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October 21, 2006

Fresh GOP Scandal Escalates, DOJ Searches Nguyen's HQ, Home

First Tan Nguyen was a no-show at his own press conference yesterday. Then the Justice Department searched the Republican candidate's headquarters, his home, as well as the house of a staffer, leaving with boxes of evidence from each. As Vince reported yesterday, Nguyen, an immigrant from Vietnam who is trying to unseat 5-time representative Loretta Sanchez, has denied having any knowledge of the letter sent to 14,000 Orange County residents saying that immigrants who vote face jail time.

No one seems to believe him, and his party is in full retreat: the feds called for a search warrant, county republicans have called for him to withdraw, and Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, whose bid for re-election relies in part on Orange County remaining a Republican stronghold, has denounced the candidate and is scheduled to meet with Hispanic leaders in the county today. Republican Secretary of State Bruce McPherson, whose in a tight race for re-election, announced yesterday that he'll send a voter information letter next week to all those who were sent false information by the Nguyen campaign.

October 20, 2006

How High Up Goes Climate Change Censorship?

In September the journal Nature reported that a government agency was suppressing science on links between global warming and hurricanes. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration blocked release of a report that suggests global warming is contributing to the frequency and strength the storms, Nature said. At the time, NOAA Administrator Conrad Lautenbacher disputed the story, saying the report was only an internal document and that the agency could not take an official position on the issue. But new evidence has turned up that contradicts his claim.

According an update released by the Society of Environmental Journalists:

House Science Committee Ranking Member Bart Gordon (D-TN) on Oct. 4 released the text of a NOAA internal e-mail that seemed to directly contradict that assertion, since it said that the document had been cleared for publication by NOAA top brass. . .Gordon's letter outlines a detailed sequence of events that seems to indicate that the disputed (report) had passed clearance for publication all the way up to Lautenbacher's level, and that it was stopped when clearance was sought from political appointees at the Department of Commerce, which oversees NOAA.

We should soon see who at Commerce was responsible; NOAA must comply with Gordon's request for more info by Monday.

Ballot Initiatives in 6 States Capitalize on Eminent Domain Outrage

One sentiment that has cut across party lines in the past year is eminent domain outrage. Libertarians and environmentalists, Nascar dads and the NAACP, everyone seems to object to Kelo v. New London, the Supreme Court decision that allows a city to force working class neighborhoods to sell out to developers.

A year ago, at a public hearing about New London, I saw a shaggy, bearded activist in Connecticut read what sounded like beat poetry about eminent domain. Rumor had it that Urban Outfitters was selling "Kelo" shirts.

Joking aside, now developers are taking advantage of the public opposition.

I wrote a couple weeks ago how one New York real-estate magnate paid $5 million to get a few eminent domain initiatives on the state ballot. Such initiatives are on the ballot in six states that if passed would cripple environmental land-use regulation, and cost the states billions of dollars.

Called pay-or-waive schemes, they require the government to compensate landowners for new regulations that devalue their property, or waive the regulations altogether. (In Oregon, which already has pay-or-waive, property owners in the past three months filed more than $5 billion in claims).

Here's a rundown of the initiatives by state.

--April Rabkin

Twain’s Frog Scores Victory Over Pombo

Much to the likely chagrin of Rep. Richard Pombo (R-Calif.) the EPA has agreed to protect the threatened California Red-Legged Frog, according to a settlement reached this week in a lawsuit filed in 2002.

Pombo once blamed the species for causing nearly $500 million in "regulatory costs" for homebuilders and held Twain’s frogs up as Exhibit A in his Threatened and Endangered Species Recovery Act, a deceptively-named bill that would eliminate mandatory habitat restrictions for any species. The settlement agreement will protect Rana aurora draytonii by prohibiting the use of 66 pesticides in and near red-legged frog habitats.

Read more about Pombo’s battle against these amphibians in the name of development in Dick Russell’s story in the current issue of Mother Jones.

And according to poll numbers released today Pombo is neck and neck with his Democratic opponent Jerry McNerney, with Pombo at 41 percent and McNerney at 40 percent.

Frogs should be the least of his worries.

Democratic Tidal Wave in New York

It won’t come as a surprise,but the bellwether Marist Poll in New York State out today is showing Democrats are set to sweep the state, and on pretty wide margins.For governor, Eliot Spitzer has 70 percent to John Faso’s 22 percent

Former HUD Secretary Andrew Cuomo is running well ahead of former Westchester County District Attorney Jeanine Pirro, 56-36.

Hillary Clinton leads Republican John Spencer by 37 percentage points, and she gets a 58 percent approval rating from likely voters..

A majority of likely voters -- 62 percent -- in New York State intend to support a Democratic candidate for Congress. That includes non-enrolled independent voters and about one in 5 Republicans. Twenty seven percent of the likely voters will cast a Republican ballot.

Key issues: 82 percent of registered voters think the Iraq war and the war on terrorism are major factors, followed by Bush himself.

And then there is this: CQ Politics quotes an unnamed insider Republican as saying, they are trying to shore up voters painting ``fear of a Democratic majority,’’ adding, "We've pretty much blown every other issue. Fear is the only motivating factor left on the table."

And the GOP is wildly trying to scare its base by painting the horrors to come should Nancy Pelosi become Speaker.

Republicans Want Republican Out in Orange County

California's well-heeled Orange County has a long history of hostility to immigrants, but a letter aimed at scaring Latinos away from the polls, sent out by the campaign staff of a Republican congressional candidate, was too much even for the local GOP. The chairman of the county's Republican Party is calling on Tan Nguyen to drop out of the race, and the US Department of Justice is even considering filing charges, the Orange County Register says this morning. The letter, which went out to about 14,000 Latino voters, warns (falsely, of course) that it's a crime punishable by jail or deportation for immigrants to vote.

October 19, 2006

The New American Image?: All Americans Carry Guns

When musician and activist Michael Franti was in Iraq in 2004, he was the only American without a gun. He brought a wooden guitar instead. Hear Franti on Mother Jones Radio this weekend talking about his film and book I Know I'm Not Alone featuring laughing and singing Iraqis we never see on TV. And even though violence is spinning out of control, he’d go back now. Seriously. He wants all the troops to come home.

Journalist Sidney Blumenthal calls Bush radical in his new book How Bush Rules. It’s a collection of Blumenthal’s columns from The Guardian and Salon.com. Here is what he told us on the radio:

“Bush is not an idiot, he’s very shrewd and clever….he knows even now very little about the dynamics of foreign policy, he doesn’t have an analytical mind… He doesn’t know the degree to which he is manipulated in all sorts of ways by Dick Cheney and Rumsfeld. Cheney who controls a good deal of the information he sees and creates the reality around him. And Condi Rice who’s an enabler and flatterer who tells him what a great man he is constantly.“

Hear more from Blumenthal this weekend on Mother Jones Radio.

GAO Says Abstinence-Only Education Curricula Must Include Info on STIs and Condoms

The GAO released a legal opinion yesterday affirming that abstinence-only education materials must include accurate information on sexually transmitted infections and the effectiveness of condoms. To date, HHS had insisted that materials produced by abstinence grantees do not fall under the jurisdiction of the Public Health Service Act, which mandates as much. HHS has instead maintained that:

"Grantees may address issues related to [STIs] in communicating the importance of abstinence, they are to address these issues only within the broader context of abstinence education."

The GAO's legal review came at the request of Congressional dems including the ever-muckraking Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.). Remember, it was Waxman’s 2004 report on abstinence-only sex education curricula that found rampant inaccuracies.

Waxman’s report was roundly denounced by the religious right as partisan. Let’s hope the GAO’s finding resonates through the politics.

Dems See Pombo Race as an "Emerging Opportunity"

Jerry McNerney, democratic challenger to Richard Pombo (R-Ca) may finally be getting some much-needed support from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. The DCCC has just placed Pombo’s 11th district seat and John Doolittle’s (R-Ca) 4th district house seats on a list of “emerging opportunities” for GOP defeats come Election Day.

Previously, the DCCC had chosen not to focus on ousting Pombo after their chosen candidate, Steve Filson, lost the Democratic primary. Now, even with help from the DCCC, McNerney has a long way to go, cash-wise. So far, Pombo has raised 3.4 million in campaign funds, McNerney 1.16 million (check out the full breakdown here)

So far the National Republican Congressional Committee has spent $545,000 to oppose McNerney and $46,000 to support Pombo, while the DCCC has spent only $5,600 to counter Pombo.

Doolittle’s campaign spokesman Richard Robinson says this amounts to "a lot of posturing” but given Pombo and Doolittle’s recent links to Jack Abramoff there's no telling what will happen.

--Amaya Rivera

Why Is Congress Even Bothering To Pass Laws?

George W. Bush has already made it clear that he may ignore parts of the 2007 Defense Authorization Act. To be exact, he has listed two dozens provisions in the act which he may trash, including the budget requirements for the wars in both Iraq and Afghanistan.

Bush made his stand Tuesday in one of his now-famous "signing statements," which the White House maintains are not unlike other presidential signing statements, but which are, in fact, completely different. Instead of making notes about his personal interpretations of some laws, Bush has used the signing statement to eliminate parts of laws, or the spirit of entire laws, that he does not like.

Some Constitutional scholars say that it is within Bush's legal rights to reject the war budget because, they say, the Constitution does not give Congress the authority to tell the president (or, in this case, Bush) what to request or how to request it.

Bush's other objections include:

• A requirement that he name a “coordinator of policy on North Korea” within 60 days, and submit within 90 days an updated intelligence assessment on Iran.

• A call for reports on subjects ranging from an early education program for military children to a study on assessing the safety of the nuclear stockpile.

• A response plan for remediation of unexploded ordnance, discarded military munitions, and munitions constituents.

• A report on a program for replacement of nuclear warheads on certain Trident sea-launched ballistic missiles with conventional warheads.

• Energy efficiency in weapons platforms.

• A report on participation of multinational partners in the United Nations Command in the Republic of Korea.

• A report on the implementation of the Darfur Peace Agreement.

• Quarterly reports on Department of Defense response to threat posed by improvised explosive devices.

• A National Academy of Sciences study of quantification of margins and uncertainty methodology for assessing and certifying the safety and reliability of the nuclear stockpile.

Tet

The apparently popular notion that recent guerrilla strikes in Iraq bear similarities to Tet is succinctly laid to rest this morning by Juan Cole. Here's a paragraph from his Informed Comment blog:

"The current guerrilla war against US troops and the new Iraqi government isn't at all like the Tet offensive. It is deadly serious. Because the US military is not defeating the guerrillas militarily any more. They have succeeded in provoking an unconventional, hot civil war, which was their "poison pill" strategy for getting the US out. The US has alienated the Sunni Arab population decisively. In summer of 2003, only 14 percent of them supported violent attacks on US troops. In a recent poll, 70 percent supported such attacks. And, the guerrilla movement is well-heeled, well-trained, and adaptive.''

You can find Juan Cole's daily analysis at www.juancole.com or write him direct at jrcole@umich.edu.

Christians Counter Climate Change

Dozens of evangelical Christian leaders, breaking ranks with the Bush administration as well as many of their peers, yesterday launched a new faith-based campaign against global warming. "(M)any of us have required considerable convincing before becoming persuaded that climate change is a real problem and that it ought to matter to us as Christians," declares their official statement. "But now we have seen and heard enough" to convince them that climate change is real, it's bad, and people of conscience should do something about it. It's signed by 86 people, from Rick Warren, author of the bestseller “The Purpose-Driven Life,” to the new head of the Christian Coalition.

October 18, 2006

Minnesota Taxi Drivers Seek Religious Exemptions

It's hard enough to get a taxi in some places if you are not Caucasion, but it's becoming even harder, in some cities, to get one if you do not fit the driver's religious ideal of a passenger. For example, in London, two Muslim taxi drivers were fined for refusing to pick up a blind customer. The same thing has happened repeatedly in Melbouren. The reason? The customer's seeing-eye dog was "unclean." In Minneapolis, Muslim taxi drivers have refused to pick up a transgendered customer. And throughout Minnesota, taxi drivers are seeking a two-tiered system that would permit them to refuse to pick up certain fares because of their own religious beliefs.

This is how the system would work: If a driver refuses to pick you up because you are gay, transgendered, have a seeing-eye dog, are carrying a "forbidden" book, have a peace symbol on your briefcase, or are a woman with part of your abdomen showing (I could go on and on), you go to the back of the queue until someone finds you acceptable enough to ride in his or her cab.

Katherine Kersten of the Minneapolis Star Tribune says:

And what if Muslim drivers demand the right not to transport women wearing short skirts or tank tops, or unmarried couples? After taxis, why not buses, trains and planes? Eventually, in some respects, our society could be divided along religious lines.

Pam Spaulding, writing in Pandagon, says:

I hate to break it to the Star Tribune’s Katherine Kersten, but we already are divided. “Christian” pharmacists in some parts of the country are allowed to refuse filling a prescription if they object on religious principles to the use of the drug.

Tom Reynolds in Washington

Tom Reynolds, head of the House Republican Campaign Committee, and another member of the House leadership mired into the Foley scandal, appeared in Washington at the National Press Club for lunch Wednesday noon. He talked about the House campaigns and identified "Members, money and message" as the most decisive factors in winning this year's midterm election. Reynolds had no message to give on his own involvement in the Foley page scandal. He did say, however, he doubts the scandal will effect any of the races.

Dozens of reporters, and a phalanx of cameras greeted him. Likely the last thing on anyone’s mind was Reynolds opinion on the election. The Foley scandal was front and center. But in the harried scrum following the luncheon nobody asked him about it. Instead, it was "Hi Tom," and "How’s your house, Tom?’’ “Hey Tom, do you notice you are always in my lede?’’ and so on. Not like, “What were you doing with Foley, Tom?’’ Or: "Are you Hastert’s fall guy?”

Reynolds’s top assistant had previously worked for Foley. Reynolds reportedly is the one who talked Foley into seeking re-election this year.

Tom is best known of late for dodging questions by surrounding himself with children—just so you know he’s no pervert—before blithering on about how he was doing his job just like any other worker, by passing the information on up the line to his "supervisor" House Speaker Dennis Hastert.

Reynolds emphasized that the election was being fought by candidates, based on their reputation at the local level. "We are dealing with fierce contests fought by local personalities on local pocket book issues," said Reynolds. "[Constituents] will vote for Candidate A or Candidate B, not for a Republican or a Democratic Congress." According to Reynolds, the G.O.P. candidates are "excelling at the nuts and bolts" of the election at that local level.

Reynolds equated the growing size of Republican candidates' campaign coffers with election success. Said Congressman Chris Van Hollen, who spoke for the Democrats: "There's a real sense in this country that what has been the 'People's House' has become the auction house."

Ford's Fancy Fling

In Tennessee where Harold Ford, Jr. is battling Bob Corker in what some pros think is the toughest Senate race in the nation, the Republicans have been trying to smear Ford for a ski weekend 'fling’ with Julia Allison (formerly Baugher), then a Georgetown University sophomore. Ford was unmarried and celebrating his 31st birthday. He saw her in a restaurant. One thing led to another and the couple had some sort of relationship which Allison later described in a Cosmopolitan article. She currently writes a dating column for AM New York as well as doing a monthly column in Coed, a Maxim like mag for teens. At Georgetown she wrote a sex column for the student newspaper, and later worked on the campaign of an Illinois congressman, then as a congressional liaison for a House member.

Somebody at the National Republican Committee thought the Julia story could add to the GOP’s smear campaign which portrays Ford as a high liver, attending parties with Playboy beauties, who actually wore lingerie in his company. And they started putting out stuff under headlines like: Ford’s "Fancy Fling" with the opening: "Find out how much Congressmen Harold Ford, Jr. enjoys the good life – including his lavish hotel stays, expensive dinners, and parties with Playboy Playmates."

No one cared. This news doesn’t seem to have affected Julia’s own career.You can read her blog here, but only if want to bore yourself to death.

"Other than a fabulous weekend ski vacation and a few fancy dinners," the Memphis Flyer quotes Allison as saying,"all Harold gave me was the certainty that dating a [politician] is overrated."

GOP Debates "Pink Purge"

Shocked, SHOCKED to discover that there are homosexuals among the ranks of their beloved Republican party, hardline Christian conservatives are calling for a "pink purge" of the GOP's ranks, the LA Times reports. The sectarian schism is a win-win for Democrats: if Republican leaders lean too hard on gays, they'll alienate moderate voters, but if they don't, they risk dampening enthusiasm among their social-conservative base, whose high turnout has been key to recent GOP victories.

Seems the soc-cons are upset not only about Foleygate, but over other recent events that have been less well-publicized because, well, they're really no big deal to most people. The list includes Condi Rice swearing in a new, openly gay US global AIDS coordinator and referring to his partner's mother as his "mother in law".

Hobbit Fans Unleash Geek Fury on Rick Santorum

Yesterday, Sen. Rick Santorum tried to explain the war in Iraq by drawing an analogy to the Lord of the Rings:

As the hobbits are going up Mount Doom, the Eye of Mordor is being drawn somewhere else.... It's being drawn to Iraq and it's not being drawn to the U.S. You know what? I want to keep it on Iraq. I don't want the Eye to come back here to the United States.

Really, Santorum should have known better. By invoking LOTR, he was inviting the scrutiny of hordes of Tolkien fans, who, sure enough, are unleashing their fantasy-lit fury on him. First off, Santorum called it the Eye of Mordor, when it's really the Eye of Sauron. Jeeze! Scott Rosenberg exposes more flaws in Santorum's comments:

First of all, in Tolkien's saga, the good guys are outgunned and outmanned by the Dark Lord, whereas in our world, the U.S. is a "hyperpower" whose military, in 2001-2, seemed to bestride the world. Second, in Tolkien, the good guys sent Frodo with the Ring into the depths of Mordor as a sort of last-ditch, bet-everything gamble; then they sent an army to the gates of Mordor as a diversion — to keep the Eye occupied and distract it from the hobbits headed for Mount Doom.

David Weigel at Reason's Hit and Run further explains how Santorum's comments failed to reflect the geopolitical complexities of Middle Earth:

Was Santorum referring to the hobbits' final approach up Mount Doom, when Aragorn (George Bush) was convincing the men of Gondor (Tony Blair) and Rohan (John Howard) to make a final, diversionary push at the Black Gates? Or is he referring to the entire quest of Frodo and Sam (300 million Americans), which was aided at various points by mystical creatures - the Ents, the Dead Men of Dunharrow - that don't have any easy relations in the real war on terror?

And Rosenberg again:

It's hard, in truth, to find any useful Middle Earth analogy to the Iraq War: the parallels break down across the board. Still, you might think of Bush's invasion of Iraq as the equivalent of a beleaguered Gondor, attacked by the armies of Mordor across the River Anduin, sending its army off on an expedition to Far Harad, after its leaders issued proclamations that the White Council had incontrovertible evidence of the Haradrim's possession of Rings of Mass Destruction.

So wait, if Bush is Aragorn, does that mean Condi Rice is Arwen?

October 17, 2006

Money in California Politics Laid Bare

Hey California voters! Curious about how much beverage company cash helped influence a vote on bottled-water standards? Wondering which interest groups are especially generous to your state Assembly member? Check out this new online money-and-politics database from Maplight.org, a Berkeley-based non-profit. It tracks votes on specific bills by state pols and cross-references that info with details on who gave them money, and when. So far, only data from 2003-2004 is available, but the Maplighters claim more recent stuff will be up soon. The impatient can do their own state-level research with the help of The Institute on Money and State Politics , or go federal at OpenSecrets.org. And of course there's always the famous Mother Jones 400, one of the very first online sources of campaign finace dirt.

Muslim Religious Differences Too Trivial to Pursue

Jeff Stein, the national security editor at Congressional Quarterly, published an op-ed piece in today's New York Times (available, alas, only to TimesSelect members) giving the results of his recent survey of counterterrorism officials. The survey has just one question: What's the difference between a Sunni and a Shiite?

Stein was dumbfounded to learn that very few of his interviewees, who play important roles in intelligence and law enforcement communities and Congress, had any idea. And, as Stein writes, he wasn't asking deep, theological questions, "just the basics: Who's on what side today, and what does each want?"

For those of you who might—like Trent Lott, who recently wondered, "Why do Sunnis kill Shiites? How do they tell the difference? They all look the same to me"—see this as a rarefied inquiry, here's how Stein explains why it matters:

[T]he nature of the threat from Iran [Shiite], a potential nuclear power with protégés in the Gulf states, northern Saudi Arabia, Lebanon and the Palestinian territories, is entirely different from that of Al Qaeda [Sunni]. It seems silly to have to argue that officials responsible for counterterrorism should be able to recognize opportunities for pitting these rivals against each other.

Hostilities between Sunnis and Shiites are on center stage in Iraq, and play an important role in Al Qaeda's motivations. Perhaps if officials knew more about them, better policy would follow?

But one of Stein's interviewees—the spokesman for the FBI—took the position that understanding the difference between a Sunni and a Shiite was akin to "memoriz[ing] the collected statements of Osama bin Laden, or be[ing] able to read Urdu [or] playing 'Islamic Trivial Pursuit.'"

If there's a game comparison, shouldn't it at least be Risk?

Will Saddam Help the GOP Get an Election Bump?

Over at the Nation, the ever-prolific Tom Engelhardt speculates about what he thinks could be the GOP's November Surprise: the November 5 sentencing of Saddam Hussein. Assuming that Saddam is guaranteed to get the death penalty, the White House could get itself a nice last-minute blip of "progress" to sell to voters. Clearly, the timing will work well for Bush & Co. Whether that's a happy coincdence is subject to debate. But as law prof and blogger Scott Horton tells Engelhardt,

"When you look at polling figures," Horton said," there have been three significant spike points. One was the date on which Saddam was captured. The second was the purple fingers election. The third was Zarqawi being killed. Based on those three, it's easy to project that they will get a mild bump out of this....This is not coincidence.... Nothing in Iraq that's set up this far in advance is coincidental."

But would this "mild bump" be enough to revive Republicans' fortunes at the polls? It's not like the Democrats won't cheer Saddam's descent to death row, so the Republicans would have to work fast to turn this into a partisan issue (not that they won't try their darndest). And in the eyes of many Americans, Saddam's hardly the WMD-toting bogeyman he was three years ago; he's no Osama, no matter how much the "Saddam was behind 9/11" crowd wishes he was. With support for the war at an all-time low, it's hard for me to see how this verdict will change many war-weary minds, much less energize a disheartened GOP base.

JoeMotion

Charlie Cook’s staff on CSPAN Sunday were predicting Senate control will ride on one vote. Could go either way. Whatever happens that’s going to give tremendous leverage to Joe Lieberman,who is running 8-10 points ahead of Ned Lamont. Lieberman confirmed to us this morning he will organize with the Democrats. But, he can always change his mind.Whatever happens he is in a position to exercise considerable leverage—in terms of committee assignments and pork.Lieberman could end up with more power in Connecticut than fellow senator and Democrat Christopher Dodd , not to mention greater influence than the Bush family before it fled into exile in Texas.

As for Vermont’s Bernie Sanders, running far ahead of Richard Tarrant (64-32) in the Vermont senate race, his office said Sanders will organize with the Democrats.

Dancing with DeLay

How far Tom Delay's fallen. The former Majority Leader has been reduced to rallying his base on behalf of a contestant on the reality TV series "Dancing with the Stars." Of late, Delay has launched a media campaign for country singer Sara Evans, who recently filed for divorce from her husband Craig Schelske, a former Republican candidate for Congress. Here's what DeLay had to say about Evans in an email:

"Sara Evans has been a strong supporter of the Republican Party and represents good American values in the media. From singing at the 2004 Republican Convention to appearing with candidates in the last several election cycles, we have always been able to count on Sara for her support of the things we all believe in. Let's show Sara that same support by watching and voting for her each week to help her win this competition. One of her opponents on the show is ultra liberal talk show host Jerry Springer. We need to send a message to Hollywood and the media that smut has no place on television by supporting good people like Sara Evans."

Talk show host and former Cincinnatti mayor, Jerry Springer, is another “Dancing with the Stars 3” contestant who announced in September that he would not run for Senate.

That's right, the man once known as "The Hammer" has gone from ruling the House with an iron fist to letting Jerry Springer really have it.

Radar's Ten Dumbest Congressmen

Radar has fun detailing "America's Dumbest Congressmen." Readers of Mother Jones' regular feature "The Diddly Award" will know many of the names and anecdotes already but when it comes to the antics of wise legislators such as Jim Bunning, Katherine Harris, and Patrick Kennedy, is it possible for familiarity to breed even more contempt?

Money in California Politics Laid Bare

California Hispanics Told It Is A Crime To Vote

A letter, written in Spanish, has gone out to some Hispanic citizens of California, telling them that it is a crime for immigrants to vote, and that voting could cause them to be jailed or deported. The letter also warns that the state has a computer system that can track down the names of all Hispanic voters.

Several of the recipients of this letter are naturalized citizens of the U.S. The California Attorney General is investigating the mailing, and the sender could be charged with a felony.

Another Weldon Conspiracy

For Curt Weldon, pushing conspiracy theories is something of a hobby. In the past, he’s claimed that a secret intelligence program called Able Danger identified Mohamed Atta, among other 9/11 conspirators, over a year before the attacks. And his book, Countdown to Terror, is filled with all sorts of dubious allegations about Iran’s ties to terrorism. (This information, it turns out, was funneled to him by a middleman for Manucher Ghorbanifar, an alleged intelligence fabricator and Iran-Contra figure.) Now, after the feds raided the homes of his lobbyist daughter and her business partner yesterday, investigating whether the Pennsylvania congressman used his position to steer business to their firm, Weldon is alerting the world to a new conspiracy. In a statement released yesterday, he questioned the timing of the investigation, which comes just three weeks before the election, suggesting that the probe is politically motivated. As is increasingly becoming the case when members of the GOP get caught up in scandals (see Hastert, Dennis), Weldon blamed the watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington for the supposed smear. “It is no coincidence that the vice president of CREW, Philadelphia trial lawyer Daniel Berger, and his law firm are among the single largest contributors to my opponent Joe Sestak's campaign,” Weldon said. “This is a group that is closely tied to my opponent Joe Sestak and now, just weeks before my re-election word that the inquiry is occurring has mysteriously trickled out. That is dirty, partisan politics at its absolute worst.”

Of course, politics is a dirty business and damaging allegations that arise in advance of an election should always be subject to the highest level of skepticism. But, in this case, there are a couple of major things wrong with Weldon's hypothesis. First, the allegations against Weldon have been circulating for some time. In fact, CREW’s deputy director, Naomi Seligman Stei