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October 08, 2007

Paul Jacob Tries to Rewrite History

Ted Piccolo today highlights Paul Jacob’s new “I’m Innocent!” Web site, www.freepauljacob.com. And the site is a real piece of work. Jacob, who apparently isn’t fond of “hand-cuffs and leg-irons,” not to mention the potential “ten years in prison” he faces for, as he explains it, “exercising [his] right to petition the government,” is rewriting history in a desperate attempt to free himself. He accuses “HalfAssPete” of Daily Kos, who wrote about the story last week, of using a “leering tone with which he actually relishes the idea of people being hauled away in handcuffs because they dare to disagree with his ideas” and says his prosecution is “a 100-percent politically-motivated attempt to threaten and intimidate me, and any other citizen wishing to petition their government.”

“I did nothing wrong, unless trying to help Oklahoma citizens place a measure on the ballot for a vote of the people has now become a crime,” Jacob remarked. “After celebrating so many victories in the long, tough struggle for civil rights, it is shameful that Oklahoma authorities seem determined to harass those of us they deem ‘outside agitators.’”

Jacob continues on the site working up the right-wing grassroots and drawing them in as personal participants in his persecution as a martyr for them all:

We the People will not be intimidated. We will keep fighting to turn out-of-control government into government that is under citizen control. We will defeat this vicious attempt to criminalize honest political activity.

This is standard operating procedure for right-wing crooks. I have come to believe the entire reason they spend so much energy telling their followers that the media is “left-wing” and biased, and creating knee-jerk hatred of the left and of government (or rather, of the left-wing government), is so that if and when they get caught breaking the law they can count on their followers automatically assuming they are being unfairly persecuted by left-wing government crooks and unfairly libeled by left-wing media. In other words, their followers will disregard all other sources of information and believe what the right-winger and his or her allies tell them.

Jacob’s “I’m Innocent!” Web site provides his rationalization for breaking the law, which he believes will eventually be struck down as unconstitutional. Yes, you read that right. He disagrees with the law and that is why he broke it. Here is how he tells the story:

As the TABOR petition drive got underway, an aggressive campaign was launched to block and harass petition gatherers. Jeannie Berg, an expert in campaigns of harassment against petition drives, was brought in from Oregon to manage the multitude of blockers—many of them brought in from outside the state, and reportedly paid $100 a day.

These “blockers” used thuggish tactics, which have been documented. For example, gangs of them would stalk a petitioner, interrupting, yelling and creating a scene whenever a voter was being asked to sign the petition. There was an organized campaign of lying to store managers, alleging rude treatment from petitioners and asking that they be removed.

In response to all the harassment, many Oklahoma petitioners left the state to petition in other states. Given the difficult environment, not enough new circulators were being recruited and retained in Oklahoma to enable the petition to reach the ballot. Under such circumstances—and under the legislature’s (not the constitution’s) draconian 90-day petition window—I suggested to the petition company that the drive be scuttled.

I was then informed that under Oklahoma’s statutory residency requirement, people could move to Oklahoma and immediately declare residency, and thus be qualified to circulate the petition. The petition company felt enough people could be recruited to move to Oklahoma to gather enough signatures to bring the question to the ballot.

Emails between Paul Jacob and Susan Johnson tell a different story. They show that the signature drive started on Sept. 15, 2005. By November 11, Johnson indicates she had already been working with three “pros” -- that is, out-of-state petitioners brought in to work the campaign, and had seven “pros” coming in. The concern she had for keeping petitioners working on the Oklahoma drives was not union “thug” harassment, but rather the high price being paid for signatures on a drive going on in California, which she feared would lure her petitioners away. The reason she states for wanting to use “pros” and bring in more “pros” is that they would cost the campaign “less money in the long run.”

Not until November 29, after using "pros" for several weeks, does Johnson mention that blockers were out interfering with signature gathering over the Thanksgiving weekend, and she indicates that she thought “there may be a mobilized union effort.” She then goes on to talk about efforts to keep the “pros” happy (financially) and how to recruit more of them. By December 8, Johnson writes, “We have commitments from 62 pro’s to be in the state by Friday. I am continuing to encourage others to come. Reports are that California ends tomorrow. Many are already here and working.”

I am not discounting the possibility that blockers used outrageous tactics to prevent signature collection. If they broke the law, they ought to be prosecuted. If no laws existed to protect petitioners from such harassment, then perhaps the Oklahoma Legislature ought to get on that because people do have a right to petition their government and ought not to have to endure threats and intimidation in the process.

However, the law is the law. Jacob and Johnson knew the law. Jacob and Johnson knowingly and willfully broke the law and then denied it until irrefutable evidence was uncovered in the form of their emails to each other. And, as “HalfAssPete” points out, fraud and lawbreaking are routine for Paul Jacob and his friends. This should be unacceptable even to those who support the issues Jacob works to place on their ballots.

Posted by Becky at October 8, 2007 11:51 AM