Category Archives: War on Voting

The GOP’s ongoing disenfranchisement effort.

Michigan Dems, Don’t Play Dirty Politics

Posted on February 27, 2012 by | 30 Comments

Sometimes you’ve got to “get down in the mud with the fucking elephants.”

Sometimes you don’t.

The Michigan primary race is one of the latter.

On Feb. 15, 2012, DailyKos.com founder Markos Moulitsas Zúniga launched “Operation Hilarity,” a grassroots, web-based political campaign that encourages Democrats to vote for Rick Santorum in states such as Michigan, whose open primaries allow crossover voting.

The goal of Operation Hilarity: To “keep the GOP clown show going!” by boosting Santorum’s support, denying presumed nominee Mitt Romney key victories, and dragging out a nomination fight that has already done immeasurable harm to the Republican Party while simultaneously boosting President Obama’s re-election odds.

The result of Operation Hilarity: Democrats looking like Republicans for trying to rig an election.

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Posted in Magic Underpants, Nicholas Wilbur, Obama 2012: Yes We Will!, Political Shenanigans, The Frothman Cometh, War on Voting

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How We Win in 2012: Getting Started

Posted on February 10, 2012 by | 10 Comments

We’ve got a country to save. Here’s how we’re going to do it.

Listen up, Team Fuck Yeah.

Our mission is clear: remove Republicans from elected office everywhere we can across the United States. Re-elect President Obama. Hold control of the US Senate. Retake control of the House of Representatives. Win as many governorships, state legislature seats, county and city-level contests as possible.

Even though the GOP field appears to be imploding before our eyes, eventually there will be a name on the Republican ballot line for President, and it is by no means certain that Barack Obama will win that contest, even though conditions look favorable at the moment.  Continue reading →

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Posted in Allan, Election 2012? Oy vey!, Obama 2012: Yes We Will!, Our Pundits of Perpetual Disappointment, War on Voting

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NO VOTE FOR YOU: A PRIMER

Posted on February 4, 2012 by | 5 Comments


“What’s the big deal with showing your ID when you go to vote? Won’t it keep down voter fraud?”

This is the question most people ask when they first learn of the opposition to laws requiring that people who wish to vote present photographic identification at the polls.  The big deal is disenfranchisement.  A person who has the right to vote is precluded from doing so. How does this happen? Let me explain:

Elections are won by garnering the most votes.  This is true for almost every election except that of the Presidency, there is an entire process above the popular vote called the Electoral College which I won’t explain here.  That is for another chat beside another fire.  One way to garner the most votes is by simply getting more people to cast their vote in your favor, the other way to garner the most votes is to preclude citizens who are likely to vote for your opponent from exercising their right to vote at all.  This is why voter identification (Voter ID) laws are a vital tool in elections. Minority voters are less likely to possess the state issued photographic identification. In many cases those who were previously able to exercise their right to vote will no longer be able to vote. In the 2008 election, a whopping 96 percent of African-American voters cast their vote for Barack Obama.

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Posted in Election 2012? Oy vey!, emokidsloveme, Now That's Some Racist Bullsh*t, War on Voting

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B-I-N-G-Oh Hell No: Judge Rules That Alabama Republicans Acted With Racist Intent to Suppress Voter Turnout

Posted on October 22, 2011 by | 50 Comments

It’s always been about race and power for the GOP.

Attention Alabama Republican Party:  You have officially lost the “But we’re not racists!” contest.

A federal judge accused two state Republicans, called by federal prosecutors in a massive Alabama corruption case, of cooperating with the feds because of their “ulterior motives rooted in naked political ambition and pure racial bias.”

State Sen. Scott Beason and former Rep. Benjamin Lewis, U.S. District Judge Myron Thompson wrote, “lack credibility for two reasons.”

“First, their motive for cooperating with F.B.I. investigators was not to clean up corruption but to increase Republican political fortunes by reducing African-American voter turnout. Second, they lack credibility because the record establishes their purposeful, racist intent,” Thompson wrote.

Oh but ladies and gentlemen, it gets even more awesome. Continue reading →

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Posted in Balloon Juice Cross-Posts, Legal Shenanigans, Now That's Some Racist Bullsh*t, War on Voting, Zandar

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Occupy Wall Street & my bicameral mind.

Posted on October 14, 2011 by | 6 Comments

Many years ago, a friend of my brother’s sat in a tiny Washington DC living room and said “I’m perfectly capable of contradicting myself. I have a bicameral mind” — the reference, of course, being to our bicameral (two chambers) national legislature. The name of the friend is now lost in the sands of time, but the exquisite level of geeky self-mockery has stuck with me through the years. Because my mind is at least bicameral. It might be pentacameral, or octacameral.

It certainly is (decacameral?) with regards to the Occupy Wall Street phenomenon, which is why I haven’t written about it up to now. I am of far too many minds about the whole thing to come up with anything really coherent.

On the one hand, I certainly agree with the fury that has brought people out onto the streets across the nation — I, too, am furious (click here for just a few reasons why). I am a firm and involved supporter of grassroots activism, and of nonviolent civil disobedience. I believe that the issues involved go to the very heart of the American Idea and, indeed, simple human ethics. I am a person who is greatly moved by courage and passion, and the willingness to stand still in the face of injustice and simply say “Enough.”

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Posted in Emily L. Hauser, Occupy Wall Street, War on Voting

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Tennessee: 96-Year-Old Black Woman Denied Voter ID Card Because She Didn't Have Her Marriage License

Posted on October 5, 2011 by | 1 Comment

 The GOP is panicking.

This woman is absurdly cute. She must be stopped. Photo by John Rawlston.

The GOP’s war on voting is marching inexorably onward.  The GOP knows that they are outnumbered by Democrats, and that the way they win is to depress voter turnout.

And if they can’t depress voter turnout (by astroturfing, calling President Obama a Republican1, and pushing the narrative that both parties are the same2 — a notion that is provably false), then they’re going to outright suppress it with stringent voter ID laws that amount to nothing more than a 21st century poll tax.

As Zandar recently noted:

Restrictive voting laws in states across the country could affect up to five million voters from traditionally Democratic demographics in 2012, according to a new report by the Brennan Center. That’s a number larger than the margin of victory in two of the last three presidential elections.

The new restrictions, the study found, “fall most heavily on young, minority, and low-income voters, as well as on voters with disabilities. This wave of changes may sharply tilt the political terrain for the 2012 election.”

The following new development in Tennessee underscores Republican desperation as they continue to try to ensure that The Browns™, The Poors™, and The Whippersnappers™ are disenfranchised.

From Think Progress:

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Posted in Political Shenanigans, War on Voting

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Voter Suppression Depression?

Posted on October 3, 2011 by | Leave a comment

Time To Fight Back

 Republican voter suppression efforts are the major issue facing this country right now, and if this study is anywhere close to accurate the time to start pushing voter registration and education efforts is now.

Restrictive voting laws in states across the country could affect up to five million voters from traditionally Democratic demographics in 2012, according to a new report by the Brennan Center. That’s a number larger than the margin of victory in two of the last three presidential elections.

The new restrictions, the study found, “fall most heavily on young, minority, and low-income voters, as well as on voters with disabilities. This wave of changes may sharply tilt the political terrain for the 2012 election.”

The GOP takeover at the state level over the last several years has led directly to voter ID laws designed to disenfranchise millions of traditionally Democratic voters.  2010 proved that when turnout is low, Republicans run rampant.  In a presidential election year next year, that could very well prove to be fatal to the country.  If your cynical, jaded self recognizes only one difference between the GOP and the Democrats, it’s that the GOP wants to make voting as difficult and as exclusive as possible.  Where they have gained power, they turn to voter ID efforts to limit turnout in order to maintain power.  Even if you dispute the numbers in the study, the GOP intent is clear.

Here’s the real kicker:

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Posted in Election 2012? Oy vey!, War on Voting, Zandar

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Great Scott! Scott Walker Blames His Failure to Create Jobs in Wisconsin on the Unemployed

Posted on September 29, 2011 by | 2 Comments

What a Koch-knocker

Hey Wisconsin!  Scott Walker thinks you’re stupid.

Scott Walker wants you to forget that he slashed the budget, lied about his reasons for doing so (Spoiler alert! – it was never about the budget), and then stealthily passed a budget repair union-busting bill (despite Democrats had fled the state to forestall the passage of that bill), all in the name of union-busting.

Oh, and let’s not forget about that prank call in which Scott Walker thought he was talking to David Koch, and proceeded to demonstrate how throbbing a Koch-knocker he is.

Well, all of that happened about six months ago, and I reckon Scott Walker thinks that we’ve all forgotten about it.  We’ve moved on. No big whoop.

Not so fast, pal.

Sarah Jones at Politicusa has a must-read story about the effect that Walker’s Koch-infested union-busting budget bill has had on job creation. Needless to say, it’s not good news for Walker:

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Posted in Political Shenanigans, Teabilly and GOP Mendacity, War on Voting

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Meanwhile, Elections Loom This Tuesday in Wisconsin. Get to Work!

Posted on August 5, 2011 by | 10 Comments

You mean an election with major consequences for the future of American democracy occurs in four days?

Surely the media must be all over that story.

::crickets::

To get yourself up to speed, here’s a good high-level rundown of the Wisconsin recall election process at WaPo’s The Fix, to which I would normally refrain from linking — but fortunately this piece is written by Rachel Weiner.

There’s been shenanigans aplenty, from ignoring court orders, to  meddling with voter ID requirements, to GOPers running fake Democrats to force primaries, to allegations of multiple felonies for campaign collusion, but it all culminates in two successive Tuesdays of recall elections.

What can you do right now to make a difference?

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Posted in Allan, Miscellany, Political Shenanigans, War on Voting

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