Bad Deeds for 4-30-2008

North Carolina Robo Calls Target Black Households With Bogus Voting Registration Information – African-American households are receiving anonymous robo-calls from “Lamont Williams” with misleading information about voting. 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 version of the North Carolina call, the caller falsely states that voters must send in a “voter registration packet” before voting. Voters in Virginia received calls with the same message before that state’s Feb. 12 primaries. And in Ohio, this “Lamont Williams” turned up in calls to voters there.

Brian Williams Says Do What I Say, Not as I Do – On April 28th, NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams (in a post titled “What Times Is It?”) took The New York Times to task for publishing non-serious news rather than featuring the important issues. Then that very night, NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams allotted only eighty seconds to that day’s momentous Supreme Court ruling that there’s nothing unconstitutional with Indiana’s law requiring a photo ID to vote. Meanwhile, during the same broadcast, it spent over two minutes on the concern caused by photos of teen star Miley Cyrus in Vanity Fair.

San Diego Republican Party Chairman Co-founded International Piracy Ring – San Diego Republican Party Chairman Tony Krvaric is the co-founder of Fairlight, a band of software crackers which later evolved into an international video and software piracy group that law enforcement authorities say is among the world’s largest such crime rings. After co-founding Fairlight in Sweden, Krvaric established U.S. operations for the organization, including an arm headquartered in Southern California—a major center for the computer and video game industry.

US Troop Deaths Hit 7-Month High in Iraq – The American death toll in Iraq for April is up to 47, making it the deadliest month since September. But remember that Bush and McCain say that things are getting better.

Republican U.S. Rep. Tom Tancredo Suggests That Brownsville Can Be on the Mexican Side of the Border Fence – Republican U.S. Rep. Tom Tancredo of Colorado dismissed residents’ concerns that the effort to build 670 miles of fencing along the U.S.-Mexico border by year’s end would damage the environment and destroy a centuries-old bond between residents on both sides of the Rio Grande. Late in the five-hour hearing, Tancredo returned to a comment made earlier by panelist Betty Perez, a rancher and local activist. Perez said, “It really isn’t a border to most of us who live down here.” Tancredo dismissed Perez’s remarks as a “multiculturalist attitude toward borders.” As jeers rose, Tancredo added, “I suggest that you build this fence around the northern part of your city.”

McCain Has No Straight-Talk on His Personal Finances – Aside from a Wachovia checking account, in which he keeps between $15,000 and $50,000, all of the couple’s assets are in Cindy’s name. John McCain’s tax return is so anemic, so marginal to the couple’s actual financial situation, that he doesn’t even take a deduction for interest on his home mortgage. Presumably Cindy does, since disclosure forms indicate that she has several mortgages. McCain released his tax return, but not his wife’s. WHAT THE CANDIDATE’S INVESTING STRATEGY REVEALS ABOUT HIS CHARACTER.

Regards,

Jim