Arizona Immigration Law: A GOP Game to Swipe the November Election

By GottaLaff

In my previous post, I made the point that the recent outbursts of racism were all about voter intimidation.

Greg Palast agrees, but he says it way better than I did:

What moved GOP Governor Jan Brewer to sign the Soviet-style show-me-your-papers law is the exploding number of legal Hispanics, US citizens all, who are daring to vote -- and daring to vote Democratic by more than two-to-one. Unless this demographic locomotive is halted, Arizona Republicans know their party will soon be electoral toast. Or, if you like, tortillas.

This is not unlike the Republican attitude toward unions.

Hey Greg Palast, tell us something we do not know about Jan Brewer:

Brewer, then Secretary of State, had organized a racially loaded purge of the voter rolls that would have made Katherine Harris blush. Beginning after the 2004 election, under Brewer's command, no less than 100,000 voters, overwhelming Hispanics, were blocked from registering to vote. In 2005, the first year of the Great Brown-Out, one in three Phoenix residents found their registration applications rejected. [...]

Did she turn over even one name to the feds for prosecution?

No, not one.

After over 100 complaints, and a 2 year investigation, the prosecutor, David Iglesias, couldn't find one voter fraud case. Of course, Karl Rove saw to it that he was fired.

But what’s wrong with requiring folks to prove they’re American if the want to vote and live in America? The answer: because the vast majority of perfectly legal voters and residents who lack ID sufficient for Ms. Brewer and Mr. Pearce are citizens of color, citizens of poverty.

According to a study by prof. Matt Barreto, of Washington State University, minority citizens are half as likely as whites to have the government ID. The numbers are dreadfully worse when income is factored in.

Leave it to Palast.

Please go read his entire piece here.

Drudge: Obama encouraging voters to exercise their rights is racist

By GottaLaff

Noted scumbag Matt Drudge adds his fuel to the racist fire. I can see it now: Coming in November 2010 to polls near you: voter intimidation, courtesy of right wing nut jobs everywhere. It's becoming clear that this is what it's coming to.

It's coming down to voter suppression.

Via Greg Sargent:

Drudge’s lead headline right now:

OBAMA PLAYS RACE CARD: RALLIES BLACKS, LATINOS FOR ‘10 UPSET

[...] Here’s the sum total of what Obama said about blacks and Latinos:

“In 2010, it will be up to each of you to make sure that the young people, African Americans, Latinos and women who powered our victory in 2008 stand together once again.”

Paddy posted the video here. It runs two minutes 41 seconds. That sentence was 8 seconds long.

So remember, according to Drudge, if you are in the least bit active in getting the vote out, but address your comments to anybody who isn't lily white, you are a racist.

Police Called To NY-23 Polling Sites Due to Hoffman TeaBagger Harassment

By GottaLaff

How pathetic that this isn't at all surprising:

[P]olice had been called to at least two polling sites in St. Lawrence County due to overzealous electioneering (O'Neill called it "voter intimidation") by Doug Hoffman supporters.

"We've gotten reports that people are standing there, covered with Hoffman stickers and yelling anti-choice stuff at voters," said O'Neill, a St. Lawrence native who has been running the party's GOTV effort for Bill Owens in NY-23. [...]

I called over to the St. Lawrence Board of Elections and got GOP Elections Commissioner Debbie Pahler on the line. She confirmed that the police indeed had been called, but she downplayed the incident, saying it's "a routine procedure here in the county."

"We had electioneering within the 100-foot polling marker," Phaler said. "It's my understanding that they were asked to leave and wouldn't leave."

This from the zealots who are adamantly against "government" intrusion. I guess harassment is acceptable, and voter intimidation is dandy, but only if you're a Tea Tantrumer.

Power to the people! Unless they want to vote.

H/t: Markos Moulitsas

Worker at Kansas company claims he was fired for supporting Obama

Yeah, because Democrats are so known for their lack of "humor" when it comes to voter intimidation. I'm sure we'll be hearing about this on Fox & Friends asap.

Elliot Snell believes he was fired from KK Office Solutions in Kansas City, Kan., because he voted for Barack Obama.

As evidence, in a lawsuit filed this month in Wyandotte County District Court, is an e-mail sent by the company's president and CEO, Matt Brandt.

A week before the November 2008 election, Brandt sent a "Notice to All Employees" outlining "new policies" if Obama was elected. It concluded with: "If for any reason you are not happy with the new policies, you may want to rethink your vote on November 4th."

Snell, who said he was a vocal Obama supporter, was fired two weeks after the election.

William Tretbar, Brandt's attorney, said the e-mail was a forwarded joke and "obviously a poor decision and one he already regrets."

Tretbar said the company didn't know whom Snell voted for and "given the outrageous statements in the e-mail, any reasonable reader would conclude it was an attempt at humor."

Lawrence Williamson, the attorney for Snell, said it didn't look that way to Snell.

"The company president signed his name to it," Williamson said. "You just shouldn't see something like that from a company president."

VIDEO: Obama campaign senior counsel on voting dirty tricks

By GottaLaff

They're on it:



H/t: /Ellen

VIDEO: Greg Palast's "Protecting the Vote"

By GottaLaff


Steal Back Your Vote! from Greg Palast on Vimeo.

Greg Palast is the go-to guy when it comes to information about voter suppression, disenfranchisement, election fraud, voter fraud, you name it.

The video is about 15 minutes. As The Uptake puts it:

One of the best stories we've seen about how the election has and can be manipulated. It comes from Greg Palast of the BBC.

VIDEO-- Colin Powell: Country First (No complacence allowed)

By GottaLaff

If you're thinking to yourself that there's little more than two weeks before election day and Obama has a solid lead in the polls, don't be so sure. [...]

McCain's final strategy relies on two pillars. The first is aggressively playing to voters' fears of electing a black president. Make no mistake: not just his campaign in a general sense, but McCain himself and his top handful of advisers, are banking on the residual racism in a changing America to get them over the finish line. The second is an aggressive use of innuendo to convince casual voters that Obama is in league with Islamic terrorists bent on killing Americans. [...]

Stripped down to its components McCain's message to voters is this: "Don't forget. He's definitely black. And he may be a terrorist." That's the message. The nuts and bolts is a concerted effort to keep Democrats from voting -- through intimidation, by striking new voters from the rolls, which is going to happen to lots of them, clogging polling stations to create delays that keep late day (predominantly) Obama voters from voting altogether. Smears in the air and voter suppression on the ground. [...]

[T]he really corrupt and vicious part of McCain's effort only comes now because it's only in the last couple weeks that you can pull stuff that the press won't get to call you on before election day -- after which it doesn't matter.

Watch the video. Pay attention to Josh Marshall's words. Do your part. Hope for the best.

H/t: Spaznuski for the video.

Gramm-pa McCain’s S.W. Ohio campaign chair tries to suppress votes

By GottaLaff

Gramm-pa McCain's thugs are increasing their voter suppression efforts in Ohio:

Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters, who serves as John McCain’s Southwest Ohio campaign chairman, has requested personal information for some individuals who registered and immediately cast a ballot during a weeklong period that ended earlier this month.

Deters issued a subpoena on Friday for complete registration records for roughly 40 percent of the 671 voters who registered and cast a ballot between Sept. 30, when early voting began, and Oct. 6, the deadline for voter registration.

The subpoena, obtained by The Associated Press, is part of a grand jury investigation initiated by Deters in the county. [...]

The fraud allegations that led to the Hamilton County grand jury investigation did not come from local election officials, said county elections board Deputy Director John Williams.

[Democratic Secretary of State Jennifer] Brunner has ordered counties to immediately investigate any claims of fraud, and report the findings to county prosecutors and to her office.

“This office is unaware of any specific allegations of illegal voting out of that county,” said Brunner spokesman Jeff Ortega. [...]

Ohio State University law professor Dan Tokaji, an elections expert, said Deters’ action is troubling.

“This is extremely worrisome when a partisan official engages in conduct that could reasonably be interpreted as voter intimidation and voter suppression,” Tokaji said. “This appears to be part of a concerted strategy on the part of some elements of the Republican Party to exaggerate voting fraud in an effort to suppress participation.”

Sorry Anonymous, I'm still trying to get a grip, but it's not working.

Bonus post-ette, something Ambinder titles "A Coda?", snerk!

For Immediate Release

Saturday, October 18, 2008

Sunday, October 19, 2008

ROSWELL, NEW MEXICO

Event: Governor Sarah Palin Participates in Road to Victory Rally

I couldn't resist a little IWRC* Palin coda of my own for some comic relief from the first part of my post.

*"In What Respect, Charlie?"

Steal Back Your Vote: The (non-partisan) Comic Book

By GottaLaff

Greg Palast (on behalf of himself, Rev. Jesse Jackson, and Robert Kennedy, Jr.) is on the Randi Rhodes show right now, talking about this, and about how 3 million new voters (they're targeting newly registered voters, and guess who they are) have been already purged in one state (missed which one, could have been California), and so, so many more in other states.

He also strongly urges NOT to vote by mail. I've said this before, I bring my absentee ballot to the polling place and hand it to them. It's paper, and it's traceable.

Oh, and a provisional ballot, aka voting conditionally, is not "voting for real". Do not accept a provisional ballot. He says it's better to call a lawyer (an Election Protection Attorney) instead.

Steal Back Your Vote lays out the Six Ways They’re Stealing the Election – and the Seven Ways you can Steal It Back. It’s a 24-page downloadable graphic guide - an investigative comic book. It’s non-partisan, it’s humorous, it’s harrowing and it’s helpful.

And we need your name on it. The non-partisan guide’s initial sponsors include Voto Latino, Operation Rainbow/PUSH, Progressive Magazine and VoteRescue; individual sponsors include troubadour Willie Nelson and Code Pink’s Annie Nelson. [...]

You know Bobby’s work. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. blew the lid off the Theft of 2004 in his masterful Rolling Stone article. Many of you know me for my BBC television report that exposed Katherine Harris' "fake felon purge" of Black citizens in 2000.

This is too important to ignore. Make a donation if you can.

Losing Your Right to Vote 101

By GottaLaff

Class, settle down! This is important. Bucky, David G., cell phones off, please. Eve? Will you please stop whispering to Chris and Margali? Ady, Molix, leave Paddy's coffee alone! Jon, how many times have I told you not to crack jokes in the middle of a lecture on voter suppression? Ellen and TheKingFiphtin, rolling your eyes at me will not win Obama this election! Pay attention, kiddies. Our country's at stake. Class is in session:

In Pennsylvania, two Pittsburgh-area elections officials are suing to permit a dress code at polling places, after a Pennsylvania Department of State memo advised counties last month that voters' attire doesn't matter.

In Virginia, where backers of both Barack Obama and John McCain are pushing for registration of college students in this battleground state, many students were wrongly advised by officials that registering could adversely affect their parents' taxes.

In Michigan, campaign officials are suing to prevent lists of foreclosed homes being used to prevent voters from voting at their local precinct.

And in Ohio, a legal skirmish over same-day registration and voting has not prevented hundreds from casting absentee ballots a month before Election Day, even though they do not plan on bring out of state come November 4.

Across the country, voter registration leading up to a highly-anticipated presidential election has been up, but so are concerns that bureaucracy, misreadings of election law, or just plain stupid mistakes may cost many Americans their right to exercise their vote.

Okay, class, it's time for a pop quiz on the following methods to disenfranchise voters. This is an open-book test. You may go here to find the details you need:

• No Shirt, No Shoes, No Vote?
• Sorry, You've Been De-Registered
• Lost Your House, Lost Your Vote?
• Old Enough To Vote, But Not Here?

If you still need help finding answers, you have my permission to go to CanIVote.org. or VotersUnite.org.

Class dismissed.

Kirsten, Mainy, Fernando! Once and for all.... Put the margaritas away!

Vote-scam fliers in black Philly neighborhoods threaten arrests

By GottaLaff

(click on image to enlarge)

Thom Hartmann just mentioned this, so I looked it up. Here we go, yet again:

With just weeks to go before the presidential election, voter intimidation has reared its ugly head.

An anonymous flier circulating in African-American neighborhoods in North and West Philadelphia states that voters who are facing outstanding arrest warrants or who have unpaid traffic tickets may be arrested at the polls on Election Day.

Deputy Mayor for Public Safety Everett Gillison, who learned of the flier last week, said that the message is completely false. [...]

He plans to put up statements on the city and police Web sites to let citizens know that the handouts are false. He said that he also will record a public-service announcement for broadcast.

Gillison referred the matter to the U.S. Attorney's Office and the district attorney.

"We are not going to stand for any intimidation of voters," Gillison said. "Not in this city."

He said that he did not know who was behind the fliers, which appear to be targeted at supporters of Democratic candidate Barack Obama. [...]

"It seems to be clearly aimed at lower-income voters that might have had some problems in the past and clearly aimed at discouraging people from voting," said Zack Stalberg, who heads the political-watchdog group Committee of Seventy.

Stalberg said that he feared that there could be more fliers to come.

"I'm a little surprised it appeared this far before Election Day," he said. "It's another indication of how dirty this election might become."

Local NAACP President Jerry Mondesire:

"We probably will do something closer to the election," he said. "People tend not to pay attention until two weeks out."

Mondesire said that he didn't know who was circulating the fliers, but added, "I do know one thing for sure: They're not Democrats."

So, yes, here we go again. Over and over and over and over and over again.