Reconstruction Watch, housing, Hurricane Katrina, mental health, new orleans

Over the last two decades, government grants for college have been increasingly replaced by loans. While a big boon to banks and lenders, the privatization of student aid has put those wanting to go to college in an increasingly precarious position.

And that situation has just gotten worse, as the housing credit crisis causes lenders to back away from student loans, Stateline.org reports:

An increasing number of banks, private lenders and state agencies are dropping their student loan programs, forcing students to scramble for new sources of money. While some experts say students should be able to easily find new lenders, students who switch could end up with higher interest rates and fewer benefits, such as paid upfront loan fees, as the financial market tightens.

It's not just private lenders; state agencies are backing off as well:

Just last week, Kentucky announced that unless more money becomes available, it will not accept loan applications from new students after May 1, closing the door on 27,500 potential borrowers.

Students needing help will be able to find lenders to loan them money -- but likely at exorbitant rates and on terms that could keep students mired in debt, effectively creating a new subprime market of students in debt:

While some experts say students should be able to easily find new lenders, students who switch could end up with higher interest rates and fewer benefits, such as paid upfront loan fees, as the financial market tightens.

For more information on the issue, see the Project on Student Debt.

Labels: credit crisis, economics, higher education, students

Hey, North Carolina -- you're up.

After waiting in the on-deck circle for a Pennsylvania primary that settled nothing, North Carolina will step to the plate May 6 with a chance to help settle the Democratic presidential race.

N.C. is far and away the biggest primary left with 134 delegates (115 pledged, 19 supers).

Even more interesting for the Democrats: one-third of the remaining nine primaries are in Southern states -- N.C., Kentucky and West Virginia. These three Southern states will play a decisive role in finishing up the race, accounting for nearly half -- 48% -- of the remaining 408 pledged delegates.

Where's that Southern Strategy when you need it?

Labels: Election 2008, north carolina primary

At a luncheon for Mississippi's Capitol Press Corps, state Attorney General Jim Hood (D) spoke out about the growing influence of corporate media:

"Something that worries me more so than the war and Iraq and money in politics is freedom of the press," Hood said. "Is our press free anymore? The corporate ownership of the press nationally is a concern to me." [...]

He said he worries that newspapers’ editorials are dictated by out-of-state corporate offices.

Big Media execs don't have to worry about seeing Hood in court anytime soon. As the AP clarifies, "[Hood] said he was not threatening litigation. He simply wanted to express his frustrations."

Labels: jim hood, media, mississippi

Four out of five North Carolina residents -- including 74 percent of Republicans, 84 percent of Democrats, and 82 percent of Independents -- say the state should focus on increased energy efficiency, conservation and sustainable energy sources before building new coal-fired power plants.

That's among the findings of a new poll conducted by the Opinion Research Corp. for the Civil Society Institute, a nonprofit think tank in Massachusetts. The results were released today -- Earth Day, of course -- by the N.C. Waste Awareness and Reduction Network, a Durham-based group that's fighting to stop Duke Energy from opening a new coal-fired power plant in the western part of the state.

The poll also found that 69 percent of North Carolina residents would pick wind or solar energy if they could decide where to invest money for new electric power generation. In addition, it found that 59 percent of the state's residents -- including majorities of Republicans, Democrats and Independents alike -- would be more likely to vote for a political candidate who spoke out against Duke's plans.

"The pressure to cancel Cliffside will keep growing as the public learns the intensity of our climate crisis," said N.C. WARN Director Jim Warren. "We urge [Duke CEO Jim] Rogers to avoid dragging Duke Energy through a four-year battle against the people of North Carolina."

But when it comes to educating the public about Duke's plans, Warren and his allies have their work cut out for them. The poll found that two-thirds of North Carolina residents have little or no awareness of the company's intention to build the Cliffside facility. Only 34 percent said they were aware of the plans, with just 9 percent "very aware."

Labels: climate, coal, Duke Energy, global warming, Jim Rogers, NCWARN, polls

A church in Jonesville, South Carolina -- 30 minutes east of Spartanburg -- has jumped into the 2008 election season with this contribution: a sign that asks, "Obama, Osama, hmm, are they brothers?"

Of course, Pastor Roger Byrd of the Jonesville Church of God insists he means no harm in making the comparison:

Byrd said that the message wasn't meant to be racial or political.

"It's simply to cause people to realize and to see what possibly could happen if we were to get someone in there that does not believe in Jesus Christ," he said.

When asked if he believes that Barack Obama is Muslim, Byrd said, "I don't know. See it asks a question: Are they brothers? In other words, is he Muslim ? I don't know. He says he's not. I hope he's not. But I don't know. And it's just something to try to stir people's minds. It was never intended to hurt feelings or to offend anybody."

It would be easy to write this off as the questionable antics of a small-time Southern minister, but it's not like he's alone.

Linking Sen. Obama to Osama bin Laden is something that's been circulating in the media for a while. Rush Limbaugh repeatedly called the Illinois Senator "Obama Osama" in a 2005 speech in Florida. There was CNN's bizarre piece driving home the similarities between the two names in 2006.

Then there are the curiously frequent "mistakes" and "gaffes" where the names have gotten switched, from numerous incidents by major media outlets to Clinton campaign phone-bankers in Ohio.

You can see how a pastor in South Carolina might get some ideas.

Labels: barack obama, cnn, hillary clinton, rush limbaugh, South Carolina

The Bureau of Labor Statistics has released unemployment figures for March 2008. Since March 2007, unemployment has increased by more than 11% around the South, from an overall average of 4.5% to 5.0%.

Florida, Georgia, and Tennessee had the highest increases in unemployment. Virginia also had a large increase percentage-wise, but the unemployment rate remains significantly lower than the region.

Mississippi saw a 6.3% reduction in the unemployment rate, but theirs remains the highest in the region. Arkansas reduced unemployment to just below the regional average.

The good news is that unemployment in the South is slightly lower than the overall U.S. unemployment rate of 5.1%.

Unemployment	Mar 2007	Mar 2008	Change	% Change
Alabama	3.4%	4.1%	0.7%	20.6%
Arkansas	5.3%	4.9%	-0.4%	-7.5%
Florida	3.7%	4.9%	1.2%	32.4%
Georgia	4.2%	5.3%	1.1%	26.2%
Kentucky	5.6%	5.7%	0.1%	1.8%
Louisiana	3.9%	4.5%	0.6%	15.4%
Mississippi	6.4%	6.0%	-0.4%	-6.3%
North Carolina	4.5%	5.2%	0.7%	15.6%
South Carolina	5.7%	5.7%	0.0%	0.0%
Tennessee	4.5%	5.6%	1.1%	24.4%
Virginia	2.9%	3.7%	0.8%	27.6%
West Virginia	4.4%	4.7%	0.3%	6.8%
Region Average	4.5%	5.0%	0.5%	11.1%

Just out of curiosity, we looked at the percentage of employees with union representation as reported by the BLS:

Union representation	2000	2007	Change	% Change
Alabama	10.5%	10.6%	0.1%	1.0%
Arkansas	6.8%	6.5%	-0.3%	-4.4%
Florida	8.7%	7.3%	-1.4%	-16.1%
Georgia	7.5%	5.4%	-2.1%	-28.0%
Kentucky	13.8%	11.1%	-2.7%	-19.6%
Louisiana	9.3%	6.5%	-2.8%	-30.1%
Mississippi	9.6%	8.9%	-0.7%	-7.3%
North Carolina	4.8%	3.9%	-0.9%	-18.8%
South Carolina	5.2%	5.9%	0.7%	13.5%
Tennessee	10.3%	6.4%	-3.9%	-37.9%
Virginia	7.4%	4.8%	-2.6%	-35.1%
West Virginia	15.6%	14.7%	-0.9%	-5.8%

Note that with few exceptions, the states with the largest decline in union representation from 2000 to 2007 also have a corresponding higher increase in unemployment. There are obviously many other factors (overall loss of manufacturing jobs v. new auto manufacturing jobs that are typically union, etc.). Correlating unemployment to declining union representation is beyond the scope of this report, but it's interesting and perhaps worth exploring.

Labels: economy, jobs

by Jeffrey Buchanan, Guest Contributor

Last Tuesday, Chairman Edward Kennedy and Sen. Bernie Sanders of the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions held a hearing on modern-day slavery, persistent labor abuses and stagnant sub-poverty wages facing farmworkers in Florida's tomato fields. Two hundred years after the U.S. Congress banned the transatlantic slave trade and 150 years after the Emancipation Proclamation, America is still dealing with human trafficking of workers on our soil and an agricultural industry dependent on unspeakable labor practices standing in the way of human rights and social justice.

The hearing included testimony from Lucas Benitez (in photo), co-founder of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers and winner of the 2003 Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award. The CIW is a membership organization of migrant farmworkers, with over 4,000 members in Immokalee, the heart of Florida's fruit and vegetable industry, and elsewhere around the country. Immokalee and the surrounding portions of Florida are also where the majority of U.S.-grown tomatoes come from during the winter months.

As you read this article, chances are you have a Florida-grown tomato in your pantry. Chances also are, according to testimony of Detective Charlie Frost, investigator for the human trafficking unit at the Collier County Sheriff's Office, that as you read this article human trafficking is occurring in Florida’s agricultural fields. Katrina vanden Heuvel and Greg Kaufmann at TheNation.com chronicled Frost's response to Sen. Sanders after being asked if he believed modern day slavery, also called human trafficking, was occurring "as we speak" in Florida’s fields.

"It's probably occurring right now while we sit here," Frost said. "Almost assuredly it's going on right now."

"Detective, would you agree that in these slavery cases, there are people higher up the economic chain who are complicit and who benefit financially from what goes on?" Sanders asked. "[And if so,] do you believe we need to change the law to prevent the growers from shielding