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Fraudbuster Bob Takes to the Air

Look up in the sky. No, it’s not a bird or a plane. It’s Fraudbuster Bob Fitrakis, launching his audio campaign.

Dr. Fitrakis, a lawyer, award-winning journalist, and professor of political science, is running as an independent candidate with Green Party endorsement to become Ohio’s next governor. Our two party winner-take-all electoral system, which was the best of the 18th century but far behind what we need in the 21st century, hinders the campaigns of third party candidates. So, using the latest internet technologies, Fraudbuster Bob is going to leap into the sky and bring his message directly to the voters of Ohio using “virtual Fireside Chats.”

Listen to today’s message, and come back regularly to this blog and Bob’s gubernatorial campaign at www.bobforohio.com to hear the latest campaign news spoken directly by the candidate himself. And please be sure to tell your friends and family to log on as well.
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Blackwell: Just Another Crazed Neocon

So, Florida Governor Jeb Bush endorsed Ohio Secretary of State J. Kenneth Hackwell for governor. After all, they were very close in the year 2000, when Hackwell was described as the Bush family’s “secret weapon” when the well-known political crime family stole the 2000 election. As more and more revelations come forward regarding the criminal nature of this White House, Hackwell’s ties become more apparent.

The AP reported yesterday that the phone jamming efforts in the 2002 election in New Hampshire, when Republicans jammed the Democratic “Get Out The Vote” phone lines, are linked to the White House. Republican operative James Tobin, recently convicted in the phone jamming scheme, made two dozen calls to the White House in the three day period surrounding Election Day 2002.

You can bet that Rove was at the other end of those calls. That’s the same Rove Hackwell is reported to have met with on Election Day 2004 in Ohio. What also occurred in Ohio prior to Election Day were the activities of the Mighty Texas Strike Force, a dirty tricks squad linked directly to the White House as well. Hackwell did nothing to stop the voter intimidation in Ohio and, in fact, aided and abetted those criminal activities.

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J. Kenneth Hackwell’s Hypocrisy

The latest revelation regarding the single most unprincipled man in the history of Ohio politics, Secretary of State J. Kenneth Hackwell, is that the man who stole the 2004 election will no longer talk to Columbus Dispatch reporters. Hackwell, the frontrunner in the May 2 gubernatorial primary, won’t talk to a newspaper that hasn’t endorsed a Democrat for president since 1916.

There’s reasons why he won’t talk. Hackwell’s crafted an image of himself as a pious Christian man of the highest moral values. While soliciting the state’s theocrats and right-to-lifers’ vote, he privately holds stock in Barr Pharmaceuticals that manufactures a morning-after pill – or as Hackwell and his followers call it, a baby-killing abortion pill. While he’s opposed to gambling, he’s “shocked,” shocked, I say, that he found himself holding stock in the nation’s largest maker of slot machines. As Ohio’s chief election officer, he decides whether the signatures will be valid for the two casino initiatives attempting to be placed on the November ballot.

He was equally shocked to find that, while negotiating unbid contracts on Dieblod machines, he happened to hold stock in that company as well.

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Separation of Church and State in Ohio

On April 6th, fifty-three Ohio ministers filed a supplemental complaint with Internal Revenue Service Commissioner Mark W. Everson against the World Harvest Church of Canal Winchester, Ohio and the Fairfield Christian Church of Lancaster, Ohio. They allege the obvious, that “The churches have continued to organize and host political rallies featuring one, and only one, Ohio gubernatorial candidate — J. Kenneth Blackwell.”

Blackwell, as the chief elections officer in the state, has worked directly with Rev. Rod Parsley of World Harvest Church and Pastor Russell Johnson of the Fairfield Christian Church to destroy the separation of church and state. Parsley plans to do “Ohio for Jesus” radio spots for his Reformation Ohio project featuring Blackwell.

Rev. Parsley and Blackwell went on a bus tour together during the fall of 2004, to promote a state constitutional amendment against all forms of domestic partnership and gay marriage, which appeared on the ballot as Issue One. Blackwell, according to the tour’s information, would privately “minister” to voters prior to the rallies. He also ran the Issue One initiative out of his Secretary of State’s office. He was censured for that activity. Read more

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2004 Recount Indictments

The April 5 indictment of three top election officials in Cuyahoga County signals the unraveling of the biggest crime in the 21st century — the blatant theft of the 2004 presidential election in Ohio. While Michael Vu, the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections Director, whines about how his staffers are being unfairly treated, the quotes from Special Prosecutor Kevin Baxter describe clearly the criminal activities of Vu’s people.

Baxter told the Cleveland Plain Dealer, “If it didn’t balance [the hand count], they excluded those precincts.” Under Ohio law, the Green and Libertarian Party candidates were entitled to a “random” recount. That means that every ballot has an equal chance of inclusion in the initial 3% hand count. Only in Ken Blackwell and Michael Vu’s world does random mean its exact opposite — nonrandom. You can’t pick up a precinct, count it, and if it doesn’t match the official tally, toss it back and find one that does. That’s a crime. Read more

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Blackwell, Diebold, and Campaign 2006

The common statewide wisdom is that “Ken Blackwell will never lose an election in which he is in charge of the vote count.” But Ohio Democrats never seriously questioned Blackwell’s rigged 2004 vote count that put Bush back in the White House.

An eyewitness ally of Blackwell told a small gathering of Bush supporters, with a Free Press reporter present, that Blackwell was in a frenzy on Election Day 2004, writing percentages and vote totals on maps of rural Republican counties, attempting to figure out how many votes, real or manufactured, Bush would need to overcome the exit poll results in Cleveland and Columbus. Read more

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ACTION ALERT: Fitrakis Urges Pressure on Boards of Elections to Issue Voter IDs

Bob Fitrakis, independent candidate for governor, spoke in suburban Columbus to the progressive group Blue Dublin on February 23 on the issue of voting concerns and legislation on election reform.

He recounted how tactics employed by J. Kenneth Blackwell, who served the dual role of Ohio Secretary of State and OH Co-Chair Bush/Cheney ’04, played a significant role in suppressing the democratic vote in Ohio during the ’04 and ’05 elections.

Fitrakis pointed to Lucas County as an example of how Blackwell and the GOP cronyism handed leadership positions to the Noes in running elections in Lucas County. Lucas County’s election was so mismanaged that Blackwell was forced to fire his subordinates at the board of elections and issue a scathing report on how the election in Lucas County was run.

Fitrakis termed recent GOP legislation, HB 3, as the equivalent to modern day “Jim Crow” tactics meant to further suppress the democratic base voters. He wondered why the Democratic party wasn’t circulating petitions to challenge the suppressive law, which he said could have a devastating effect on democratic base voters in the midterm elections.

Fitrakis urged citizens to place pressure on Boards of Elections to issue PHOTO VOTER IDS to the poor, and at nursing homes and college campuses, so that voters disenfranchised in the past will be able to cast their votes in November. Read more

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