Paul Revere by Cyrus Dallin, North End, Boston

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Monday, December 22, 2008

ROVE IT GURU DIES IN SMALL PLANE CRASH

Remember the last election and all the allegation about ACORN? There was never any evidence brought forth to prove that ACORN's involvement affected any election outcome. But that didn't stop rightwing bloggers from posting on that nonstory.

This story is far worse, and it involves the Office of the President of the United States, since Karl Rove is deeply implicated.

Other links:

George Bush aide dies in plane crash

Mystery surrounds the death of a Republican pollster, recently compelled to give evidence about alleged election fraud in the 2004 election in Ohio, after he was killed in a plane crash.

By Toby Harnden in Washington
Last Updated: 8:57PM GMT 21 Dec 2008


Top internet strategist Michael Connell, 45, was the only person in his single-engine private plane that crashed three miles short of the Akron-Canton airport on Friday night as he prepared to land after flying from College Park, Maryland, close to Washington.


He had worked on Mr Bush's two presidential campaigns, advised John McCain this year and was also linked to allegedly missing White House emails in the 2006 controversy over a string of firings of US attorneys.


The death of the married father of four immediately triggered conspiracy theories amid speculation that he had been about to reveal embarrassing details of the complicity of senior members of the Bush administration in fixing an election and destroying incriminating emails.


In a blog posting entitled "One of my sources died in a plane crash last night...", Larisa Alexandrovna of The Raw Story revealed that Mr Connell had been talking to her about the Ohio case alleging that vote-tampering during the 2004 presidential election resulted in civil rights violations.


"Mike was getting ready to talk. He was frightened... I am not saying that this was a hit nor am I resigned to this being simply an accident either. I am no expert on aviation and cannot provide an opinion on the matter. What I am saying, however, is that given the context, this event needs to be examined carefully."


A house was damaged in the 6pm crash in freezing conditions but no one apart from the pilot was killed or injured.


"He suffered massive traumatic injuries over his entire body," said Harry Campbell, the local coroner's chief investigator. "His death was instantaneous."


Mr Connell was president of GovTech Solutions and New Media Communications. A web designer, he had created a website for Ohio's secretary of state that presented the results of the 2004 election in real time as they were released.


He had refused to testify or to hand over documents relating to the systems he had created for the 2004 and 2006 elections but was compelled to do so by subpoena in October and appeared in court in Cleveland, Ohio – the state which gave President George W Bush victory in 2004 – to give a deposition the day before Barack Obama won the presidential election.


A lawyer bringing the voter fraud case described Mr Connell as "a high IQ Forrest Gump" because he had been at the scene of so many "crimes" involving Republicans and the Bush administration.


Mr Connel's company website states that he "has served as internet consultant to scores of prominent senators, governors and members of Congress, as well as the Republican National Committee and five Republican National Conventions".

Source


REPORTED IN JULY 2008:

Ohio News
By John Michael Spinelli
Thursday, 24 July 2008

GOP Threatens “Valerie Plame” Style Strike Against Wife of IT Mastermind if He Doesn’t Become Fall Guy for Gaming the 2004 Ohio Election
OhioNewsBureau


COLUMBUS, OHIO: The little story about how the GOP cyber-gamed the Ohio presidential election in 2004 is growing by the day, spurred on to greater heights Thursday when an Ohio election attorney asked the Ohio Attorney General to provide immunity protection to Mike Connell, the GOP IT mastermind who built various computer systems they say not only won Ohio for President Bush in 2004 but led to many other wins for Republicans over the years of the Bush Administration.

A key figure in the grand strategy of the Grand Old Party to build a cyber system that could assure permanent control by Republicans of key offices, state and federal, is Mike Connell, an Ohio native some refer to as a “High IQ Forrest Gump” for his brilliance in masterminding the construction of various computer systems associated with election procedures and data security, including the so-called firewall in Congress.


Ohio Attorney General Asked to Protect Key Witness in Election Fraud Case

In an email sent to OhioNewsBureau by lead attorney Cliff Arnebeck, who filed a federal lawsuit in August 2006 asserting the GOP gamed the system and won the state by suppressing the votes of various progressive-leaning groups like students and African Americans and who wants to revive the case to protect the integrity of the 2008 election, Nancy H. Rogers, the former dean of the law school at The Ohio State University and interim Attorney General, was asked to provide immunity protection services to Connell.

The immunity request from Arnebeck to the Ohio AG was triggered by information from a confidential source that Karl Rove, a kingpin GOP strategist, threatened that if Mike Connell doesn’t go in the tank for cyber-rigging the 2004 election in Ohio, his wife will be sued for lobbying law violations. Using this kind of hardball tactic to rain retribution down on an individual for not allowing himself to be “thrown under the bus” smacks of the identical retaliation tactic used to punish Valerie Plame by outing her as a spy for remarks made by her husband Joe Wilson before the commencement of the war in Iraq that no evidence existed for uranium being sold by Niger to Saddam Hussein.


In an email to the General Mukasey at US Dept. of Justice, Arnebeck said “We have been confidentially informed by a source we believe to be credible that Karl Rove has threatened Michael Connell, a principal witness we have identified in our King Lincoln case in federal court in Columbus, Ohio, that if he does not agree to "take the fall" for election fraud in Ohio, his wife Heather will be prosecuted for supposed lobby law violations. This appears to be in response to our designation of Rove as the principal perpetrator in the Ohio Corrupt Practices Act/RICO claim with respect to which we issued document hold notices last Thursday to you and to the US Chamber of Commerce Institute for Legal Reform.”


Continuing, Arnebeck said, “I have informed court chambers and am in the process of informing the Ohio Attorney General's and US Attorney's offices in Columbus for the purpose, among other things, of seeking protection for Mr. Connell and his family from this reported attempt to intimidate a witness.


“Concurrently herewith, I am informing Mr. Conyers and Mr. Kucinich in connection with their Congressional oversight responsibilities related to these matters.


“Because of the serious engagement in this matter that began in 2000 of the Ohio Statehouse Press Corps, 60 Minutes, the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, C-Span and Jim VandeHei, and the public's right to know of gross attempts to subvert the rule of law, I am forwarding this information to them, as well.”



In an exclusive interview with OhioNewsBureau, Arnebeck said he expects to meet in person next week with attorneys in the Ohio AG’s office on his request for immunity filed today. Stressing that his aim is to enhance his lawsuit of 2006, Arnebeck said, "I’m not trying to screw things up. I want to help not hinder.”


Asked what other offices could play a role, if they chose, in his campaign to unravel the Matrix behind what he and computer experts like Stephen Spoonamore say is going on but no one has yet to prove exists, Arnebeck said the Office of Ohio Secretary of State, the chief of elections, could use its legal authority to interrogate Connell, or initiate her own inquiry into the matter if she wants to hold off on the federal case. Arnebeck said Judge Algenon Marbley, who’s in charge of his case, has had members of his staff informally informed of the direction Arnebeck and his co-counsel, Bob Fitrakis, want to take the case along with their request to recover various emails of Karl Rove and the US Chamber of Commerce they feel makes their case.


“We want to cooperate,” Arnebeck said in a telephone interview today, about working with all offices on finding the truth behind efforts to build an effective but undetectable system that tilts close elections to Republicans.

Source

More information.

14 comments:

dmarks said...

The ACORN story was a potentially a big deal, since ACORN was revealed to be nothing more than an organiation to promote voter fraud, with lots of fake "Mickey Mouse" names on its rolls. ACOPR just adds to the case that we need legitimate ID to vote, and the only ones who oppose it are those who benefit from fraud.

However, the election margin was so big, that whatever they did didn't count. So no-one cared.

Shaw Kenawe said...

There was never any evidence that ACORN committed VOTING fraud. There's quite a difference between VOTING fraud, and REGISTRATION fraud.

What happened in Ohio, and possibly other states, in the 2002, 2004 elections is VOTER fraud.

There's much, much more to this story if one is interested in digging for facts.

You could start by listening to Stephen Spoonmore, a selfl-identified Republican and computer expert:

http://tinyurl.com/48omeh

dmarks said...

Hence, I said "voter fraud" to refer to ACORN's efforts on voter registration, instead of "voting fraud". Then, it must be recognized that ACORN's efforts to pollute the voter registration rolls does indeed impact on the issue of actual fraud of voters. Especially as ACORN's political allies block real efforts (such as requiring legitimate voter ID) to prevent voting fraud.

Ohio in 2002 is something that is new to me as a subject. As for Ohio 2004, I remember at the time that Kerry found no evidence at all of voter fraud, so he did not challenge anything. And he has the most to gain of anyone by doing so.

And I found this story of Democratic Party voter fraud in Ohio. The most worthless thing cluttering Ohio accounts is exit poll information, since exit polls have nothing to do with anything.

Send along a good link on the Ohio 2002 fraud.

Also, do you have any real links? I've been burned too many times by hacker stuff in "tinyurl", so I never click on it.

Gordon Scott said...

hm. For being such a noted IT expert, the only notes seem to be in Spoonamore's own bios and websites. They're full of descriptions that seem to say a lot, but when you parse them they're mostly meaningless buzzspeak. And I can't find any evidence he ever did any work for any GOP organization, and we only have his word that he's a Republican.

After all, not many Republicans have donated $1750 to Howard Dean--but Spoonamore has.

Velvetrevolution.us is a George Soros-funded group. Not the most reliable source for straight information.

Rawstory.com, which appears to be the source of much of this, lives off donations, but doesn't provide a list of donors. Not exactly the most open organization! Larisa Alexandrovna, who appears to be the proprietor, is fond of such elocutions as calling Sarah Palin a "hillbilly succubus" and witty comments suggesting George W. Bush has no soul. Gosh, no bias there!

Ohio News Bureau appears to be a clipping service, rather than a genuine news organization.

Cliff Arnebeck seems to be a political gadfly--the kind of guy who joins an organization, creates a stir, then goes stomping off when everyone won't follow his lead. He's been a Republican, a Perotist, and a Democrat--all since 1990.

I especially like the news report. No sources listed; just The Building From Which He Worked!

Seriously, there is nothing here but partisan rants and conspiracy theories.

dmarks said...

"I especially like the news report. No sources listed; just The Building From Which He Worked!"

I kind of like that idea. It means that I can take a laptop with Sprint broadband into the lobby of the CNN office building, sit down, blog some rant or other, and claim to be a CNN reporter.

Reminds of that fake journalist who claimed that Sarah Palin called Obama "Sambo", but refused to back up the claim.

Shaw Kenawe said...

Michael L. Connell was President, Chief Political Strategist and CEO of New Media Communications, Inc., a Republican website development and internet services firm based in Richfield, OH. He died December 19, 2008 when the small airplane he was piloting crashed upon approach at the Akron-Canton Airport.[1] He is survived by his wife, Heather and their four children.

New Media's GOP clients are a "'Who's Who' of Republican politics", having provided campaign web services and Internet strategy for:

Bush-Cheney 2000/2004
Dick Armey,
Spencer Abraham for Senate 2000, Heather Wilson for Congress 2000/2002/2004,
Rick Santorum for Senate 2000/2006John Thune for Senate 2002/2004

to name just a few. New Media also designed GOP.com for the Republican National Committee, RGA.org for the Republican Governors Association, and between two and three dozen state GOP sites.

In April 2001, Connell spun-off GovTech Solutions from New Media to handle its growing list of federal government clients, such as:

MajorityWhip.gov for Tom DeLay and Johnny Isakson.

Business filings in the state of Ohio show that Govtech's founding members were Connell's wife Heather, and the well-known GOP operative and Chairman of the DCI Group, Thomas J. Synhorst.

By 2004, Govtech's clients would grow to include more than 20 members of the U.S. House of Representatives, GOP.gov, the web site of the House Republican Conference, and the House Intelligence, Judiciary, Financial Services, Way and Means, and Administration committees.

The latter was acquired while House Administration was chaired by former-U.S. Rep. Bob Ney of Ohio, who was convicted in 2006 of conspiracy to defraud the United States.

Shaw Kenawe said...

dmarks,

FYI:

What kinds of voter suppression have occurred recently?

In the 2004 election there were many reports of voter suppression and intimidation, though incidents such as these have occurred throughout American history:

Challenges: Making use of an obscure law allowing challenges to an individual's right to vote, the Republican Party in Ohio preemptively disputed the registrations of more than 35,000 first-time voters from predominantly Democratic and minority areas, requiring them to appear in court to defend their eligibility to vote just days before the election. The GOP also announced plans to dispatch people to polling sites to challenge registrations of pre-selected voters in person—these plans were the subject of several last-minute lawsuits. Similar challenges also occurred in a number of other states, including Florida and Wisconsin.


Voter Registration Suppression: In Nevada, according to press reports, workers for a Republican funded private voter registration company that targeted registration efforts at Republicans destroyed forms filled out by Democrats. In Florida, several thousand students and other potential voters found that their party affiliations and addresses had been changed on their registration forms.


Deception: In African-American neighborhoods of Milwaukee, a flier purportedly from the "Milwaukee Black Voters League" was distributed, reading,
SOME WARNINGS FOR ELECTION TIME

IF YOU'VE ALREADY VOTED IN ANY ELECTION THIS YEAR YOU CAN'T VOTE IN THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION.

IF YOU [OR ANYBODY IN YOUR FAMILY] HAVE EVER BEEN FOUND GUILTY OF ANYTHING, EVEN A TRAFFIC VIOLATION, YOU CAN'T VOTE IN THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION.

. . . IF YOU VIOLATE ANY OF THESE LAWS YOU CAN GET TEN YEARS IN PRISON AND YOUR CHILDREN WILL BE TAKEN AWAY FROM YOU.

Letters sent on fake NAACP letterhead warned African-American voters that they would be arrested if they tried to vote and had outstanding parking tickets or had not paid child support.

In Pennsylvania, leaflets were distributed on fake county letterhead in a mall, announcing that Republicans should vote on Tuesday, November 2, and Democrats should vote on Wednesday November 3. A similar incident occurred in Cleveland, where letters printed on fake Board of Elections letterhead warned that registrations through the Kerry campaign, America Coming Together, and the NAACP were invalid.

Source here.

I'm still looking for a link to the 2002 election.

Shaw Kenawe said...

dmarks,

The story you link to is found on NewsBuster, a rightwing blog.

Now according to my biographer and friend, Gordon, my information is linked to LEFTwing blogs, so it's biased and can't be trusted.

Do I apply the same to what I've read on NewsBusters?

dmarks said...

Shaw: Good point about Newsbuster. So I went and found the story at the Washington Post, a left-wing newspaper.

I will leave it up to Gordon whether or not the Post can be trusted.

Gordon Scott said...

Shaw,

I wasn't, and did not, dispute that Michael Connell was the person described in the stories. It's the people who claim there was some grand conspiracy to steal the election, and foul play in his death, who are biased, if not kooky.

Shaw Kenawe said...

dmarks,

Any newspaper that reports news that is unflattering to the right is considered biased, and any newspaper that reports news that is unflattering to the left is considered biased.

I have plenty of Conservative friends who think FOX News is an unbiased, straight-talking, fair and balanced cable news station.

I have lots of Liberal friends who think the Washington Post is "in the tank" for conservatives.

And remember the "Liberal" New York Times saw fit to print everything Judith Miller reported in the run-up to the war in Iraq--Judith Miller, if you remember, was a friend of Scooter Libby and other neocons who saw the Iraq war as necessaary because Saddam Hussein was threatening the US with nuclear weapons.

Also in the run-up to the primaries, the NYTimes ran a front page story on the Clintons about how many days and nights they spent "together" in their New York home, implying, I don't know what.

And during the Clinton administration, the NYTimes ran many, many news stories, without attribution, ["a source who asked not to be named, etc.] on rumors about the Clintons' connections with various shady characters in Little Rock.

And I didn't agree with the NYTimes running the dubious story on John McCain and that blond lobbyist he supposedly had a fling with.

I have a strong feeling that Gordon, my talented biographer, will tell you that the Washington Post cannot be trusted.

But that's just me.

LOL!

Shaw Kenawe said...

Gordon,

IMHO, further investigation is needed on this subject.

There are too many unanswered questions on what happened in the 2004 election.

Gordon Scott said...

Shaw,

WaPo has gotten better in recent years. I'd say they still tilt left, but not as much as they used to.

I'd agree with you about the questions, but there have already been investigations. They found nothing--because there was nothing to be found.

Republicans simply don't bother with election fraud, because the benefit to any individual participant isn't enough to justify the risk. It works better for Democrats, because they can round up folks who will do anything for a pack of smokes or a $10 bill. Those folks aren't worried about being charged, because they know that no one ever really gets arrested for vote fraud--because it's too hard to track.

And the great worry about programming voting machines to report different results simply shows ignorance about the process. Even in an election that isn't recounted, the local officials do random checks of the actual ballots against the machine totals. The programmers don't know which precincts will be checked. If there were any significant differences, the whole set of machines can be checked.

The people who are alleging the fraud work the same way as 9/11 truthers. They pick some area to dispute, and make psuedoscientific arguments to "show" that the official story is false. If you point out the holes in their claims, they will not acknowledge what you say; they just go on to some other piece of "evidence."

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