I.

Susan G. Komen Top Officials Resign As Backlash Gains Steam

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/02/02/susan-g-komen_n_1250651.html

II.

Susan G. Komen official resigns, site hacked after critics hit charity’s decision to pull Planned Parenthood grants
BY LINDSAY GOLDWERT / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Thursday, February 2, 2012, 1:59 PM

http://www.nydailynews.com/life-style/health/susan-g-komen-site-hacked-critics-hit-charity-decision-pull-planned-parenthood-grants-article-1.1016043

New grants available to investigative reporters
Kevin Roderick • January 31 2012 11:58 PM

The George Polk Program at Long Island University wants to help experienced journalists finish — or get started on — that investigative project that is crying out to be done. Grants are expected to range from $2,500 to $10,000. They will offer up an editor and help placing the story — on the Web, in print or on the air.

This program is aimed at reporters with a proven track record of investigative work, especially those who have been laid off, furloughed or taken retirement. We are looking for applicants who have long dreamt of following up a specific story and need a little assistance to run it down.

Read more.

1)

California Senate Elections Committee Passes Bill to Remove Write-in Space on General Election Ballots for Congress and State Office
Source: Ballot Access News

On January 10, the California Senate Elections Committee unanimously passed AB 1413, which makes several changes to the “top-two” system. The worst change is that write-in space will no longer be printed on general election ballots for Congress and partisan state office.

California will almost certainly join Louisiana as one of only two states that has ever had write-in space on general election ballots, but then eliminated them, and now doesn’t permit them. Assuming the bill passes, there will be six states that ban write-ins in the general election. Four of them, Nevada, Hawaii, South Dakota and Oklahoma, have never permitted write-ins.

The Ohio legislature banned write-ins in 1947, but in 1968 a 3-judge U.S. District Court ruled that the U.S. Constitution protects write-ins, and restored them in Ohio. The Florida legislature banned write-ins in 1977, but in 1979 the Florida Supreme Court ruled that the State Constitution protects them, and restored them.

Read more.

***

2) Comment by Bev Harris:

By the way, did you know that California has just passed a bill banning write-ins? That’s important, because in 2004, a California mayoral candidate, Donna Frye, won by garnering over 170,000 write in votes. The win was then stripped from her on a technicality, which clearly violated voter intent. And of course, in Alaska a write in candidate, Lisa Murkowski, won a U.S. Senate seat. Some contend that by removing write-in capability, California is violating its Constitution.

California Constitution says: “All registered voters otherwise qualified to vote shall be guaranteed the unrestricted right to vote for the candidate of their choice in all state and congressional elections.”

They hooked their write-in ban to their new way of doing a primary, the top-two system, which apparently precludes write ins. But then they go ahead and get rid of write-ins on the general election ballot as well.

This has another bad effect: Theoretically it would be possible to mount a write-in campaign that circumvents voting machines altogether, in locations with paper ballots. Now, in California, that’s out.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/123218561114298/172906272812193/

From Steve Schneider:

The takeaway: Republicans are less enthusiastic about voting for any of their candidates, but still very enthusiastic about preventing the rest of us from voting for OUR candidates.
Last Night’s GOP Turnout In Florida Down From 2008
By Alex Seitz-Wald on Feb 1, 2012 at 12:55 pm

Mitt Romney crushed Newt Gingrich last night in Florida, but Republicans overall may have been less enthusiastic about either candidate. Despite the tremendous amount of media attention the race has received and candidates calling it “the most important election of your lifetime,” turnout was was down in the Sunshine State — and significantly.

In 2008, 1.94 million people voted in Florida’s GOP primary. This year, turnout stood at a little more than 1.66 million voters. All this despite efforts by Republicans to register many more voters in 2010. 1.34 million turned out in the 2000 GOP presidential primary, the last contested one before 2008.

Many observers look at turnout in primaries as a gauge of voters’ enthusiasm for their candidates going forward into the general. The depressed turnout in Florida reflects numerous polls showing Republican voters to be dissatisfied with their current choices and wishing someone else would enter the race — almost 60 percent in a recent CBS poll — even though that’s almost impossible this late in the game. Exit polls in Floridashowed 38 percent want “someone else [to] run for the nomination,” while just 51 percent of Romney supporters and just 31 percent of Gingrich supporters said they were “satisfied with the Republican candidates.”

Read more.

From Ellen LaVan Schindler:

1) Voter fraud law draws demonstrators in Tampa
WWSB ABC 7
The law, aimed at preventing voter fraud, drew people on both sides of the issue, who demonstrated before the hearing of a US Senate Judiciary sub-committee, as Senator Nelson requested, to highlight what he and other Democrats believe make it harder … See all stories on this topic »

2) Protesters at voter suppression hearing say it’s about voter fraud, not …
Palm Beach Post by Andrew Abramson | January 27th, 2012 TAMPA — protesters outside today’s US Judiciary Sub-Committee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Human Rights in Tampa, said House Bill 1355 is not about voter suppression, but about countering voter fraud.
See all stories on this topic »

3) Suppressing votes or preventing fraud?
MyFox Tampa Bay
The heated battle over new voter rules spilled over in downtown Tampa. The new voter laws that the governor signed off on in may have to do with early voting and signing up new voters. The new rules are said to be designed to prevent voter fraud, … See all stories on this topic »

4) Voter ID bills decried by Democrats advance Richmond Times Dispatch
“I don’t know why we have this bill in front of us if we don’t have documented cases of voter fraud or problems at the polling place,” added Del. Kenneth C. Alexander, D-Norfolk. Republicans argued that the bill is a common-sense solution to a problem … See all stories on this topic »

5) Iowa secretary of state proposes voter ID plan
Iowa City Press Citizen
Jeff Danielson, a Cedar Falls Democrat and chairman of the State Government Committee, said there’s no evidence voter fraud is a problem in Iowa or has ever affected the outcome of an election. Schultz’s latest bill also will go through his committee.
See all stories on this topic »

From Mark Adams:

See below.  I have also attached a screen shot and a pdf of the CBS exit poll in case things are corrected before you view the links.

CBS Exit Poll SS  | Election 2012 – Exit Poll Results for Florida – CBS News

Mark A. Adams JD/MBA

FDA secretly surveilled e-mail of scientists and doctors, intercepted communications with congressional staff 29 Jan 2012

The Food and Drug Administration secretly monitored the personal e-mail of a group of its own scientists and doctors after they warned Congress that the agency was approving medical devices that they believed posed unacceptable risks to patients, government documents show. The surveillance – detailed in e-mails and memos unearthed by six of the scientists and doctors, who filed a lawsuit against the FDA in U.S. District Court in Washington last week – took place over two years as the plaintiffs accessed their personal Gmail accounts from government computers. Copies of the e-mails show that, starting in January 2009, the FDA intercepted communications with congressional staffers and draft versions of whistleblower complaints complete with editing notes in the margins. The agency also took electronic snapshots of the computer desktops of the FDA employees and reviewed documents they saved on the hard drives of their government computers.

EXCLUSIVE: Virginia Officials Confirm Criminal Election Fraud Investigation of Gingrich Campaign

Had the same thing been carried out by a worker for the now-defunct ACORN, Republicans — and even Newt Gingrich — would have called it massive “voter fraud.” But the 1,500 acts of fraud, by Gingrich’s own admission, were carried out by a worker hired by his campaign, so it seems the media have barely noticed it.

Nonetheless, The BRAD BLOG has received confirmation from two different state agencies that the 1,500 alleged cases of ballot petition fraud said to have been carried out on behalf of the Gingrich campaign, in their unsuccessful attempt to qualify for the Republican primary ballot in Virginia, are now being carried out by the state Attorney General’s office.

In late December, after Gingrich had failed to turn in enough valid signatures to qualify for the Virginia primary ballot, he was caught on video tape telling a supporter in Iowa that the reason for the failure was due to a campaign worker who created 1,500 fraudulent signatures.

Read more.