The cause du jour over at puduland these days is Stephen Heller, a regular guy now getting financially wiped out and looking at multiple criminal charges for blowing the whistle on Diebold and hinky voting machines in California.

Imagine yourself in this guy’s shoes — because it’s a situation anyone could have bumped into: office temp, regular guy trying to make ends meet, middle-class fellow with a wife and a dog, etc., stumbles across legal documents indicating that Diebold looks way fishy re California elections. Like their-own-attorneys-thought-it-was-criminal fishy. (Incidentally, since Democrats can’t be elected nationally without California, this has fairly obvious national implications.)

So the guy blows the whistle, getting the papers into the hands of the California secretary of state, and pretty soon newspapers get involved, etc. Bottom line: Stephen Heller, little guy who didn’t ask to run across this stuff, decides to try and protect the most fundamental aspect of our democracy. Good on him, right?

You’d think. But now he’s facing three felony charges.

Read up and do your own thinking: check out the LA Times, LA Weekly, Tribune Media Services, and the Oakland Tribune. Also, with a little more attitude, Kos and the Huffington Post.

Bottom line: I’m no expert, but it seems pretty clear. Dude deserves a medal, not jail and financial chaos.

The Stephen Heller Legal Defense Fund has more info and updates. As things progress, I’ll be yapping about it over at puduland as things progress; for the moment, I’ve posted my own email to the DA, politely explaining my own thoughts about why the charges should be dropped, along with the address if you want to send your own.