Sunday, April 08, 2012

It's All Over Now, Rickie Blue

It's time to wind up the masquerade
Just make
your mind up - the piper must be paid
The party's over
It's all over, my friend

`
-Betty Comden and Adolph Green

There's no d
enying it. This is still a white man's world. What evidence do I have to make this claim? Lots! Here are just two examples for your consideration on this fine Easter morning:

1. George Zimmerman has yet to be charged for the murder of a seventeen-year-old black kid named Trayvon Martin one month and eleven days ago.

2. Uber-knucklehead Rick Santorumn has managed to make it as far as he has in American politics.


Let us face some serious facts here, campers: if Mr. Rick had been born with dark skin he'd today be organizing birthday parties for preschoolers at a Chuck E. Cheese somewhere in central Pennsylvania - Spring Grove perhaps - a nondescript little town where I attended prep school nearly forty years ago. The very fact that we're even talking about this guy tells me more than I really want to know about the pathetic state of American politics and politicians these days. Rick is merely a symptom of a disease that is consuming America's soul. That's not to suggest that the 2012 Clown-Car-Race-to-the-Bottom hasn't been an amusing thing to watch. Perish the thought please.
`
But I suppose it's a waste of time on my part to be devoting as much as a single paragraph to Rick Santorum today. As the song says, "It's time to wind up the masquerade". Rick needs to understand that there is no way in hell he's ever going to be elected president of the United States. Not in this lifetime or the next. This is a fact that by now should be apparent to just about everybody - everybody except Rick Santorum that is. What the man needs desperately is an intervention of some kind. Some close and caring friends should sit him down and gently explain a few stark realities to the clueless twit. When your daily comments become too moronic - for the extreme right wing even - it's time to quietly pack up the tents and go home.

I'm not implying that I am elated by the utter and complete meltdown of the Santorum campaign. Not at all. I soooo wanted him to get the GOP nomination at their convention this summer I could almost taste it. What a laugh riot it would have been watching him stumbling around the country in debate with the prez! Barack Obama wouldn't have had to campaign at all. He could have just spent the entire autumn much as William McKinley did in 1896, sitting on his front porch, reading the newspapers, sipping coffee, and issuing hourly "statements" to the press.
`
Now that Mitt Romney is the presumptive nominee, the president is going to have a bit more of a fight to contend with - but not much of one. The "party of Abraham Lincoln" has sunk so far down into the ideological cesspool, I believe they have become virtually unelectable nationally. The women of America will see to that. They're fed up with the Republicans' weird obsession with their bodies and they're jumping ship by the thousands each day. Can you blame them?
`
This is an election the Dems will be able to win with one hand tied behind their backs. To make matters worse for the GOP, the "base" won't be coming out on Election Day to the extent of making much of a difference unless Mitt chooses a half-witted extremist (ala Sarah Palin) as his running mate. That choice will scare the heck out of the rest of the country, The grand old party is over.

Watching our hero, Rick, bravely trying to reach the summit of Mount Stupid has indeed been a delightful thing to behold. The final nail-in-the-coffin for the Santorum for President campaign, I'm sure, was when he made contraception the issue of the week. This struck me as a tad peculiar. "Hmm" I said out loud to myself, "I can't even remember the the last time birth control was a political issue in this country!" And there was a jolly good reason for that, too. The last time birth control was a political issue - I was learning how to walk! For the historical record: I'll be fifty-four on August 16.

OH THEY WISH WE WERE IN DIXIE! OY VEY! OY VEY!

When Lyndon Johnson signed into law the Civil Rights Act of 1964, he told his aids, Jack Valenti and Bill Moyers, "We've lost the south for a generation." He was correct. But while the Democrats might have "lost the south for a generation" - and then some - I think it's fair to say that the Republicans have lost the African American vote forever.

Early in the week, in a nasty little Freudian slip that didn't get one-tenth of the press coverage it deserved, my man Rick referred to the president as a "government nigg...." He stopped himself cold. Was this merely an innocent slip-of-the-tongue as some have implied? Or is this an example of the way Santorum talks in private? I don't know the answer to either of these questions, but I'm willing (just barely willing mind you) to give poor old Rick the benefit of the doubt.

What I do know is this: The Republican party is anathema to the hopes and aspirations of our brothers and sisters of color. Just look at what they're doing in Republican-controlled states all across the land! They're passing those perfectly hideous "Voter ID laws" that are purposefully designed to deny city-dwelling blacks, along with young people and the elderly (all of whom tend to vote for the Democratic party) the right to cast their precious ballots. They want us to believe that they are trying to purge from our electoral system the "epidemic of voter fraud". How noble of them. Here's the problem: There is no epidemic of voter fraud! There never has been been an epidemic of voter fraud! Never in our history!

The only "fraud" that has been been perpetrated is not "voter fraud", but election fraud - and it is not being committed by the American people - it's being committed by GOP politicians and right wing judges (Remember Florida in 2000?) What they are attempting here is nothing short of a coup d'etat. Please make my job easier, folks. Keep voting Republican - I'm beggin' ya!
Yeah, this is still a white man's world alright. The GOP is making sure of that. And some people wonder why I loathe that disgusting party. Go figure.

I was very tempted to write about Newt Gingrich this morning but why bother. By this stage in the game, to pick on someone as pathetic as the Newtster would be the equivalent of throwing a bucket of ice-cold water on a blind, mentally challenged paraplegic. It's just not an acceptable thing to do under any circumstances - very bad taste any way you slice it or dice it. And besides, it's Easter.
`
So let's all drink a toast tonight to the campaign of Rick Santorum. At least he gave it the old college try....or the elementary school try....Nursery School try???....BUT AT LEAST HE TRIED, DAMMIT! That's the main thing! He even managed to win a few primaries. I won't mention the names of the states he was able to take. I'll just say that he won in all of the places you would expect an intellectually-challenged person to do really well in - not unlike the one state that Gingrich was able to win. I won't mention that state by name either. It would be a cruel thing to publicly shame so many regions of the country. Like I said, it's Easter.
`
Tom Degan
Goshen, NY

SUGGESTED LISTENING:

No one can say it better than Canadian Leonard Cohen. Democracy is coming to the United States. Get the hell out of the way.

AFTERTHOUGHT:
`
"It makes no sense to make this attack on women. If you don't feel this is an attack, you need to go home and talk to your wife and daughters." 
`
-Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski, Alaska
`
Hats off to the one elected representative of that miserable party with the sense - and the courage - to tell it like it is.

BREAKING NEWS (4/9/12):

Mike Wallace has died at the age of ninety-three.

BREAKING NEWS (4/11/12):

Rick Santorum has just announced that he is ending his campaign for the presidency. Smart move. It might have something to do with the fact that his daughter is seriously ill. Politics aside. Let's all say a prayer for the little girl and wish her well.

45 Comments:

At 8:48 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

No benefit of the doubt from me.

White people who have never mingled with Blacks most certainly do use the "N" word and with gusto! They freaking love that word. It makes them feel important, like they own people.

Just because a person is White and holds a degree or two, does not automatically afford them "class". Rick is a Catholic reactionary racist through and through. There is no doubt in my mind. I'd quote what Charles P. Pierce calls him, but it is after all Easter Sunday.

 
At 9:20 AM, Blogger Jefferson's Guardian said...

Good morning Tom. Your reference to the Republican push to initiate voter ID laws certainly caught my attention. As you mentioned, there isn't, and hasn't been, an epidemic of voter fraud. There certainly has been, however, much fraud by election officials over the years, not to mention voter intimidation and suppression by one political party in particular.

Curiously, when I've asked many conservatives how voter ID will curtail these activities, the only answer I receive is the unmistakable sound of silence.

 
At 11:01 AM, Blogger Dave Dubya said...

Ricky (Sarah Palin in pants) Santorum's ignorant supporters will be forced to vote for a Mormon aristocrat as the candidate of God's Own Party. Why would God force the racist bigots to choose betweeen a Morman and a Muslim Marxist? Is He sending some kind of message?

 
At 11:10 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

yawn

 
At 11:12 AM, Blogger NAK and The Residents of The Khottage Now With KhattleDog! said...

Ah yes - Sanitarium as I refer to him -

As for Spring Grove, I've lived in York since 1972 so I know it well - and recall the days of St Francis Prep -

Nothing like the 'eau de PHG' to start the morning, eh?

 
At 1:47 PM, Blogger Tom Degan said...

Hello, Khyra (or her mom)

Do you remember Father Julio Rivera? He arrived at St. Francis at the same time I did in 1973. Twenty-five years later I went back there for a bittersweet visit (It was a very unhappy period in my life). On the day I arrived, school was out and he was the only one in the place. In the strangest coincident, he was packing up to leave after being there for a quarter-of-a-century,

He was (and still is I hope) a beautiful man. I was only there for a few months - the saddest period of my life - but Father Julio gave me strength. I never would have gotten through without him. I still love him.

Sincerely,

Tom Degan

 
At 4:16 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

yawn

 
At 6:29 PM, Anonymous Liberals Are Sexy said...

Goodbye Rickie! Actually, I wish the creepy guy would hang around for a bit more. He's been so good for the GOP. Come on now all you conservatives, time to gather 'round Mitt. Show him some love. Can't you just feel the excitement?

 
At 7:55 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

well now, well now, they just keep diggin their grave deeper and deeper...shall we oblige and jut push the lot of them in? its enough already with all their "elephants in the room" to keep our minds off what's really important...housing, jobs, the huge division between classes in this country. under the all inclusive topics of "voter fraud" "national security" and the "enemy within" oooooh...very scary stuff. so scared that they dare to change our constitutional rights under the guise of these vague, thin veils. Open your eyes and see people, but more than see - do something - be heard - be known. they can't arrest all of us, shut down every web site, we are the people and we own the joint! it's our inheritence and they're mucking it up. they even close down the government when they can't agree on anything. shame, shame, shame on all of them. also, next time you want to hear silence from a right wing conservative, ask him what side they would have fought on in the civil war...its a pretty long silence. as far as i'm concerned until we can stop saying that a black, white, woman, man, asian was the FIRST to do something and just say that a human beig was the first to do something, we have not progressed at all. PEACE OUT.

 
At 8:51 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

yawn

 
At 9:20 PM, Anonymous Liberals Are Sexy said...

Anonymous said...
yawn

11:10 AM

Anonymous said...
yawn

4:16 PM

Anonymous said...
yawn

4:16 PM

...Take a nap, baby. You've been awake almost 3 1/2 years now.

 
At 9:33 PM, Blogger Tom Degan said...

Liberals Are Sexy....

I'm glad you noticed how these cowardly, anonymous assholes are able to post their screed.

Cowards all....

YAWN.

 
At 8:14 AM, Anonymous Liberals Are Sexy said...

Tom, yes, cowards. I agree. Wait 'till you hear the noise when it fully sinks in that Mitt is IT. Such inspiration for the GOP voters! They'll all rally for Etch-A-Sketch, I'm sure.

 
At 12:11 PM, Blogger charles moore said...

Tom, well said and I too will hoist a glass to the end of Rickies campaign. Amazing that he got this far given his extreme views.

As for Newt, I could almost... almost, but not quite, feel sorry for him, but then he doesn't need my sympathy. After all, he is the smartest one in the campaign. He said so himself.

 
At 1:39 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

As usual I really can't argue the points you have made today and in the past with regards to the Republican train wreck but I will throw this thought out there. My take on why the three blind men hang onto whats left of the Republican nomination fiasco is very simply this. If they collectively can keep peeling delegates away from Romney whereby he does not reach the magic number of 1144 delegates needed to take the nomination at the convention and the three same charactors prevent Romney from being nominated at convention during the first round of votes ALL of the delegates are then released from their commitments and can vote for anyone. If Romney does not get the nod during the first round of votes this will be some circus then. As oddball of a process this has been thus far you may not have seen anything just yet. Just my thoughts

Tom V.

 
At 7:31 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

A new undercover video by conservative filmmaker James O’Keefe shows a man being offered Attorney General Eric Holder’s District of Columbia ballot. The poll worker caught on film tells the cameraman that he doesn’t need to see identification.


lol JG, you need to pull your head out of your pucka hole!

 
At 8:31 PM, Blogger Modusoperandi said...

Anonymous, think this through. Does the latest O'Keefe video prove actual voter fraud? Yes, while the poll worker wasn't doing the job properly, if that type of voter fraud was common, there'd be widespread reports of people going to the polls and finding that their names had already been crossed off. And those people could still vote on a provisional ballot. And, if the real person voted before the false one (and, again, the poll worker failed do his/her job) the provisional ballot, being provisional, is double-checked, and would fail.
There's a reason why, when looked at, the voting fraud issue is empty. It's because there's nothing there (0.0009%, 0.00004%, etc), and the proposed solutions, and I can't stress the obvious enough, disenfranchise more voters than the problem they pretend to solve. Which, to continue the obvious and the pointing out of, is kind of the point.

 
At 12:06 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Modusoperand, think this though. What if there were dead or chronically ill people who were on the list?

This has never happened in ChiTown?

 
At 12:07 PM, Blogger Dave Dubya said...

Yes, Mr. phone tapping "Pimp Boy" O'Keefe is up to his deceptive stunts again.

Breitbaft.com admits:

Obviously this wasn’t an actual case of voter fraud—O’Keefe and Project Veritas didn’t want to break the law. (Except when Pimp boy was arrested for attempting to tap a senators phone line)And obviously the situation is manufactured—it’s the only way to show that voter fraud is easy and plausible, since we presumably don’t know when voter fraud takes place.

Which is why they need to stage such a stunt for a non-issue, like ACORN's prostitution ring.

As the DOJ points out, “It’s no coincidence that these so-called examples of rampant voter fraud consistently turn out to be manufactured ones.”

 
At 12:32 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

"Or is this an example of the way Santorum talks in private?"

It's an example of the way you talk on your blog...

 
At 1:24 PM, Blogger Tom Degan said...

Harley A:

The only times I ever used the "N" word was for literary effect or in quotations. I don't use it to describe individuals so casually - and you know it. If you have some examples to give I would like to hear them.

Sincerely,

Tom Degan

 
At 4:06 PM, Anonymous Liberals Are Sexy said...

Well, Ricky just recently dropped out. Time for all right wingers to jump on the Mitt "Etch-A-Sketch" Extravaganza! They must be so thrilled.

 
At 4:43 PM, Blogger Modusoperandi said...

Anonymous, see my link in my previous comment. Then see my comment. I didn't say that it doesn't happen. I said that it's a tiny fraction (most of which are accidental, like the poll worker crossed off "Roy James" from the list when "Roy James Jr" votes) and that the proposed (and passed) solutions disenfranchise more legitimate voters far in disproportion to the fraud they're purported to fight.
But you don't care. Because those knocked off the rolls tend to be college students and elderly African-Americans. And they tend not to vote for the party that's so desperate to ensure that "those people" don't vote that they're willing to deliberately cage the franchised while wrapping themselves in the flag and calling themselves patriots.
Now, a rational person would be asking themselves why they're for the voting equivalent of jailing a hundred innocent men in order to ensure that one guilty one (actually 1,111 and 1 in the case of the 0.0009% referenced earlier) does not go free, even in the face of both the statistical evidence and the actual effects of the various "anti-fraud" bills, not to mention the inspirers and architects behind them who sometimes don't even hide the real goal*.
Are you a rational person?


* Like Paul "I don't want everybody to vote. Elections are not won by a majority of the people. They never have been from the beginning of our country and they are not now. As a matter of fact, our leverage in the elections quite candidly goes up as the voting populace goes down." Weyrich or, for a recent example, "I don't want the poor to vote" (or, summed up here, as a Poe).

 
At 4:58 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Tell us Modusoperandi, how they do it in Canada?

 
At 5:14 PM, Blogger Modusoperandi said...

Anonymous, we vote by beaver. And, yes, that's a euphemism.
Also, our differences are counterbalanced by the fact that the US has a, um, history around the franchise that we, for the most part, don't. For example, we don't have a sizeable elderly (mostly black, in this case) population who've never needed a driver's license, who grew up under segregation and who have never had a birth certificate (not missing, but never had).
It's easy to say "Well, I've got a driver's license", but much harder to confront the fact that for people who don't drive all it is is a poll tax, and "Well, I've got a birth certificate", but much harder to confront the fact that a significant minority of the population was born at home, under segregation, in an era when in the South reliable records were for white people, and hunting down birth records for someone whose birth wasn't recorded is difficult to impossible (and, again, the cost of such a search is another poll tax).

 
At 6:47 PM, Anonymous Peggy said...

Tom D

Your Rant on Rick Santorum may have been the straw that broke the camel's back and why he dropped out!

You rule the blogosphere Tom!

 
At 7:37 PM, Blogger Tom Degan said...

If only it were true, Peggy. If only it were true. I hope it is.

Thank you for the comment!

Sincerely,

Tom

 
At 9:36 AM, Anonymous boltok said...

Do you know what blunderbuss is? The sound of the name may make you think of the nonsense that comes from the mouth or the keyboard of the liberally insane. No, it is a blackpowder gun that shot a ball of shrapnel like a shotgun from the Civil War Period.

Rick/Gettysburg/Trayvon made me think about this black discrimination thing. Very simply, I think that any black today that thinks the white man is entirely selfish in regard to needs of the black man should visit Gettysburg. Walking around that place makes you feel strange like death. Everywhere is a graveyard. Those bodies, likely all white, spilled their blood often by musket or blunderbuss, to answer the slavery question in this country. Ironically, it was Republican blood that poured to end Democratic slavery.

 
At 10:24 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Tom, I realize you excuse your own choice use of the pejorative term. I don't think your "literary" use makes it okay. Calling Clarence Thomas a house "n" vs. (hypothetically) calling Obama a gov't "n" is no different. One was written - one was (allegedly, almost) spoken. Both, in context, are meant to portray an ideology or mentality. One is no more acceptable or unacceptable than the other.

MO - Canada also does not have multiples of millions of illegal immigrants streaming across it's borders. To believe that ANY part of our political process is not susceptible to fraud and misuse is naive. That's why we have REGULATION - remember that? That thing that progressives are screaming for more of in every arena of life save the voting process... Make it a gov't paid for ID card - no poll tax involved. And, if the argument is still made that the act of having to leave your house and make it to a gov't office somewhere to actually DO something responsible like getting the voter ID card is considered overly onerous, then we have become truly an idiocracy. The whole "poll tax" argument is a red herring proferred by the "progressives" who thrive on the uneducated vote - go figure. The problem is not the money - it is the fact that the "progressives" know that much of their "rock the vote" base cannot or will not figure out how to obtain a voter ID card and simply won't bother. THAT is the fear - not money.

 
At 11:45 AM, Blogger Modusoperandi said...

Harley A. "MO - Canada also does not have multiples of millions of illegal immigrants streaming across it's borders. To believe that ANY part of our political process is not susceptible to fraud and misuse is naive."
I assume you can back that up with statistics (the link between illegals and voting fraud).

"Make it a gov't paid for ID card - no poll tax involved."
Hilariously, the party most likely to push for national ID (assuming, hilariously, that they actually want to fight voter fraud) is also the party that can't, because didn't you know that National ID is the Mark of the Beast? It's right there in Revelations.

"And, if the argument is still made that the act of having to leave your house and make it to a gov't office somewhere to actually DO something responsible like getting the voter ID card is considered overly onerous, then we have become truly an idiocracy."
Balderpucky! Wisconsin brought in its new laws while closing DMVs (or severely limiting their hours) in poor areas [*wink wink*] , not instructing employees that didn't know how what to do and telling those that did know not to to.
Again, an illustration that fighting voter fraud is not the goal.
Also note the relative silence on absentee ballots.
Think about it.

"The whole 'poll tax' argument is a red herring proferred by the 'progressives' who thrive on the uneducated vote - go figure."
Oh, White Privilege! Woe is us!

"The problem is not the money - it is the fact that the 'progressives' know that much of their 'rock the vote' base cannot or will not figure out how to obtain a voter ID card and simply won't bother."
Exactly. I mean if college kids can't even get their college ID to be approved as voter ID, then something something something? And if their college ID, which was good enough, suddenly isn't because the law changed after their ID was issued or suddenly isn't because "didn't we mention that the ID has to have an expiry date to be valid?", then they should've gone to one that knew the future and pre-issued appropriate ID. That's just common sense.
And if neither of those work out, if they aren't even willing to spend the fifty bucks to update their out-of-state driver's license to an in-state one just for the year, and then pay again in their home state to change it back, well, if that's too much time, expense and general bother simply to exercise a right that they already have then they really should vote Republican instead.
Then none of this would have come up at all.

"THAT is the fear - not money."
Dun dun, dun!

 
At 12:25 PM, Blogger Dave Dubya said...

Boltok must have studied history in the Wal-Mart checkout lane. Or maybe listening to Glenn Beck and Rush.

I know what a blunderbuss is. It is a short barreled, close range, smoothbore firearm primarily used a century before the Civil War.

Rifles and artillery did the damage at Gettysburg.

Just as historically false is the characterization of “Republican blood that poured to end Democratic slavery”.

While neither party of today resembles their 19th century namesake, one fact must be realized.

Wealthy aristocratic Southerners and the un-educated, racist Southern whites were pro slavery. The modern incarnations of these folks, and their Northern and Western fellow ideologues, are the base of today’s Guardians Of Plutocracy.

Now that slavery is being replaced by corporatocracy, we have a Republican Party dedicated to government of Big Money, by Big Money, and for Big Money. To borrow from Mr. Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address.

How would ol’ Abe like that?

Labor is prior to, and independent of, capital. Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if labor had not first existed. Labor is the superior of capital, and deserves much the higher consideration. - Abe Lincoln First Message to Congress December 3, 1861

This man would not be allowed in the Republican Party today.

 
At 12:55 PM, Blogger Dave Dubya said...

Boltok,
The inconvenient truth about Democrats is they are almost as corporatist as Republicans.

Perhaps if you could learn to question your authoritarian leaders... No. That would be impossible.

I see you cannot let go of your indoctrination. We all know accuracy doesn't count with you True Believers. Your wild and crazed points are about as scattershot, and effective at long range, as a blunderbuss.

Let's see some more of your fancy Glenn Beck University lernin. Stuff like, Obama is "a guy who has a deep-seated hatred for white people or the white culture...This guy is, I believe, a racist."

Come on, you can squawk like that. Yuu love it. Admit it.

 
At 1:35 PM, Anonymous boltok said...

DD
Don't put words in my mouth. I think Obama hates black people, but will use them to his electoral advantage. I think that is the opposite of the forementioned Beck comment. BTW, outside of Mr. Fast and Furious, how many other blacks are cabinet level?

 
At 2:54 PM, Blogger Dave Dubya said...

Boltok,
With I think Obama hates black people coming from you, I don't need to put words in your mouth.

Thank you. Maybe you should tell his wife. She should probably know the truth, don't you think?

 
At 3:05 PM, Anonymous boltok said...

DD
The truth's name is Larry Sinclair.

The Obama's won't even fly on the same 747 with each other. Every vacation, we, the poor tax payer, need to pay for each to fly separately.

Look at poor Barack. It looks like Mooshell is starving him.

 
At 4:08 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

General voter fraud…

http://www.electionintegritywatch.com/documents/2011-Report-Voter-Fraud-Convictions.pdf


One data point for MO on non-resident voter fraud. By the way, MO, "statistics" for non-citizen resident activity is, by definition, a bit hard to come by. But, if the presence of undocumented non-citizens in an unregulated and poorly controlled voting system (which we have) doesn’t raise a red flag, then you might want to retake Logic 101 or maybe Common Sense 201.


http://vimeo.com/39802119

 
At 4:37 PM, Blogger Dave Dubya said...

"Mooshell"? Is that what the racists are calling her these days?

 
At 4:49 PM, Blogger Just the Facts! said...

"Mooshell"? Is that what the racists are calling her these days?"

Ah yes, more political correctness from the Jail House Lawyer in charge of the Defecation Watch.

 
At 6:59 PM, Blogger Modusoperandi said...

Harley A. "General voter fraud… http://www.electionintegritywatch.com/documents/2011-Report-Voter-Fraud-Convictions.pdf"
And how would, say, would mandatory picture ID stop what looks like a out-of-date/non-cross checked voter rolls problem* that, if that paper is accurate, resulted in less than 3,000 suspected felons voting (out of over 3,000,000 registered voters)? How, for that matter, does (as some other states do or are trying to do) restricting registration drives or, remarkably, shortening or eliminating early voting periods stop it?

"Voter ID is nothing new—indeed, federal law requires every new voter who registers by mail to show ID before voting,8 and a variety of states have additional common-sense ID requirements.9 What is new, however, is the degree to which the voter ID bills that were proposed and passed this session were restrictive, excluding many common forms of photo and non-photo IDs, such as student IDs and Social Security cards, and offering no alternative mechanisms for eligible citizens without the selected IDs to cast ballots that will count. What also is new is the extent to which such restrictive bills passed this session." via Brennan


* ...and how does Minnesota's constitution-amending mandatory government issued ID effect students?

Look, I'm not against ID at the polls. What I am concerned about, and have pointed out, is that it's not about "ensuring the integrity of the vote", unless "integrity" means "keeping people who don't generally vote for us away from from the polls". They do this by accepting ID that their "Other" doesn't have (concealed carry handgun permits? Holy crap!) while not accepting ID they do have (student ID is today's word of the day. Tomorrow, too, because it's two words), by making voting periods inconvenient for "them" (but not for "us"), by cutting down on polling stations in "those" districts and undermanning them, and using old, slow tech in them, etc (but not "ours").
Any solution that disenfranchises legitimate voters is no solution at all. It's a partisan coup in a patriotic wrapper.

Dave Dubya "'Mooshell'? Is that what the racists are calling her these days?"
Because fat people calling other people fat helps fat people ignore their own fatness.
Also, for the Superbowl she ate too much food. And she told America's fat parents that America's fat kids are fat.

 
At 7:36 PM, Blogger Dave Dubya said...

MO,
Ah, then that would be the typical right winge projection behavior.

Like their "Liberals and Democrats are the racists who want to divide America".

Thanks.

 
At 10:00 AM, Anonymous James said...

The voter fraud issue is a diversionary tactic to call attention away from the massive election fraud committed by the Republicans in 2000 and 2004. This is proved by the firings of 9 U.S. Attorney Generals by the Bush admin when they refused to make a big deal out of a non existing issue.

There was no election fraud in 2008 at the presidential level because TPTB wanted Obama to win. But there was and is plenty of election fraud at the state level through redistricting.

The dominate company in making voting machines is ESS&E and they were proved to have a built in back door to insure remote access and control by a third party. And like Diebold this company is Conservative controlled to insure things go their way when they want a certain outcome.

 
At 12:17 PM, Blogger Just the Facts! said...

"The dominate company in making voting machines is ESS&E and they were proved to have a built in back door to insure remote access and control by a third party. And like Diebold this company is Conservative controlled to insure things go their way when they want a certain outcome."

Yup, that and those ray guns that can read your mind are all a part of the corpor/govt machine to rule the WORLD! Sure enough.

 
At 4:41 PM, Blogger Modusoperandi said...

Just the Facts, Election results can be tampered within the ES&S
system by exploiting any of a number of different vulnerabilities
that were discovered. The normal access provided
to individual precinct poll workers (and in some cases to
voters themselves) is sufficient to conduct attacks that alter
county-wide election results and that, in some cases,
cannot be detected or recovered from through audits or
recounts.
Perhaps that will sound more important when James O'Keefe pretends to be a pimp, hacks one, edits the code to change all the votes after his to "Obama", and covers the shennanigans in edited, overdubbed video.

 
At 7:36 AM, Blogger W.D. Shirley said...

It's interesting to me that when the Right claims a huge conspiracy to control the government and to disenfranchise the right thinking voters it's a keen observation of the facts on the ground, whereas when the Left claims a conspiracy to control the results of national elections by disenfranchising the left wing voters (blacks) and the poor it's the insane rantings of people so stupid and fat and dumb they can't even walk upright.

I also note that when a Lefty tells a Righty to come up with documented facts, video or other means of verifying an otherwise outrageous statement we get the sound of crickets chirping in the night. Yet at the same time the Right demands that Lefty posters come up with video, pictures, tapes or anything else that cannot be said to be produced by a left wing, radical news source or otherwise rejected by the Right. So newscast from CNN is not acceptable, video from a smart phone is not reasonable and personal experiences are mere anecdotes. Meanwhile quotes abound from long dead politicians and ancient Jews, none of whom every had any involvement in our current situation.

He said, she said, you said, we said....

I read all the rants and compare them with the Pagan mantra: if it harms none, do what you will. So if we force blacks to give up the vote and stay home OR register as Republican, or women with children must stop voting left of center or be forced to endure vaginal inspections by Right-wing voter registration police... who gets hurt? Pretty much the whole system suffers a sharp shift to the right with a narrowing of the voter lists and that is considered "progress" from the unprogressive but "regression" from those who read history books.

Obviously the Corporatist would prefer if offices were filled by Party choice by the rich white men at the top, because they have bought into "social Darwinism", a silly philosophy derived from a serious misunderstanding of Darwin's work. The Right believes that Darwin indicated that the weak die off and the strong live to reproduce. This is precisely why the Right desires to eliminate black voting rights: to prevent black influences on white politics, and American politics is all white! Actually what Darwin was saying is that SOME animals die before breeding but that physical characteristics can only be progressed through time by those who breed and by the mutations which occur naturally...or by careful experiments by geneticists. So they could accept Obama as a President because he is half-white, but General Powell was unacceptable because he was a loyal soldier willing to lie and kill for the Man, but he was 100% black. Condi Rice was acceptable as a mistress for George Bush, her tooth gap was exactly the width of his cock, but the first Lady now is unacceptable because she is all black. Thus everything she says is a lie and she has bad taste in clothing. To further muddy the waters...a reference to black bluesman Muddy Waters...they hired black Republicrats to say things bad about Obama and good things about Zimmerman. So when Obama is instructed to slice away the last of our Civil rights as defined under the Constitution and the left wing, the conservatives who wish to preserve democratic principles, decides this is bad, the right can wave the papers around in the air screaming that the left hates black men. Meanwhile the really bigoted jerks on the Right who cannot stand the sight of Obama have to deal with the grind of knowing he is as right wing as anybody can be and as eager to obey our President-For-Life, "Dick" Cheney as anyone afraid of a sawed off shotgun.

 
At 7:36 AM, Blogger W.D. Shirley said...

It is imperative that the so-called Left in America recognize how far down the road we have traveled towards a full scale fascist society. They must recognize the signs of a single party political system rigged to get the results desired by those in office and those who control those in office. Since control is almost always in the form of political promises and dirty tricks, Obama must be under control rather than being the controller for the simple fact that he has not been in politics long enough to get the dirt on his opponents. How could Barack, a neighborhood organizer from Chicago have anything on George Bush or "Dick" Cheney? It's highly unlikely, but did the right have the wherewithal to find and prime a young black "democrat" to place as a front man for those in charge? Hell yes. So what would stop them? A love of democracy? Hahahaha! A respect for the Constitution? Hahahahaha! Nothing could stop a determined group of psychotic, sociopathic millionaires from buying the system and hiring a negro to take the place of "Dick" Cheney for the required 8 years. It would fool everyone, even some more dense Republicrats like Santorum and Mitt Romney. They might actually think he is operating as a Democrat in Republican waters. They would be wrong.

So, Boltok, as one of the ignorant voices hired by the right to muddy the waters, what do you really think of the idea of a black man in the White House? Come on, nobody here will judge you even if you like using round-about terms and evasions before alluding to the fact that our President loves fried chicken and beating his feet on the Potomac mud. Or you can take the traditional route and claim you have many black friends when in fact...you have no friends.

Traditionally this is the point when you misread my words, misquote my words and accuse me of being a traitor or perhaps a liberal. Both would be wrong, of course, but pray continue. You fail to notice that I dislike bad logic, fascists and idiots. This is why you piss me off so often, I hate idiots who can type and use bandwidth to spread their nonsense. Other than that, as a human to a human I have no ill-will towards you, or your funny little friends. Just remember you cannot add a minor premise to a logical statement without support somewhere in the form of a "given". For instance, it is a given that a fascist society can exist within the confines of a republican government but not within a democracy.

 

Post a Comment

<< Home