Video by SNPS Brian Shajari

Looks like the perfect storm, doesn't it? This post is in honor of Old Coastie's success in helping to save California from election fraud.

Repubs know they can't win a fair presidential race in '08, so they were trying to siphon off part of the CA electoral votes. And cheating besides.

If you go to the website of newly elected Secretary of State, Debra Bowen-D, you will see the following exciting language:

1250. (07-0016 Amdt. #1NS) Requirements for Presidential Electors. Statute. WITHDRAWN from Initiatives in Circulation. [egr bold]

Music to my ears! Link for the full text, scroll down.

It all began when Old Coastie [named for her work in the Coast Guard], along with Vikingkingq and PeteB2 from Kos and a few other sharp-eyed observers saw people gathering signatures on multiple petitions in a way that looked suspicious. While ostensibly signing for a children's cancer hospital [I mean really, how heartless could you be not to support a children's cancer hospital?] people were asked to put their name on 'multiple copies.' But these weren't duplicates, they were other initiatives, with the deception hidden by using rubber bands across the pages.

OC's Kos diary, pushed up onto the Recommended list by a surge of firepups, has all the juicy details. Instead of just shrugging and doing nothing, OC and others took action by calling officials and demanding to know what was going on. See this FDL comment where she asked pups for help in figuring out the next steps. Word spread, many more people got involved, and they scored one for the good guys.

Loo Hoo found a SacBee article that links the shenanigans to good ol' Congressman Issa. Who could have guessed? And BradBlog ties the whole thing to the increasingly desperate Giuliani campaign.

So the Repub attempt to steal yet another presidential election, this time by splitting the electoral votes in California, has been thwarted---for now. Still hoping that loosehead and colleagues succeed in keeping New York State from losing authority over its own elections.

Gee, isn't it amazing that the Republicans don't want electoral reform everywhere, just the places that could tip the election to them? And even then only thru deception? They can't win fair and square, so they have to cheat. US Attorneys scandal among sooo many others. Nice party ya guys got there.

But at least one part of the government has escaped being eviscerated by the Repubs, and still works the way it's supposed to: the Coast Guard performed heroically in New Orleans while so many others did nothing. [Truth in advertising, despite being in a Navy family I'm fond of the them because my brother was in the Coast Guard Band.] Their motto is Semper Paratus = Always Ready.

Coast Guard to the rescue---a toast to our Old Coastie and all who helped! To firepup citizen action!