MB Civic

What would normally have been a humdrum election for a State Supreme Court Justice in Wisconsin became a referendum on Gov. Walker and State Republicans as the result of the outrageous anti-union bill. Incumbent David Prosser found himself in a tight race with relative newcomer JoAnne Klopperburg. When all the votes had initially been counted, Klopperburg had a slim lead of about 200 votes. Prosser called for a recount (no surprise there), but it did not seem that a recount would change anything.

Then, all of a sudden, more than 24 hours later, some 14,000 “missing” votes were “found” by the Waukesha County clerk. almost 10,000 of those votes were for Prosser, giving him an unbeatable lead. (Waukesha is a conservative area.)

What is truly disturbing here is what is reported about the Waukesha County clerk:

“The Waukesha County clerk, Kathy Nickolaus, said she had failed on election night to save votes from Brookfield in her computer, according to The Associated Press. The result: 10,859 more votes for Justice Prosser, who won strong support from Republicans, and 3,456 more for Ms. Kloppenburg, an assistant state attorney general. According to The A.P., Ms. Nickolaus was granted immunity in 2002 in a criminal investigation into illegal acts by members of the Republican Caucus in the State Assembly, where she had worked as a data analyst and computer specialist.” (The New York Times)

It seems that the Republicans cannot win elections honestly, so they are going to blatantly, shamelessly, fraudulently STEAL them. The question is: how many will see this for what it is – and will there be outrage?!

If not, this does not bode well for our already broken election process.

Maybe WE need election monitors!!

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Unless you have been living under a sizable rock, you know that a fundamentalist pastor in Florida, Terry Jones – who had threatened to burn a Koran some months ago – finally did the deed. And although his action was largely (and thankfully) ignored by the media, he did videotape it and send it around. One of those who picked up on it was none other than our ally and friend, Hamid Karzai, who used it to foment anger and violence in Afghanistan. (I will not get into this extensive sidebar subject here.) As a result, rampaging Muslims stormed the U.N. compound, killing eight U.N. workers and injuring many others. Further protests led to more deaths.

A debate now rages about whether Pastor Jones is complicit in those deaths. Needless to say, there is a great deal of passion – religious and political – in this debate. On the one hand, free speech advocates claim that Jones was within his constitutional right of free speech to burn the book – no matter how stupid or potentially inciteful that act might be – and cannot be held accountable for the murderous actions of people thousands of miles away. On the other hand, many argue that Jones did the equivalent of shouting fire in a theater – that he went beyond the legal bounds of free speech, entering into the area of inciteful speech.

If we step back and look at this in a dispassionate manner – and from a strictly legal perspective – there seems little question that Jones could legitmately be found complicit in those deaths. Here’s why.

It is true that, in the U.S., Pastor Jones had every right to burn the Koran. In this regard, it is immaterial whether a president, Joint Chiefs Chair, or anyone else “warned” him that doing so might put U.S. forces outside the U.S. in danger.

That said, as a direct result of Pastor Jones’ completely legal act, U.S. citizens and others are killed by angry mobs of Muslims in another country.

Thus, although it is true that Pastor Jones is not directly responsible for those deaths – i.e., he did not carry them out – his action was a “contributing factor” to them, and thus he is guilty of complicity in those deaths.

There are two relevant aspects of law that apply here.

If I go out with a bullhorn during a protest and tell people to throw rocks through windows, and they do so, I can be arrested for “inciting to riot,” even though I did not personally throw any rocks.

As well, if you want to kill someone, and I give you the money to buy a gun, and you buy a gun and kill them, I am considered complicit in that murder, and can be tried as an accomplice.

Keep in mind that a legal case is built on evidence (direct and circumstantial) and motive. In this case, Pastor Jones’ intent and evidence are inextricably intertwined: he made it clear that his motive was to “prove a point” – i.e., that Muslims would react violently to the burning of a Koran (though he probably thought U.S. Muslims might also) – and the evidence is that he did not simply burn a Koran in his backyard, but deliberately taped it and made sure that the tape would be seen by those he was (deliberately) taunting.

Given all this, I believe there is a very strong case to be made for his complicity in the deaths, despite their occurring thousands of miles away by people over whose choices (i.e., to rampage and kill) he had no direct control.