84-Year-Old Wisconsin Woman May Need $200 to Cast Legal Vote

Update: State Senator Jim Holperin (D-Eagle River): Birth record free if needed for voter I.D.; Holperin legislation says

Obstructing an 84-Year-Old Wisconsin Woman?

Jim Crowing African Americans in Milwaukee County?

Really?

Hey, Republican Party, is this what you really want to be in our country?

What's next, guys?

Armed guards at the polls? I mean Ms. Frank does look pretty dangerous.

And to the Civil Rights division of the U.S. Department of Justice, you know: Get off your ass and enforce - I don't know - civil rights?

Via Tanya Somanader at ThinkProgress, and Brad Friedman

Brokaw, Wisconsin - Population 310

For 63 years, Brokaw, Wisconsin [Northern Wisconsin, population-310] native Ruthelle Frank went to the polls to vote. Though paralyzed on her left side since birth, the 84-year-old “fiery woman” voted in every election since 1948 and even got elected herself as a member of the Brokaw Village Board. But because of the state’s new voter ID law, 2012 will be the first year Frank can’t vote. Born after a difficult birth at her home in 1927, Frank never received an official birth certificate. Her mother recorded it in her family Bible and Frank has a certification of baptism from a few months later, along with a Social Security card, a Medicare statement, and a checkbook. But without the official document, she can’t secure the state ID card that the new law requires to vote next year.“It’s really crazy,” she added. “I’ve got all this proof. You mean to tell me that I’m not a U.S. citizen?” But state officials have informed Frank that, because the state Register of Deeds does have a record of her birth, they can issue her a new birth certificate — for a fee. And because of a spelling error, that fee may be as high as $200

Add Frank's to the stories of 96-year old Dorothy Cooper in TN who has voted in every election since woman were granted the right to vote, but who may longer be able to cast her vote on Election Day next year, and 86-year old WWII veteran Darwin Sparks in the same state; along with hundreds of thousands of others who are likely to find themselves unable to cast their legal vote on Election Day next year thanks to new voter suppression laws implemented in about a dozen states by GOP legislatures and governor's since they took control in 2010.

In Wisconsin, where "an estimated 177,399 Wisconsin residents 65 and older do not have a driver’s license or state photo ID — 23 percent of that population", and where Frank may have to pay as much as $200 to cast her legal vote under the GOP's new anti-democratic and anti-Democratic polling place Photo ID restrictions, the non-partisan League of Women Voters has filed suit charging the law to be in violation of the state's constitution, as The BRAD BLOG detailed in October. That case is still pending.

Brad Blog: GOP Voter Fraud Found in Wisconsin

Waukesha, Wisconsin Follies: 97.63 percent turnout in 2004?

20,000 More Votes Than ‘Ballots Cast’ in 2006?

Trying to get to the bottom of new anomalies discovered in County Clerk Kathy Nickolaus’ bizarre election results requires a federal DoJ investigation needed.

Waukesha County, Wisconsin’s County Clerk Kathy Nickolaus was already known, for some time, to be among the nation’s worst elections official. And that’s saying quite a bit. But new information being discovered over the past several days suggests she may be even worse than previously known — which is also saying quite a bit.
- Via Veterans Today

BREAKING: Federal Judge Compels GOP IT Guru Mike Connell to Give Deposition in Ohio '04 Election Case

Update: In related GOP vote-suppression news, Colorado District Court Judge Orders CO Secretary of State to Cease and Desist Voter Purges

We'll what we see in Ohio.

Check out Federal Judge Compels GOP IT Guru Mike Connell to Give Deposition.

The Republican IT guru, recently described as a 'high tech Forrest Gump' for his proclivity to be ;at the scene; of so many troubling elections since 2000, and even at the heart of the 'lost' White House email scandal, has been ordered by a federal judge to appear for an under-oath deposition next Monday in Ohio.

The BRAD BLOG has learned that Mike Connell, the Republican IT guru whose company, GovTech Solutions, created Ohio's 2004 election results computer network appeared in federal court today, as compelled, and has been ordered to appear for his deposition on Monday, November 3, just 24 hours before Election Day 2008.

Today's court order came after a contentious hearing, at which Connell was present. The hearing was part of a long-standing voting rights violations lawsuit, King Lincoln v. Blackwell, as previously covered by The BRAD BLOG and by Velvet Revolution's Election Protection Strike Force here and here.

War and Its Human Costs

Update: The Suffering of Soldiers -

War has its costs, no matter how skillfully and cravenly Bush and his regime try to hide them.

Thanks to Vets for Common Sense. Also, please see its link to the editorial: New Front in Republican War on Voting: Disabled American Veterans via The Brad Blog.

In the face of what has been given by so many, it's worth noting some leading chickenhawks via SourceWatch: "Chickenhawks"

Notable Chickenhawks [too many to list, so here's the biggest of all]:
Rush Limbaugh
Bill O'Reilly

'Gagged' FBI Whistleblower Says American Media Blacks Out 'Security of Americans' Story

Update: What The Heck is the Sibel Edmonds Case Anyway? And Why Should You Care About It?

Via Brad Blog

Risking jail, gagged FBI whistleblower, Sibel Edmonds keeps trying to tell her story.

Edmonds was an FBI translator after 9/11 and was and remains gagged by the rarely-invoked "States Secret Privilege," invoked by the DoJ.

As the Brad Blog reports, "Her extraordinary story was first aired by CBS' 60 Minutes in 2002 (and re-run twice thereafter), and (run) via a detailed 2005 exposé in Vanity Fair."

Edmonds (pictured above-right) says the American corporate media has refused her offer to disclose classified information not before reported that includes allegations of criminal negligence and information concerning the "security of Americans," among other government crimes and incompetence.

Edmonds says several mainstream publications have been informed of the "full story" of administration and FBI misconduct and incompetence regarding 9/11 by other FBI leakers, but have killed stories on the matter.
The Brad Blog has been all over the story, and is running an exclusive interview with Daniel Ellsberg on the affair.

Writes Brad Friedman of the Brad Blog:

The BRAD BLOG spoke recently with the legendary 1970's-era whistleblower in the wake of our recent exclusive, detailing Edmonds' announcement that she was prepared to risk prosecution to expose the entirety of the still-classified information that the Bush Administration has "gagged" her from revealing for the past five years under claims of the arcane "State Secrets Privilege".

I'd say what she has is far more explosive than the Pentagon Papers," Daniel Ellsberg told us in regard to former FBI translator turned whistleblower Sibel Edmonds.

"From what I understand, from what she has to tell, it has a major difference from the Pentagon Papers in that it deals directly with criminal activity and may involve impeachable offenses," Ellsberg explained. "And I don't necessarily mean the President or the Vice-President, though I wouldn't be surprised if the information reached up that high. But other members of the Executive Branch may be impeached as well. And she says similar (things) about Congress."

See more of the interview and links to other aspects of the story at:
Brad Blog
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