But I’m thinking I’ve heard this song before.

Flip-flopping anti-war Ivy-league snob with a lovable (not) wife, who wants to appease Iran (or does he now?), and who has tight, deep connections to the anti-American radicals sixties and seventies?

It’s enough to make a blogger take Windows Movie Maker in hand, and start slamming together a little footage. Turn it up:

They say the next big thing is here…
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Post by See-Dubya. The song is by Shirley Bassey, who did the early Bond title songs, backed/mixed by the British techno band the Propellerheads. Good beat, good conservative message, and if you like it you can buy the whole track from Amazon for eighty-nine cents here.

I got help and ideas from several bloggers on this, which was much appreciated. Responsibility for mediocre editing and unreadable newspaper text (after YouTube’s compression) remain strictly my own.

Thanks especially to DPUD, Buckely and Potfry atThe Nose on Your Face, and Ed Driscoll, who does some serious v-blogging/vlogging/ vodcasting/codpasting whatever you call it.

According to the Times, Republicans have been arguing “that illegal votes cast in any given precinct should be deducted from each candidate’s total by the same proportion as the overall vote for each candidate in that precinct.” This technique, referred to as proportional deduction, probably understates the number of illegal votes for Christine Gregoire, because felons probably voted in favor of Gregoire in both Gregoire-leaning and Rossi-leaning districts.

Last week, the Times reported that King County still can’t say how many people voted last fall or who voted. There are “nearly 4,000 discrepancies between the number of votes counted and earlier tallies of ballots or people recorded as voting at the polls.”

Stefan Sharansky of Sound Politics predicts that the judge will set aside the election, presumably leading to a re-vote.

In related news, two King County residents pleaded guilty to voting twice last fall.

Related entries.

Related: According to the King County Journal, Dino Rossi is ruling out a run for U.S. Senate against inumbent Democrat Maria Cantwell in 2006. He was considered the GOP’s best hope. (Hat tip: Doverspa at Red State.)

Previous:
- Washington State: the election mess continues
- Uncounted ballots discovered in Washington State
- The election mess in Washington State
- Count every vote?

- Former U.S. Sen. Slade Gorton joined the call for a criminal investigation.

- King County election officials admitted that a key document accounting for absentee ballots is bogus. Blogger Stefan Sharkansky first raised questions about the document a month ago.

- Six members of the King County Council have asked County Executive Ron Sims to explain his support for the county’s elections director given numerous errors in ballot mailing and vote counting.

- The judge presiding over the legal challenge to the election results said the case will go to trial on May 23.

- Three King County election workers were suspended due to a ballot snafu pertaining to an upcoming election.

It just hit the fan that King County Elections recently discovered several dozen uncounted ballots at an elections office, presumably the MBOS absentee ballot facility.

Senior election officials have known about this for several days and have kept it under wraps. Logan and Huennekens presumably knew about it at last night’s town hall meeting. It’s now an open secret.

Again, this one is not an April Fools joke. I learned about this from multiple independent and highly reliable sources. I’ve checked it out with some local journalists. They’ve also heard about it and believe it to be a credible story that they’re now following up on. Stay tuned.

Ironically, Sharkansky posted this prescient April Fools item early yesterday.

The Seattle Times followed up with more details this morning:

Long after it seemed there couldn’t be any more surprises in the November governor’s election, King County officials acknowledged yesterday they have found more uncounted ballots.

Over the past week, election workers have found 87 valid absentee ballots that had been left in their envelopes and not counted through three tallies of the closest statewide race in Washington history. The ballots were in archival boxes and were found when election workers were looking for something else.

The first of the ballots were found March 24 [ed note: more than a week ago!], but officials did not publicly acknowledge the problem until a reporter asked them about it yesterday. After the initial discovery, Election Director Dean Logan ordered a search through more than a half-million absentee envelopes to look for other ballots that might not have been counted….

Secretary of State Sam Reed, the state’s chief election official, was surprised by news of the most-recently found ballots.

“Oh my gosh,” he said.

Christine Gregoire defeated Republican Dino Rossi by 129 votes.

The Washington Democratic Party may face thousands of dollars in fines for failing to file timely reports for the 2004 election. In addition to those fines, the party could be required to repay a $100,000 fine that was suspended in 2003 as long as the Democrats didn’t have any serious campaign-finance infractions during the next five years.

In a letter to the state Public Disclosure Commission (PDC), state Democratic Party Chairman Paul Berendt admitted mistakes were made by party staff members. Late last summer, he said, the party transferred $394,000 from a federal account to a state account, but individual donor-contribution data were not disclosed, in violation of state rules.

The commission said that in October, a form was electronically filed by the Democrats for the state account, indicating the deposit of $394,000, but no individual contributors were disclosed in the report. The individual contributors weren’t disclosed until Jan. 24, 104 days late.

The commission will investigate the latest complaint and, if the party is found in violation, the reimposition of the $100,000 fine will be automatic, PDC spokesman Doug Ellis said. He said the violations are so serious they will be referred to the Attorney General’s Office for possible prosecution. The party could face fines of $10,000 for each violation.

In 2003, the Washington State Democrats were slapped with the largest campaign-disclosure fine imposed against a political party in state history after failing to properly disclose about $7 million worth of campaign donations and expenditures during the 2000 election.

No word from Washington Democrat Sen. Patty Murray or Sen. Maria Cantwell, longtime self-avowed advocates of “campaign finance reform,” on the state Democrat party’s habitual disregard for public disclosure.

Capt. Jeff DeVere, spokesman for the Washington State Patrol, tells the Times someone overheard Jeffrey Martelli of Yakima County saying he disliked government officials and planned to kill Gregoire and her children. Nothing came of the Jan. 19 threat; Martelli was booked, arrested and released to await a trial. It is is not clear from the article if subsequent threats were made on Gregoire. Nor is it clear whether Martelli listened to talk radio.

Brian Maloney comments:

I’m amazed she forgot to blame bloggers since they’re about 90% responsible for the strength of the Republican challenge to the stolen 2004 Washington Gubernatorial election.

It’s not too late to revise that press release, Ms. Gregoire. Be sure to list SoundPolitics bloggers by name for added effect.

For his part, Stefan Sharansky of Sound Politics writes:

Oh, please. I’ve heard a lot of discussion about Gregoire and the governor’s race on talk radio. Yes, a lot of people are angry about the tainted election and the illegitimacy of Gregoire’s governorship. But I’ve never heard any appeals to violence on any talk radio show that I listen to, nor would any of the hosts that I know permit such talk on their programs.

For Gregoire to equate public outrage over serious failures of government with death threats, is not merely a ridiculous mischaracterization, it’s an attempt to delegitimize and stifle dissent. Appalling. But it’s also as politically inept as, say, calling the election a “model to the rest of the nation and the world”, and it will backfire. Gregoire deserves all of the ridicule and derision her comment will inspire on talk radio for weeks to come.

Update: I sent an e-mail to Maloney asking him about which talk radio shows air in Yakima County. He responds as follows:

KVI and KTTH do not generally reach Yakima County except in certain atmospheric conditions that are only occasional. KIRO and KOMO do reach the area for most of the day, KIRO in particular. KVI has a very small 5000 watt signal, KIRO has 50,000 watts. As a result Yakima has its own local talk station that is almost entirely nationally syndicated programming.

KVI and KTTH are conservative stations; KIRO is liberal. KOMO is mostly news. It seems unlikely that Martelli spent much time listening to conservative Washington State talk radio hosts.

Now, it’s time to turn the spotlight on the stink in Sacramento. California-based watchdogs have been hot on the littered trail of embattled Democratic Secretary of State Kevin Shelley. In a nutshell:

Besides allegations that he used millions of dollars in federal Help America Vote Act funds to boost his political profile and reward Democratic allies, [Shelley] also faces two state investigations and a federal probe into accusations he accepted campaign contributions from a political ally that had been laundered through a state grant. He’s also been accused of accepting political donations in his state office.

A bombshell investigative report from the California State Personnel Board released today blasted Shelley’s hiring practices:

The son of a woman who allegedly funneled questionable donations to Secretary of State Kevin Shelley was promoted in Shelley’s office after someone in the office altered the grade on his civil service examination, a top state personnel official said Tuesday.

Floyd Shimomura, executive director of the State Personnel Board, said it appeared Andrew Lee was promoted after his score on the exam was changed from a 23 or 24 out of 60, which does not meet the minimum 70 percent required for passage. He said Lee’s hiring is being referred to Attorney General Bill Lockyer’s office for further investigation.

Shimomura said the hiring and promotion of Lee and other political supporters appeared to be part of a “spoils system” Shelley’s office used to reward his backers. Lee’s mother, Julie, is the target of an FBI investigation into whether part of a $500,000 state grant Shelley helped arrange was funneled into his 2002 campaign for secretary of state…

Lee is the son of Julie Lee, a power broker in San Francisco’s Chinese community who was a large contributor to Shelley’s campaign. Shelley has been under growing scrutiny since August, when The Chronicle reported that Lee was the founder of a nonprofit group that apparently diverted $125,000 from a taxpayer-funded grant it received into Shelley’s campaign fund. Shelley had helped secure the $500,000 grant for the group while serving in the state Assembly.

Federal and state authorities are investigating the transactions.

Shelley refused to attend a public hearing on his alleged abuse of federal voter funds:

The hearing was the first of what [Assemblywoman Nicole Parra, D-Hanford] said would be an attempt to get to the bottom of how federal funds intended for voting machine modernization and voter education ended up being paid to a number of Democratic consultants, many of whom had strong personal and political ties to Shelley.

In testimony largely based on her audit report released last month, state Auditor Elaine Howle said Shelley and his deputies at the secretary of state’s office suffered from insufficient planning and poor management, disregarded financial controls and exercised little oversight of staff and contractors, and repeatedly avoided competitive bidding requirements and spending authority approvals in giving contracts to consultants who were close to Shelley.

In her strongest remarks, Howle testified that officials in the “executive office” ordered the secretary of state’s accounting department to speed up payments to favored consultants, even as counties that needed the money for poll worker training and voting machine modernization were made to wait for their funds. She also said “executive staff” had created the contracts and improperly used an exemption from bidding requirements to let them.

Shelley has come under intense scrutiny from law enforcement and legislative authorities since last August, when questions were first raised in a Chronicle report about $125,000 in campaign donations to his successful 2002 race to become secretary of state that appear to have originated from a taxpayer grant for a San Francisco nonprofit group. Shelley has said he had no reason to suspect the campaign funds were tainted.

Since then, further questions have been raised about his handling of the federal Help America Vote Act funds, and about his personal treatment of employees.

California was awarded roughly $180 million of the funds from the federal government, as part of a sweeping plan after the 2000 presidential election debacle to modernize America’s voting systems. But of the $46.6 million spent so far by the secretary of state, more than $1 million has been called into question for being paid to consultants who attended Democratic Party fund- raisers and convention meetings on Shelley’s behalf, and who engaged in voter registration drives — at times in competitive legislative districts…

The Whittier Daily News points out that Democratic pols have been slow to hold Shelley accountable:

The current Democratic legislative leadership…has been dragging its feet on Shelley, despite well-documented newspaper reports about his questionable receipt of campaign funds and his mistreatment of underlings, and a state auditor’s report that excoriates his handling of federal voting funds.

Democratic leaders finally scheduled a hearing of the Legislature’s audit committee on the report, but excused Shelley from making a personal appearance and slated it for the same day this week that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger was to release his budget giving the appearance, at least, of wanting to bury it.

The latest word is that Shelley is refusing to resign. Meanwhile, California bloggers are keeping watch:

Xrlq documents Shelley’s initiative shenanigans.

California Insider and BoiFromTroy speculate about Shelley’s replacement. BoiFromTroy also has a little scandal quiz.

Election Law Blog mulls whether the term limit rules would rule out Jones.
Roseville Conservative comments on Shelley digging in.

And California Mafia marvels at the lack of coverage of the Shelley scandal in the Los Angeles Times.

We’re shocked, shocked!

The GOP has challenged the election outcome and is trying to assemble a comprehensive list of felons who voted.

The two most high-profile suspects – Michael Pratt, son of former Acting Mayor Marvin Pratt, and Sowande Omokunde, son of U.S. Rep. Gwen Moore – are still in the mix of those who could face charges.

After all of the police and FBI interviews, sources have indicated that no out-of-state individuals are expected to be charged with slashing the tires of 20 vans and cars rented by the state Republican Party to schlep party faithful to the polls. That seems to mean that Virginia resident Opel Simmons III, the first guy arrested in the case, can breathe easy.

Sources indicated that Milwaukee County District Attorney E. Michael McCann could file a criminal complaint this week. But with investigators and cops still putting the finishing touches on the probe, charges could be pushed back into next week.

McCann and David Feiss, the assistant DA overseeing the investigation, declined to answer questions but said the case is nearing completion and a charging decision will be made soon. Feiss said he is still waiting to receive some FBI reports.

This has been the most watched vandalism investigation in city history since shortly after it happened, when the Journal Sentinel broke the story online and it was picked up by the national media as an election day scandal. We later broke the news in this column that the cops wanted to question the sons of two of the city’s most prominent Democrats.

Michael Pratt, who led Kerry’s Milwaukee campaign, and Omokunde, also known as Supreme Solar Allah, were later arrested. Both men turned themselves in, were questioned briefly and were released.

Three other state Democrats have been arrested and released by Milwaukee police in the investigation: Lewis Gibson Caldwell III, 28, and Lavelle Mohammad, 35, both of Milwaukee; and Justin J. Howell, 20, of Racine…

For some reason, not a peep about these crimes has been heard from the count-every-vote-enfranchise-the-disenfranchised hounds. Sen. Boxer, where are your tears?

The sign-holder is a Democrat protesting Republicans’ call for a revote in Washington state. Stefan Sharkansky has the lowdown here. Looks like Gov.-elect Christine Gregoire (now known in GOP circles as Gov.-pretend Fraudoire) is too deep in debt to pay for a spell checker.

(More from blogger Emcee here.)

Meanwhile, reports of disenfranchised military voters keep coming in, prompting a creative Washingtonian to re-fashion those “We support our troops” ribbons accordingly.

ReVote Washington is seeking help here.

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Late-breaking updates: Stefan Sharkansky finds more “Enron Math” in King County and calls on readers to help investigate.

Meanwhile, another Washington state blogger, Emcee, is rightly outraged about a Marine whose vote won’t be counted.

The saga continues…