Phone-Jamming Records Point to White House

Key figures in a phone-jamming scheme designed to keep New Hampshire
Democrats from voting in 2002 had regular contact with the White
House and Republican Party as the plan was unfolding, phone records
introduced in criminal court show.

The records show that Bush campaign operative James Tobin, who
recently was convicted in the case, made two dozen calls to the
White House within a three-day period around Election Day 2002 — as
the phone jamming operation was finalized, carried out and then
abruptly shut down.

The national Republican Party, which paid millions in legal bills to
defend Tobin, says the contacts involved routine election business
and that it was "preposterous" to suggest the calls involved phone
jamming.

The Justice Department has secured three convictions in the case but
hasn't accused any White House or national Republican officials of
wrongdoing, nor made any allegations suggesting party officials
outside New Hampshire were involved. The phone records of calls to
the White House were exhibits in Tobin's trial but prosecutors did
not make them part of their case.

Democrats plan to ask a federal judge Tuesday to order GOP and White
House officials to answer questions about the phone jamming in a
civil lawsuit alleging voter fraud.

Repeated hang-up calls that jammed telephone lines at a Democratic
get-out-the-vote center occurred in a Senate race in which
Republican John Sununu defeated Democrat Jeanne Shaheen, 51 percent
to 46 percent, on Nov. 5, 2002.

Besides the conviction of Tobin, the Republicans' New England
regional director, prosecutors negotiated two plea bargains: one
with a New Hampshire Republican Party official and another with the
owner of a telemarketing firm involved in the scheme. The owner of
the subcontractor firm whose employees made the hang-up calls is
under indictment.

The phone records show that most calls to the White House were from
Tobin, who became President Bush's presidential campaign chairman
for the New England region in 2004. Other calls from New Hampshire
senatorial campaign offices to the White House could have been made
by a number of people.

A GOP campaign consultant in 2002, Jayne Millerick, made a 17-minute
call to the White House on Election Day, but said in an interview
she did not recall the subject. Millerick, who later became the New
Hampshire GOP chairwoman, said in an interview she did not learn of
the jamming until after the election.

A Democratic analysis of phone records introduced at Tobin's
criminal trial show he made 115 outgoing calls — mostly to the same
number in the White House political affairs office — between Sept.
17 and Nov. 22, 2002. Two dozen of the calls were made from 9:28
a.m. the day before the election through 2:17 a.m. the night after
the voting.

There also were other calls between Republican officials during the
period that the scheme was hatched and canceled.

Prosecutors did not need the White House calls to convict Tobin and
negotiate the two guilty pleas.

Whatever the reason for not using the White House records,
prosecutors "tried a very narrow case," said Paul Twomey, who
represented the Democratic Party in the criminal and civil cases.
The Justice Department did not say why the White House records were
not used.

The Democrats said in their civil case motion that they were
entitled to know the purpose of the calls to government offices "at
the time of the planning and implementation of the phone-jamming
conspiracy ... and the timing of the phone calls made by Mr. Tobin
on Election Day."

While national Republican officials have said they deplore such
operations, the Republican National Committee said it paid for
Tobin's defense because he is a longtime supporter and told
officials he had committed no crime.

By Nov. 4, 2002, the Monday before the election, an Idaho firm was
hired to make the hang-up calls. The Republican state chairman at
the time, John Dowd, said in an interview he learned of the scheme
that day and tried to stop it.

Dowd, who blamed an aide for devising the scheme without his
knowledge, contended that the jamming began on Election Day despite
his efforts. A police report confirmed the Manchester Professional
Fire Fighters Association reported the hang-up calls began about
7:15 a.m. and continued for about two hours. The association was
offering rides to the polls.

Virtually all the calls to the White House went to the same number,
which currently rings inside the political affairs office. In 2002,
White House political affairs was led by now-RNC chairman Ken
Mehlman. The White House declined to say which staffer was assigned
that phone number in 2002.

"As policy, we don't discuss ongoing legal proceedings within the
courts," White House spokesman Ken Lisaius said.

Robert Kelner, a Washington lawyer representing the Republican
National Committee in the civil litigation, said there was no
connection between the phone jamming operation and the calls to the
White House and party officials.

"On Election Day, as anybody involved in politics knows, there's a
tremendous volume of calls between political operatives in the field
and political operatives in Washington," Kelner said.

"If all you're pointing out is calls between Republican National
Committee regional political officials and the White House political
office on Election Day, you're pointing out nothing that hasn't been
true on every Election Day," he said.

By LARRY MARGASAK, Associated Press Writer
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060410/ap_on_go_pr_wh/election_phone_jam
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Bush Dismisses Reports Iran Attack Planned

President Bush dismissed as "wild speculation" reports that the administration was planning for a military strike against Iran.

Bush did not rule out the use of force, but he said he would continue to use diplomatic pressure to prevent Iran from gaining a nuclear weapon or the know-how and technology to make one.

"I know here in Washington prevention means force," Bush said at the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University. "It doesn't mean force, necessarily. In this case, it means diplomacy."

Several weekend news reports said the administration was studying options for military strikes. The New Yorker magazine raised the possibility of using nuclear bombs against Iran's underground nuclear sites.

"I read the articles in the newspapers this weekend," Bush said. "It was just wild speculation."

Taking questions from the audience, Bush also said he declassified part of a prewar intelligence report on Iraq in 2003 to show Americans the basis for his statements about the threat posed by Saddam Hussein.

"I wanted people to see the truth," he told a questioner who said there was evidence of a concerted effort by the White House to punish war critic Joseph Wilson. Bush said he could not comment on the CIA leak case because it is under investigation.

Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., sent a letter to Bush on Monday asking him for details about how the document was declassified. "There are many questions that the president must answer so that the American people can understand that this declassification was done for national security purposes, not for immediate political gain."

In Tehran, officials said the media reports about a possible U.S. strike against Iran amounted to psychological warfare from the West.

Iran's hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told Iranians not to be intimidated by other nations' attempts to stifle the country's nuclear ambitions.

"Unfortunately, today some bullying powers are unable to give up their bullying nature," Ahmadinejad said. "The future will prove that our path was a right way."

The U.N. Security Council has demanded that Iran suspend all enrichment of uranium — a key process that can produce either fuel for a reactor or the material for a nuclear warhead. The security council gave Tehran until April 28 to comply before the International Atomic Energy Agency reports back to the council on its inspection progress.

Iran has rejected the demand, saying the small-scale enrichment it began in February was strictly for research and was within its rights under the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.

Bush and other administration officials have said repeatedly that the military option is on the table, and White House officials acknowledge normal military planning is under way.

Defense experts say a military strike on Iran would be risky and complicated, and could aggravate U.S. problems in the Muslim world.

To pressure Iran, European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana on Monday recommended that the 25-nation bloc consider sanctions against Iran, including a visa ban on some officials, because of Iran's rejection of U.N. demands that it end uranium enrichment.

Bush has said Iran may pose the greatest challenge to the United States of any other country in the world. And while he has stressed that diplomacy is always preferable, he has defended his administration's strike-first policy against terrorists and other enemies.

"The threat from Iran is, of course, their stated objective to destroy our strong ally Israel," Bush said last month in Cleveland. "That's a threat, a serious threat. It's a threat to world peace; it's a threat, in essence, to a strong alliance. I made it clear, I'll make it clear again, that we will use military might to protect our ally."

___

On the Net:

The White House: http://www.whitehouse.gov

By DEB RIECHMANN, Associated Press Writer
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060410/ap_on_go_pr_wh/us_iran_19

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Thousands Demonstrate Over Immigration

NEW YORK - Hundreds of thousands of people demanding U.S. citizenship for illegal immigrants took to the streets in dozens of cities from New York to San Diego on Monday in some of the most widespread demonstrations since the mass protests began around the country last month.

Rallies took place in communities of all sizes, from a gathering of at least 50,000 people in Atlanta to one involving 3,000 people in the farming town of Garden City, Kan., which has fewer than 30,000 residents.

Demonstrators in New York City held signs with slogans such as "We Are America," "Immigrant Values are Family Values," and "Legalize Don't Criminalize." One sign said: "Bush Step Down."

"We love this country. This country gives to us everything," said Florentino Cruz, 32, an illegal worker from Mexico who has been in the United States since 1992. "This country was made by immigrants."
The protesters have been urging lawmakers to help an estimated 11 million illegal immigrants settle legally in the United States. A bill passed by the House would crack down on illegal immigrants and strengthen the nation's border with Mexico. A broader overhaul of immigration law stalled in the Senate last week.

Monday's demonstrations followed a weekend of rallies in 10 states that drew up to 500,000 people in Dallas and tens of thousands elsewhere. Dozens of other rallies, many organized by Spanish-language radio DJ's, have been held nationwide over the past two weeks, including one with more than 500,000 people in Los Angeles.
In the nation's capital, thousands of immigrants, their families and supporters marched Monday from Hispanic neighborhoods past the White House, then converged on the National Mall.

In North Carolina and Dallas, immigrant groups called for an economic boycott to show their financial impact. In Pittsburgh and other cities, protesters gathered outside lawmakers' offices. At the Mississippi Capitol, they sang "We Shall Overcome" in Spanish.

In Atlanta, many in white T-shirts, waving American flags, joined a two-mile march from a largely immigrant neighborhood.

The Rev. James Orange from the Georgia Coalition for the People's Agenda compared the march to civil rights demonstrations led by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and farm-labor organizer Cesar Chavez.
"People of the world, we have come to say this is our moment," Orange said.

In New Jersey — with the Statute of Liberty in the background — several hundred people listened to speeches in Spanish and waved U.S., Colombian and Mexican flags.

Thick crowds gathered in New York's Washington Square Park before marching to City Hall. Many waved flags, both American and of countries of their origin. Korean-Americans beat drums nearby. Another group marched from Chinatown, and a third demonstration took place in Brooklyn.

Police declined to estimate the size of the crowds, but organizers said 125,000 people were present at City Hall.

One of the Korean drummers, Grace Nam, 35, who is an American citizen, said: "We just need to make our voices heard. You want to live in a place where people are treated with dignity."

Peter Lanteri, director of New York's chapter of the Minutemen, a volunteer border watch group, said he thought it was "ridiculous" that illegal immigrants were protesting for their rights.

"Illegal is illegal, and they break our laws to come here," Lanteri said by telephone. "We want the illegal immigration stopped and the borders secured."

Supporters in San Diego planned to hold a ceremony to honor immigrants who died while illegally crossing the border.

In Phoenix, police estimated that at least 50,000 people marched from the state fairgrounds to the Capitol for a rally. Exit ramps were closed and traffic on freeways through downtown was backed up for miles. At one point, the crowd stretched more than two miles.

In Houston, event organizers estimated that 50,000 people gathered at a park in a largely Hispanic area of town as they rallied to march toward the spot where the city's founders first arrived.
Maria Santiago, 53, an outreach coordinator for nonprofit health clinic in Harrisburg, Pa., said she sees many illegal immigrants seeking access to health care.

"These are people that are willing to take any job, clean bathrooms, scrub floors for a measly penny so that they have an opportunity to live in this country ... and yet we want to send them back because they want a better life?" Santiago said.

___
Associated Press writers Matthew Verrinder in Jersey City, N.J., Juan A. Lozano and Alicia A. Caldwell in Houston, Giovanna Dell'Orto in Atlanta, Martha Raffaele in Harrisburg, Pa., Roxana Hegeman in Wichita, Kan., Jacques Billeaud in Phoenix, and Anabelle Garay in Dallas contributed to this report.

By DEEPTI HAJELA, Associated Press Writer
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060410/ap_on_re_us/immigration_protests_36

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Where are our tax dollars going?

No matter where in the U. S. you are, your paying into your local government. We hope that our tax dollars are going to where they are needed, most of us never take the time to follow up on just how our money is being spent. Today I decided to do just that.

Being that I am in N.Y., I took a look at what was listed in the local Current Legislation. I would expect to find a list of bills for repair of highways, school improvements, additional funding for teachers and police, etc. But only fools enter with high expectations, after finding the results I feel a bigger fool for now knowing just what I am paying into with my taxes.

I found a total of 20 items pertaining directly to New York. 3 were “amendment purpose”, 12 were to designate post offices (and other locations) under assumed names such as "Tito Puente Post Office Building", Amo Houghton Bypass", "Bob Hope Memorial Library", etc. I wont say that these are not worthwhile bills, but are they worth 75% of what we are paying our politicians to stand up for?

Lets take a look at what they managed to squeeze in for us under the other 25% of their time representing us.

1. To amend the Richard B. Russell National School Lunch Act to expand the fruit and vegetable pilot program to 5 States, including New York, and to include Head Start programs. ' (H.R.203)

2.To direct the Secretary of Homeland Security to procure the development and provision of improved and up-to-date communications equipment for the New York City Fire Department, including radios. ' (H.R.1794)

3.To provide that Federal funds for the relief and revitalization of New York City after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attack shall not be subject to Federal taxation. ' (H.R.2196)

4.To amend the Niagara Redevelopment Act to encourage economic development and recovery in western New York, to promote fiscal transparency, to enhance the safety and security of the Niagara Power Project, and for other purposes. ' (H.R.3366)

5.To provide certain requirements for hydroelectric projects on the Mohawk River in the State of New York. ' (H.R.4375)

These 5 seam like worthwhile subjects, but read the fine print. You might find that they are not everything they appear to be in a brief summery.

It’s time to find out just what your local government is doing for you and with your tax dollars. See the new links on our links page to find and contact your local congress member, ask questions and be heard. Our tax dollars is what allows us to have the things we need as a society but when the name of post offices takes priority over our kids eating lunch in school or having adequate amount of police to keep our neighborhoods safe, something is greatly wrong.

Your tax dollars and your future are in your hands.

Written by A. Wallace

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Time to gorw.

When I started The Weekly News 13 weeks ago, I intended for it to be a local media for Queens, N.Y. To my surprise The Weekly News has become a site for people to visit from all over the world, mostly throughout the United States. With few local visitors, I feel it is time to set our sites on more of a national audience and bring our readers a little more of what they need to know.

Please follow along with us through the coming weeks and send in your input on changes that we will be making as well as ideas that you may have.

Thank you,
A. Wallace

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