It seems African-Americans may be on the Purge list at the Bush Civil Rights Division too. See our report here.

This appeared yesterday in the Philadelphia Inquirer …

The U.S. Attorney’s Office flooded Camden phone lines the day of the May 8 councilmanic race with warnings that taking money for votes was a federal crime.

In a crucial election in which the turnout was under 4,000 and in which allegations of money being paid for votes were rife on both sides, the U.S. Attorney put out the following unusual alert:

“Voters alert!” said the taped message. “Please note that it is a federal crime to be paid for a vote. I repeat, it is a crime. If you or your neighbor have been offered payment, please report it immediately to the U.S. Attorney’s Office at 856-757-5026.”

This strikes me as extremely odd — both for the US Attorney’s office’s interest in this one election and their manner of contacting the public. Was there any investigative predicate? Any specific reasons to think there was an organized vote fraud conspiracy in this particular election?

Anyone know anything more on this? More context? Did you get one of the calls?

Why are the investigators dropping the ball on the Lam part of the US Attorneys investigation? We look at that question in today’s episode of TPMtv …

Late update: For a summary of today’s episode, click here.

That was quick. That Philadelphia Inquirer article about the vote fraud robocalls from the US Attorneys office in Camden? Bogus. The US Attorneys office tells us they didn’t have anything to do with it. We’ll have more shortly. May be the tip of a rather substantial iceberg.

Late Update: Here’s more on the story, including the denial from the New Jersey US Attorney’s office.

Just in: Harry Reid to allow a Senate vote on Russ Feingold measure to end Iraq War.

McNulty out at DOJ. More soon …

Late Update: According to the AP, McNulty announced his decision at a “closed-door meeting of US Attorneys in San Antonio.”

Only for Alberto Update: AG Alberto Gonzales releases statement.

Even Later Update: If I were Gonzales and the White House, I’d see McNulty’s departure as a very unwelcome development. Behind the scenes, supporters of McNulty and Gonzales have been increasingly at odds as the scandal has progressed — with McNulty’s supporters saying he wasn’t kept in the loop and that that the Gonzales clique is made of crooks and the Gonzales supporters (read: Sampson, Goodling, Elston, et al.) saying McNulty let the cat out of the bag in his testimony earlier in the year. (So, McNulty: You guys are crooks; Gonzales: Yeah, whatever, but no one would know if you’d kept your mouth shut.) And it seems clear that McNulty’s been fairly generous with what he’s told the Senate Judiciary Committee, perhaps building on his rapport with Sen. Schumer (D-NY). A lot of this is tea leaf reading, trying to figure out who’s spilling and who’s not. But it’s hard to figure where McNulty gets less forthcoming once he’s no longer part of the administration.

The Wall Street Journal‘s China-based reporters write a powerful letter decrying Rupert Murdoch’s Journal takeover bid.

New poll finds 63% oppose military action against Iran.

That and lots of other news in our Election Central Happy Hour Roundup.

Nice! Fox News segment reporting on illegal voting features B-roll of only black voters.

McClatchy: “U.S. Embassy employees in Iraq are growing increasingly angry over what they say are inadequate security precautions in the heavily fortified Green Zone, where recent mortar and rocket attacks have claimed the lives of six people, including two U.S. citizens.”