A photo from yesterday’s hearing in the Senate Judiciary Committee to discuss repeal of First Amendment rights.  A group of lady activists for the Constitution provided a visual of what the Senators were up to:

… and Ohio, and Texas, and more.  Link to story.

In a May 17 commencement speech at Morgan State University, Attorney General Eric Holder once again dismissed the problem of voter fraud as being inconsequential. Efforts to curb it, he claimed, are merely attempts to deprive minorities of their right to vote.

It’s not just that Holder personally persists in ignoring the many cases of such fraud that have been documented by historians and journalists. His entire Justice Department studiously ignores evidence of possible fraud and steadfastly refuses to do anything about it. I know this from personal experience.

From 2010 to until 2013, I served on the Fairfax County Electoral Board in Virginia. In August 2011, we notified the Office of the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia in Alexandria, as well as the Public Integrity Section of the Criminal Division of the Justice Department (which coordinates election crime prosecutions) in Washington, of possible voter fraud by non-citizens.

SC elections bill awaits vote in Senate:

“The administration’s claim to be the champion of civil rights is highly suspect.”  Morning Bits.

Federal Election Commission Chairman Lee E. Goodman warned that the federal government — including some officials in his office — may soon move to clamp down on conservative media.

“I think that there are impulses in the government every day to second guess and look into the editorial decisions of conservative publishers,” Goodman told Paul Bedard of the Washington Examiner on Wednesday.

At threat, in Goodman’s estimation, is the media’s exemption from federal election laws governing political organizations like PACs. Many in government want to curtail the ability of all news outlets to endorse and promote candidates and issues without any limits or disclosure requirements.

Some have already tried. The FEC Chairman explained that in two different instances, high-ranking officials attempted to regulate both Sean Hannity’s radio program and the Citizens United movie production studio. Those initiatives were defeated, but Democrats on the board often voted to abolish the media exemption.

I testified yesterday before the Pennsylvania House of Representatives regarding Attorney General Kathleen Kane’s refusal to prosecute four legislators caught on tape accepting bribes to vote against Voter ID.  The Democrats walked out of the hearing that would discuss fellow Democrats accepting bribes.  Not good optics.  The story is here.

I’ll be appearing before the Pennsylvania House State Government Committee at a Tuesday hearing.  A snip from the Tribune Review:

Metcalfe proposed impeaching Kane for refusing to defend the constitutionality of the state’s ban on same-sex marriage — something he considers her duty — and for declining to prosecute four Philadelphia Democratic lawmakers who were videotaped taking cash.

Kane claims legal underpinnings of the legislative investigation failed to pass muster. She said she can’t ethically defend the gay marriage ban because she believes it’s unconstitutional.

Metcalfe criticized Kane for giving her twin sister a 19 percent pay raise, but a spokesman said a deputy, not Kane, made that decision. Her sister worked for prior attorneys general and stayed on when Kane took office.

J. Christian Adams, a policy board member of the American Civil Rights Union and founder of the Election Law Center in Virginia, plans to testify about Kane’s “corrosive effect on election integrity.”

In prepared remarks provided to the Tribune-Review, Adams, who grew up in Westmoreland County, said Kane’s “brazen unwillingness to pursue behavior by some elected officials who reportedly took bribes in exchange for votes against voter identification legislation sends a signal that criminal behavior touching on elections will be tolerated.”

A lobbyist who became an undercover informant for the attorney general’s office provided more than $16,000 to legislators to vote against the voter ID bill. The bill became law, but a challenge is pending before appellate courts.

The legislators are Reps. Ron Waters, Louise Bishop, Vanessa Brown and Michelle Brownlee, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer.

Kane called it the “Black Caucus investigation” under her Republican predecessors. She said black lawmakers were unfairly targeted. Philadelphia District Attorney Seth Williams, who is black, said he sees no racism in the case.

Williams last week took Kane up on her offer to let him review the evidence for possible prosecution.


Read more: triblive.com/politics/politicalheadlines/6049502-74/kane-general-attorney#ixzz30r05LEjZ
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D.C. elections officials offered an entirely new explanation Tuesday for the major vote-counting delays that plagued the city’s April 1 Democratic primary: The issue was not five mishandled electronic voting machines, but a broad computer network failure.