Republicans are supposed to be the party of "law & order" and "family values."  Yet throngs of them are flooding the polls to vote for Hillary Clinton, whom they believe to be the Democratic party's weakest presidential candidate.  Rush Limbaugh and other right wing pundits are actively encouraging republicans to crossvote for Sen. Clinton not just to disrupt and prolong the Democratic primary race, but also because if Clinton wins the nomination, she will engage and energize their base in the general election.

Limbaugh's "Operation Chaos" encourages willful violations of the law, and he as well as his followers should be called on this fraudulent undermining of our democracy.  Voting is a privilege and a right for which Americans have fought and died in order to obtain.  Operation Chaos isn't funny or clever.  It's illegal and traitorous; and should be treated as such.

Indiana election law IC 3-10-1-6  Eligible voters
Sec. 6. A voter may vote at a primary election:
(1) if the voter, at the last general election, voted for a majority of the regular nominees of the political party holding the primary election; or
(2) if the voter did not vote at the last general election, but intends to vote at the next general election for a majority of the regular nominees of the political party holding the primary election; as long as the voter was registered as a voter at the last general election or has registered since then.

By now you have probably heard about the Princeton Video that shows yet again how easy it is to compromise the Diebold systems.  Here is a picture of our heroes: Dr. Felten and his students, Feldman and Halderman

As you can see, not all patriots are firebrands from central casting.  They are normal folks like you and me.  And that is important because Diebold is starting to push back... and it is going to take normal folks like you and me to help our heroes keep Diebold's feet to the fire.  Let's look at where Diebold is vulnerable and how Diebold is trying to defend itself ...

Bullies refuse to play by any rule other than the stacked deck, a seemingly no loss situation without accountability.  This is the world that Dick Cheney and George W. Bush know intimately.

When a deck is stacked the bully beneficiaries can get away with murder.  Once again, this is a terrain with which the sordid duo of Cheney and Bush are highly familiar.  

After all, once you have developed a penchant for rigging elections without being held accountable, the arrogant glow that follows is justifiable and anticipated, as is the escalation of conduct extending to the ultimate trashing of the U.S. Constitution.

In order for Cheney and Bush to succeed to this degree it was necessary for real opposition to vanish in the political system.  Candidates willing to challenge them were ridiculed by the mainstream corporate media as unelectable and too far to the left to capture the votes of independents and swing Democrats.

The recommendations continue regarding investigating grounds for impeaching George W. Bush as well as censure.  Periodically we also read and hear about petition efforts to attack Bush, Cheney, or Rumsfeld.

The time for such actions has long passed.  The term "arrogance of power" that was reiterated so often in analyzing the actions of President Richard M. Nixon three decades ago has been carried to new meaning through the ruthless exercise of power by an unelected ruling Junta led by Dick Cheney.

Despite the Cheney-Bush Junta's disdain for France, the comment that unlike any other epitomizes its rule was attributed to France's King Louis XIV of "L'etat, c'est moi."  This translates to "I am the state," directly applicable to a scorched earth policy by Cheney-Bush in which the United States Constitution has, according to some, been trashed with impunity.

The Constitution has been as much a victim of abandonment as have the poor and middle class socioeconomic elements in the Cheney-Bush economic experience.  When Bush seeks to treat war launching in Iraq as no more than a judgment error on weapons of mass destruction that yielded positive results in the end, he is engaging in insidious distortion.

As if we needed more evidence, but the hits just keep coming:

Washington defense contractor Mitchell J. Wade admitted yesterday in federal court that he attempted to illegally influence Defense Department contracting officials and tried to curry favor with two House members, in addition to lavishing more than $1 million in cash, cars, a boat, antiques and other bribes on convicted Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham (R-Calif.).
The new admissions, including details that identify Reps. Virgil H. Goode Jr. (R-Va.) and Katherine Harris (R-Fla.) as recipients of illegal campaign contributions, are contained in Wade's agreement to plead guilty to four criminal charges stemming from his role in the Cunningham probe.  

Not that we didn't already know most of this, but isn't it interesting how it's all playing out.  Maybe the aspens truly are "turning":

Kenneth L. Wainstein, U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, told reporters after the plea that the growth of MZM appeared to be "an American success story." Instead, it was built "by spreading corruption within the congressional appropriations process, the defense contracting apparatus and the financing of congressional campaigns," he said.

Wade went beyond bribing Cunningham, Wainstein added, to include the Defense Department officials who would be making the procurement decisions that affected District-based MZM. This included hiring the son of one official who oversaw the company's work and then hiring the official, too, according to the plea agreement. In return, Defense officials gave Wade's company inside budget information and favorable performance reviews, court documents said.

Wade also pleaded guilty to election law fraud for making nearly $80,000 in illegal campaign contributions to "Representatives A and B," who are identifiable as Goode and Harris. He did so, the filings said, in hopes that they, like Cunningham, would "earmark" federal money for MZM. Wade gave the funds for the donations to 19 of his employees and their spouses, who then wrote $2,000 checks to the members, according to the documents.

The 2006 election campaign is well underway, with a script virtually constructing itself.