Cincinnati Sr. High School Accused of Bribing Students Voting with Ice Cream? Left or Right, Wrong is Wrong.

UPDATE: I always like to check out the most local sources I can find when fact checking a news story.  While any news outlet can get details wrong, they tend overall to be more reliable than partisan sources (you know - like the version of these events that is being promoted by Fox-Not-the-News).

So here are answers to at least a few of my earlier questions.  There were only 'several' students involved, riding on one bus of the three buses/ church vans transporting other members of the community to a polling location, per television station WCPO channel 9's news coverage of the event.  Students who are old enough at this Cincinnati High School are encouraged every year to register to vote at local polling places - no one was actually voting that I can confirm - as part of their Government Course.  The official school statement by their lawyer is:

"The lawsuit was filed less than seven hours ago and we are still investigating the allegations. CPS has long encouraged its students as part of its Government Course curricula to register to vote and to vote. CPS does not endorse candidates or political parties. Some years when the funds can be found CPS has arranged the transportation of students to the Board of Elections for early voting by finding sponsors for bus tokens for student transportation. This year, our bus token sponsor could not find any money in the budget. A group volunteered church vans to drive some students and we accepted the offer. No CPS personnel engaged in the promotion of candidates or any political party.

This version of events is distinctly different - and I would add more plausible - than the Fox News, Hugh Hewitt broadcasts, or the Shot-in-the-dark.info blog post where I first learned of this alleged incident.  While the government course encourages students to register to vote.  It is not clear if this activity was actually PART of the class (which seems doubtful for only several students) or if it was something those students chose to do on their own time such as lunch or study hall.  Given that there were three buses full of other community members being transported, it would also seem more plausible by way of explanation that the several students (so far, appears to be three of them) simply were included as a courtesy in being provided ice cream as part of some sort of outing for the other participants of the church van trip.  It does not appear to be some sort of bribe to vote Democratic after all.

Left or Right, Wrong is Still Wrong - Fact Checking Foreign Money

UPDATED 10/12/2010

A lot of fuss on the left is being made over the Chamber of Commerce and foreign money. Wrong is wrong.  There is the kind of misleading representation of facts here that I objected to when right-winger politicos like Bachmann and Pawlenty (and of course, Fox Not-News) tried to represent Democrats as felons committing voter fraud stealing elections.

Let me be clear here.  I don't like the big money being dumped into elections.  Individuals have limits on donations, and most ordinary people who make up the majority of the voting-eligible in this country do not have the nearly unlimited funds that the wealthy few possess.   After the Citizens United decision, Corporations don't have those limitations that apply to individuals, and they have much more money to make any donations to influence the outcome of elections than individuals. The result is that the wealthy, and corporations, unions, and special interest groups have a louder voice than individuals.  That louder voice is a voice heard far more often than the ordinary individual,in the form of repeated advert messaging.

So, while I am standing up here for the Chamber of Commerce getting an unfair deal from the Democrat's campaign attention, I still don't like their spending, or any spending like it, from either side.  There is enough influence peddled by big money -- ALL big money -- through lobbying and other means.  Worse, far too often that influence is used to spread misinformation and disinformation to voters to achieve that influence.  We need transparency, we need full disclosure, we need limits to big money - ALL big money.

Left or Right, Wrong is Wrong

UPDATE:  I wrote the following post before the news broke of an alleged attempt by James O'Keefe to engage in an attempted event involving a CNN reporter, a boat, and a lot of sex paraphenalia. O'Keefe denies having a role in this.  If O'Keefe is telling the truth - for a change - then this is a very wrong attempt by someone to treat O'Keefe in the same way he has treated his victims.  For more details, read about it here.  I find O'Keefe's claims that this really was an escapade generated by CNN, or the notion that the attractive CNN reporter had attempted to seduce weasel-faced, proven liar O'Keefe highly implausible.

I had intended the next factcheck.org item that I would review here on Penigma would be about the Republican 'Pledge' to/ with / against America (hint - it doesn't holdup well to fact checking), but instead, I think this merits comment first.