I suspect that the TeaPartyExpress group didn't bother to request permission to use that music and/or haven't paid the license fee to use the music in 33 performances.

Anyone know how to contact the agent or manager for Kender & Ebbs?

(The GOP and their political partners have a long track record of totally ignoring music rights and/or using popular songs at their gatherings without the artist's permission, and then having to issue written apologies)

I'd be very surprised if B&A was working on a fixed price contract.

Perhaps it's already been stated or disputed somewhere else, but it seems to me that it's very likely that B&A's compensation was based on "performance". The more letters their employees generated the more they got paid. And therefore B&A was simply passing on a piece of their own performance bonus to the "renegade" so that he/she also had some "skin in the game".

And if B&A was actually doing "quality control" then they're implying they were already aware of the potential for gaming the results and must have had prior instances in which similar "frauds" had been detected and prevented.

Why have we never heard about those letters?

In other words, can B&A provide any sort of evidence that their (so-called) quality control ever previously detected a bogus letter. And if so, did they notify the appropriate congressional recipient about the "QC" problem? If they don't have any such evidence then their attempt claim the slip-up was due to someone being on sick-leave is transparently bogus, because they wouldn't have detected the "fraud" even if they were perfectly healthy.

If the US Attorney indicts them then according to 2 USC 1606 they could end up paying some hefty penalties and/or doing up to 5 years in the slammer.

2 USC § 1606. Penalties

(a) Civil penalty

Whoever knowingly fails to—

... (2) comply with any other provision of this chapter;

shall, upon proof of such knowing violation by a preponderance of the evidence, be subject to a civil fine of not more than $200,000, depending on the extent and gravity of the violation.

(b) Criminal penalty

Whoever knowingly and corruptly fails to comply with any provision of this chapter shall be imprisoned for not more than 5 years or fined under title 18, or both.

5 USC 7371 mandates removal of federal law officers immediately after they've been convicted and before any appeals or reviews or sentencing delays.

Stevens should accept the same legal definition of "conviction" and the same consequences which he voted to apply to law officers.

§ 7371. Mandatory removal from employment of law enforcement officers convicted of felonies
(a) In this section, the term—
(1) “conviction notice date” means the date on which an agency that employs a law enforcement officer has notice that the officer has been convicted of a felony that is entered by a Federal or State court, regardless of whether that conviction is appealed or is subject to appeal; and
(2) “law enforcement officer” has the meaning given that term under section 8331 (20) or 8401 (17).
(b) Any law enforcement officer who is convicted of a felony shall be removed from employment as a law enforcement officer on the last day of the first applicable pay period following the conviction notice date.

Why don't they just count all 19,000 ballots by hand?

Surely not everyone in Gwinnet County is so thickheaded that they don't realize that counting 19,000 paper ballots by hand would take less effort (and be less error prone) than duplicating them.

There's got to be something else going on there, otherwise what they're doing makes no sense at all.

Somebody should probably call the lawyers or DOJ and figure out what's really going on down there.

well, Palin has been getting a $440 hairdo every single day during the month of September.

Read about her $13,200 makeup bill in my post

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/talk/blogs/anon2008/2008/10/puddnhead-palin-tells-supporte.php