Tire slashing story in NY-23 made to look political? Looks that way.

By GottaLaff

I posted everything you need to know and more about this story here. Consider this an epilogue:

Capt. Michael Branch of the Plattsburgh City Police Department said the incident wasn’t criminal mischief, but rather a tire-meets-bottle affair. “This was not a tire slashing—this was some guy who drove over a bottle and cut his tire,” Branch said.

The police captain added that he had personally driven past all of Plattsburgh’s polling places and found “no disorder, no crowds, nothing going on. Peace and quiet here in Plattsburgh.”

Peace and quiet, except in the mind of the conservative candidate. See my previous post.

H/t: raine1967

UPDATED -Definition of stupid: Brag about election-related vandalism on Twitter

By GottaLaff

This is getting ridiculous. ANOTHER UPDATE:

Anton Troianovski of the Wall Street Journal followed up with the Plattsburgh police on this, and was told that the volunteer actually damaged his tire on a broken bottle. I asked Hoffman campaign manager Dan Tripp about this–he said he had no comment because the campaign had not heard this yet.

Guess Hoffman owes ACORN an apology, huh? (see update below)

H/t: IanDavidB

YET ANOTHER UPDATE: Dear Ali, I am sorry.

But not for this: Hoffman blames ACORN:

“There are reports that they’re bringing in the troops and they’re bringing in ACORN,” said Hoffman. “I think the Democrats are doing anything they possibly can to steal this election away from the 23rd district.”

Then he backtracked by saying the police were still investigating. But not before he blamed the dreaded ACORN and evil Democrats for slashing his tires and stealing the election.

UPDATE: Now I'm hearing it's a Hoffman precinct worker whose tires were slashed (see Update #2) . If so, I owe Ali a retraction. He claims his use of "had" was misconstrued. Again, if so, then I will amend this post in his favor.

Additionally, the Twitterverse pretty much read it the way my source did, and the way I did. Communication is everything.

UPDATE 156917: Okay, he may not have been stupid enough to boast about vandalizing, but he can't be all that bright if he texts while driving doing 100, and tweets about that:

Original post:

We're waiting for that proof, Elmer. It will make an arrest so much easier:

(click on any image to enlarge)

Democracy in action! I wonder if Ali is pals with these people.

UPDATE- Here's a little extra info about our special Tweeter, the bio he chose to post on his profile page:

I wonder if his ambitions include his very own police record.

UPDATE #2:

H/t: raine1967

VIDEO: Republicans report Black Panther (aka Obama hirees) intimidation in Philly

By GottaLaff

Paddy and I were talking about this earlier. It's desperation time... again:


From YouTube:

Philadelphia (original feed - cleaned it up as much as possible - it is what it is).
Around noon EST.

Fox Philly reporting incident report by "republicans" @ polling station of voter intimidation by Black Panthers. Could not find any other news organization reporting this as of 2 hours after.

Will share with you a blog posting of this incident that predicting Blank Panthers might be out doing voter intimidation to get a BLACK man elected!

http://tinyurl.com/5o53s2
We told you months ago that in Chicago, Obama supporters told us that this was their plan for election day — to hire gang members, Black Panthers, Nation of Islam, you name it and use these men for voter turnout efforts in Philly, Gary (Indiana), Cleveland, Detroit, Miami, Pittsburgh, you name it. Anywhere with a large black population, where white and Hispanic voters (read: Hillary voters) could be intimdated and kept from the polls.

Glad the police are on top of this in Philly. Obama’s followers will try this in every major city, from what we are told. They are especially desperate in Philadelphia, because they need big numbers there to win the state, and the only way they will get that is through fraud and intimidation (aka, The Obama Way).

If you see Obama’s followers doing this in your city, call the police immediately, then start calling the local news. Follow that up with a call to the McCain/Palin voter hotline.

CNN adds:

A man wearing what appeared to be a black outfit with a beret and holding a nightstick was asked by police to leave a polling location in Philadelphia Tuesday, according to Philadelphia County Board of Elections Supervisor, Bill Rubin.

Rubin says the man left without incident. He says another man wearing similar attire had a poll watcher certificate and was allowed to remain at the polling site at 1221 Fairmont Avenue.[...]

Cathie Abookire, a spokewoman for the Philadelphia District Attorney's office, says the office is not investigating the matter, calling it a "non-incident." Abookire says, "We have had no complaints from any voters that they have been intimidated."

Black people are big, bad, and intimidating. One would never expect to see them in Philly. Obama must have paid them handsomely to throw the election.

UPDATE:

I'd been a bit skeptical of the reports that the Black Panthers were out intimidating voters on Obama's behalf, largely because the precinct is in the city's northern 14th Ward, which went (.pdf) overwhelmingly -- more than 95% -- for John Kerry in 2004. You don't typically intimidate your own voters.

But a reader sends over a link to clinch the deal: The Panther in question appears to be one King Shamir Shabazz -- and he's no Obama supporter.

"[Obama] is a puppet on a string. I don't support no black man running for white politics. I will not vote for who will be the next slavemaster," he told the Philadelphia Daily News a few days ago, one of the least crazy things he said amid some straightforwardly racist riffs.

The video is a little grainy, but it sure looks a lot like him, down to the position of the button on his beret. [...]

So what was he doing there with his nightstick? Trying to intimidate Obama voters? Just hanging around? There isn't actually any evidence that he tried to chase away any of the ward's (overwhelmingly black) voters.

Washington expects record turnout, needs poll workers

By GottaLaff

Brace yourselves for potential voter suppression:

Elections officials across Washington are scrambling to recruit enough poll workers for the November election, plastering banks and grocery stores with posters and advertising in newspapers to prepare for what could be a record turnout.

And who would comprise most of that record turnout? Democrats, who else?

The Virginia State Board of Elections reported last week that despite a major push to attract workers this summer, the state was still about 1,600 workers short of the number needed to handle the anticipated crush. The greatest shortages are in fast-growing places, including Loudoun County.

"If we don't get enough, that means longer lines, longer waits and then disgruntled voters," said Dianna Price, secretary of the Loudoun County Electoral Board.

Election fraud. Disenfranchisement. You know, elections as usual.

Statewide turnout could top 85 percent, Mickley said. In the 2004 election, it was 78 percent.

Dan Murphy [a spokesman for the District's Board of Elections and Ethics] said a recruiting drive for the Sept. 9 congressional and council primary as well as the buzz surrounding the presidential race should help.

It couldn't hoit.

"The higher profile the election, the more people want to be a part of it," Murphy said. "We're very optimistic that we're going to reach our goal for November."

You big tease. Was that a head fake? It''s all going to be okay after all? Re-e-eally?

Although the state has voted Republican in every presidential election since 1964, Virginia's growing and shifting electorate is now key to the Democratic strategy for winning the White House. Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) is likely to draw his strongest support from Northern Virginia, which helped tip the state to Democrat James Webb in the 2006 U.S. Senate election and Democrat Timothy M. Kaine in the 2005 gubernatorial election. Polls show Obama and his Republican opponent, Sen. John McCain (Ariz.), neck and neck in Virginia. If the race remains close as Nov. 4 approaches, turnout could soar. [...]

A shortage of trained poll workers in Maryland was partly blamed for widespread problems during the 2006 primary, when dozens of polling places opened late and some voters were turned away without casting their ballots. In 2002, results of a congressional primary were delayed for hours as Montgomery County poll workers struggled with new voting machines. In this year's presidential primary in the District, some poll workers declined to make touch-screen voting machines available because they were intimidated by the technology.

I do believe in poll workers, I do believe in poll workers, I do I do I do, I do believe in poll workers.