jsonline: As Democrats were seeking access to Republican redistricting files last year, hundreds of thousands of computer files were deleted from state computers used by GOP aides, according to documents filed Thursday in federal court in Milwaukee.
Democratic plaintiffs alleged in the court filing that someone logged in as a Republican aide deleted hundreds of thousands of redistricting files from one of the computers shortly after Democrats took control of the state Senate. Republicans had retained for the Senate the firm Michael Best & Friedrich to help drawn the maps, and after Democrats took over the Senate they demanded the case file from the firm.
The firm agreed to provide the files, but before doing so hundreds of thousands of files were deleted, according to the court documents. "The meaning of this...cannot be known unless and until the deleted files are recovered and reviewed," one of the filings said of the deletions.
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Saturday, April 20, 2013
The Lawless Republican Controlled Legislature. Can anything Stop Them?
I'm not going to say much here, because all of this is just getting ridiculous. We did learn a few things from the Republican takeover of our state; destroying evidence is okay with conservative voters and talk show hosts, and it keeps politicians out of prison. No harm done.
And what if the files are not recovered? What will be the meaning of al this.
ReplyDelete“Mr. Lanterman’s investigation is approximately 40 percent complete,” according to the filing by Madison attorney Douglas Poland and Milwaukee attorney Peter G. Earle. “To date it has uncovered deletions of likely relevant data from at least two of the state’s three redistricting computers at suspicious times, despite the legislature’s duty to preserve and this court’s serial orders.”
ReplyDeleteAccording to the filing, the first deletions came Jan. 6, 2012, just after attorneys for the state were ordered by the panel to turn over additional records in the case. The second deletions, on July 25, 2012, were made days after control of the Senate shifted to the Democrats as a result of recall elections in July 2012. (Republicans have since regained the majority in the Senate.)
“On July 18, 2012, after majority control of the state Senate shifted, the new majority leader (Democratic Sen. Mark Miller) requested Michael Best’s redistricting file,” the filing states.
“The following day (July 19), Michael Best agreed that it would make its redistricting file available for review. One week later (July 25), a user logged into the account of Tad Ottman, aide to state Senator Scott Fitzgerald — who just had been replaced as majority leader — deleted hundreds of thousands of redistricting files.
“The following week, Michael Best turned over its redistricting file to the new Senate majority leader (Miller).”
anon@ 4:55
ReplyDeleteIt means the media will tell us "nothing to see here, move along" and the politicians and political party responsible for these serious crimes against our democracy will never be asked a question about it nor ever even have to explain what happened.
What most overlook, and this blog does too, is that the brazen corruption and anti-democracy facism is enabled, empowered, and expanding because the GOP knows they have the media in the bag.
The public will never know and even if some do...
Wisconsin has closed, proprietary, nontransparent, and unverifiable elections anyhow -- something else the mainstream media and this blog will never address.
So while its easy to pretend to stand in front of the parade and should faux outrage to the world, the mainstream media is part of the problem and there is no real alternative media other than some that stand up and shout "LOOK AT ME!"
And the real villains get a free pass.
Sorry, but I've written about fascism here many times, recently as a matter of fact. I should mention it more often, but then if I did, the statement just becomes wallpaper.
ReplyDeleteCheck out:
http://democurmudgeon.blogspot.com/2013/03/ive-had-it-republicans-are-fascists.html
http://democurmudgeon.blogspot.com/2013/03/one-nation-under-one-party-rule.html
Good points. Thanks.