VAN HOLLEN SUES GAB

Special to the Readers of Milwaukeeworld.com

By Michael Horne

Attorney General J. B. Van Hollen fled the first suit of the contested presidential election of 2008 some eight weeks before the votes had even been cast.
Today, Wednesday, September 10th, 2008, he filed a court action against the State of Wisconsin Government Accountability Board [GAB]demanding that all voters who had registered by mail with the state between the implementation of the Helping America Vote Act [HAVA] in January 2006 to August 6th, 2008, when Wisconsin became compliant with the act, be checked against State of Wisconsin Department of Transportation records for inaccuracies. Any name that does not exactly match DOT records should be purged from the poll list before the November 4th, 2008 presidential election, Van Hollen says.The GAB has refused to do so.
"Unless action is taken by the GAB, these names will remain on the list during the November 4, 2008 presidential election, and there is a significant risk, if not a certainty, that unlawful votes will be cast and counted," the AG cautions.
Although Van Hollen did not produce one single example of an ineligible voter whose registration was accepted by GAB during the time period, he did state in his suit, "J. B. Van Hollen vs. Government Accountability Board 2008CV004085 Dane County," that "ineligible voters have not been removed," the GAB list is "not accurate" and that a "system to remove registrants who are ineligible has not been employed." He also provided no facts to back up those statements.
Before you start thinking the AG's concerns sound reasonable, please consider this: The GAB ran the names of its six members through the check Van Hollen suggests is required by law. Four out of the six members did not pass, which is a pretty high number for a bipartisan board that is composed of retired appeals judges. They seem to think their list is superior to the DOTs, which is why they refuse to allow the DOT list to be the vetting agent for voters' qualification in Wisconsin.
The problem, GAB says, is not with its list of voters, but with the DOTs list of drivers, which Van Hollen and his fellow vote suppressing Republicans would like to see supplant the voters list.
Ideally, Van Hollen would like to have those voters caught in his trap cast provisional ballots, which could be easily rejected during a court challenge to the outcome of the presidential election, should it be a close one, and should McCain not lead in Wisconsin.
Read the shocking document for yourself:
VanHollen's Suit pdf

QUOTE OF THE DAY
"I think I just spent the dumbest hour of my life."
--Philanthropist and rail supporter Michael J. Cudahy, after leaving the Walker-Barrett debate at Marquette University Law School, Tuesday, September 9th, 2008.

Cudahy spoke for the majority of the audience who watched County Executive Scott Walker resume his push for an express bus system with all the fervor of Byron Kilbourn touting his canal as the best way to get Waukesha County farmers' crops to market. The canal at least made it a quarter mile of its proposed 60 mile route, before it was rendered economically insensate by rail. Walker's fantasy bus should never make it that far.
Mayor Barrett, conceding that you can't hold a reasonable debate if the other party has no interest in the facts, said Walker's anti-rail position was based on "Ideological Objections" promulgated by "conservative radio talk show hosts."
It was a very dispiriting event.
--Michael Horne

COFFEE TAILS OPEN
If granola is not what you have in mind to accompany your A.M. coffee, live dangerously and visit Coffee Tails, newly opened at around 1504 N. Van Buren St., just north of E. Lyon St. You can buy a freshly roasted coffee to go for $1.75. Or, stick around and have your coffee in the cozy shop, which is open from 6 a..m. - 11 a.m. in the little annex off of the Y-NOT II.
Tony DePalma opened the place to get a little morning business into his cash register, without running a 6 a.m. bar per se. So, if any of the rows of airplane bottles of liquor (or liqueur) appeal to you, go ahead and buy one. Then, the coffee's on the house!
Not recommended for those on the way to work, but a possibly very appealing option for the opening salvo of a lost weekend. ... According to courthouse records, R. C. Schmidt, Jr. paid $1,250,000 for the real estate of the Harp Irish Pub, 113 E. Juneau Ave. when he bought the business last month.
-- Michael Horne