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It seems like the wrong time to be showboating. The democrats need all the money they can get from wall street.
Don't be so pessimistic, Remember a journey of a 1000 miles begins with a single step.
Just a drop of water in the ocean...and showboating at that. Nothing will really be done about the crimes the banksters commited.
I think Thom's analogy between prohibition and Bain Capital is backward. Bain is a problem because its activities were made legal, whereas moonshining arose because liquor was made illegal.
Wow, that's probably the least anyone has ever had to do to get a guest to hang up on them.
It's Article VI of the Constitution that says "no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States."
The Establishment Clause is the part of the 1st Amendment that says "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion".
Why isn't this story being reported in the main stream media?
If you believe it is the tip of the iceberg, then you will support Republican led efforts to implement barriers to voting in 30 states because they are justified by this new evidence of widespread fraud. I am not a conspiracy theorist but this seems like a happy coincidence.
Just wondering when We The People are going to hold the gop and thier financiers accountable for Treason, Domestic Terrorism and Inciting War (...to name a few).
Of course this is the just the tip of the iceberg......that's the way it always is.....only a small percentage of things first appear and the full ugliness of it will show later....when the damage is already done. Mittens has on his official web site a link on training to intimidating democratic voters at the polls===> Mittens Willard Rmoney is now officially training people to intimidate Democrats from voting on his official campaign site...here=> http://www.mittromney.com/forms/poll-challenger-training-sessions?utm_medium=email&utm_source=et&utm_content=link_body_training&utm_campaign=1667300_281852_Samantha+Dravis
It's illegal, but no one is being arrested. Was it the Ukrane where the population filled the streets over election fraud and stayed there for days? A better question might be....will the American people ever defend their right to vote/right to a fair election? Or if we don't, do we deserve what we get?
Now we will see who the district attorney is loyal to. Hopefully (wishfull thinking) it is a prosecuter that wants to make a name for himself/herself.... at least who ever gets convicted will not vote again!!
Lets see if the corporate media gets on it??
As usual, YES more cases will be discovered, but NO, it's not the tip of a 90% submerged iceberg. I believe there are more well- or adequately run Elections Systems than corrupted ones. I may be wrong; and if so, we have an even greater struggle to re-claim our country back.
As a certified Election Observer I've observed our paper-ballot, voter-verified, vote-by-mail Election System some 5 or 6-years. It is, we agree, a very well designed procedure-based system, run by supervisors and experienced staff, all apparently dedicated to the sanctity of every Voter, every Ballot and every Vote, per our state's "inclusive, voter-intent" laws and rules. Still improving, we are proud of how it works.
The Registration, Return and Ballot Processing, and Tally systems are the result of close cooperation between an experienced and enlightened Election Staff, with support from several active Community Citizens Advisory Groups. The systems are highly structured with sufficient log, tracking and reports, that voters, ballots and votes are processed to our best reasonable ability, with results reconcilable and verifiable within relatively tight limits.
Good Elections ARE possible through careful design and execution. I certainly am aware of the corruption that plagues elections too many places in the US as well as around the world. Having watched our systems very closely I speculate: How could I hack the system; how much effect could I have, and could it be done -- how could it be done, without leaving tracks? In a well designed complex redundant secure system, it would be extremely tough.
Either a poorly designed system, one weak by design, or a sloppy over-stressed, poorly managed system, could produce either inaccurate or corrupt results. However, it would require either incompetence, or some degree of conspiracy.
As I watch our dysfunctional US political system of recent decades, where repeated-lies have become truth and reality for half our population, where faith-based ends justify means, where overwhelming money corrupts everything -- I think of those historic folks who really fought and in some places are fighting; and yes, dying for the rights to self determination. It's a hundreds of years old war between the rulers and the serfs. And we in the US, pacified by our affluence, and pandering media, dismiss corruption in our own political systems with a shrug.
Election Fraud requires conscious corrupt acts. Whether done for some false-greater-good, or some cynical superiority; futzing with the rolls, returns or results is wrong, and we know it. The stories are in the news, and the professionals within the parties do no more than ignore it, or report it for their own tactical advantage. There are no penalties that matter; most people don't or can't care.
Voter Disenfranchisement and Tally-Corruption enrage me -- it's not necessary. In the old war for self-determination, Election Fraud should be the equivalent of Treason, a capital offense. That might cause people to think about it differently.
Republicans make it very easy to tell exactly what crimes they are committing. (Seemingly indicating that they are not exactly the brightest bulbs in humanity's chandelier...) All you have to do is listen to them, and whenever they say, "The liberals are committing voter fraud," that's what the republicans are doing- and republicans are being caught doing voter fraud in several states. Whenever republicans say, "Liberals hate America and want to destroy it," you know that that the republicans hate America and want to destroy it. (During one of Obama's speeches, the only time Boehner every smiled, was when Obama said the word, "Fascism." Boehner smiled because even hearing the word fascism makes him feel happy; he wants to destroy America and turn it into a fascist state that is totally controlled by the military and by huge corporations. Again, not exactly the brightest bulb in the chandelier...
In fact, this line of reasoning even works in the area of sin: When Newt Gingrich says that God has forgiven him for screwing around with lots of women on his however many wives, you know that God has forgiven Bill Clinton for screwing around on his one wife.
And when Paul Ryan says that Ayn Rand is to be worshipped, well, that is unmistakable republican-speak for, "Ayn Rand, as an unrepentant adulteress, was and is a cultural, moral, or ethical bellwether only for people who swallow camels whole but strain at gnats; and as someone who herself was on social security, Ayn Rand is a horrible role model for republicans! Well, no wait a minute: as a proven hypocrite on financial matters, actually Ayn Rand is the perfect role model for our modern hyper-hypocritical republican party, with all its claims of someone being Christian while practicing hatred as a lifestyle, being Christian while engaging in worldwide grand larceny, being Christian while murdering innocent women and children in Iraq and Afghanistan, "hating" big government while slavishly depending on big government to use war to destabilize the Middle East and helping many of Hitler's top officials who have reincarnated as top officials in the Isreali government, and generally embracing only the most viciously nasty parts of the Old Testament while totally ignoring the entire New Testament, which actually makes me wonder whether republican "Christians" are actually Jews, and not good ones, either, because the real Jews I have met believe in and practice peace, tolerance, acceptance of differences, good will, and charity.
Thom --answering your question : the DoJ, the FEC?
There are so many criminalities involved. How could they not?
Short answer - no one will be prosecuted - they never are (unless they are Dems).
The answer to voter suppression is for all targeted people (blacks, hispanics, students, seniors) to register (first time or change to) as republicans, and then while at the polls, wear Romney buttons.
Unfortunately, I doubt that anyone will be charged as long at the current chicken-bleep Atty. General is in charge. One of Obama's real mistakes.
What if this Republican voter fraud scandal is really a cynical ploy to prove that widespread voter fraud really does exist (since there's been no substantive proof of that to date) and therefore justifies the Republican-led voter suppression efforts at play in at least 30 states? Maybe there is more genius in the Republican party than I give them credit for.
Reince Priebus is the man I blame for this fisasco. He is the head of the Republican Party, the buck stops with him. He should be investigated by the Justice Department. This is not a accident. If you cannot win with your ideas, then you steal the election. You steal elections by miscounting ballots, losing ballots, keeping Democrats from voting. You keep Democrats from voting by destroying voter registration forms, by only setting up a few polling stations in heavy Democratic precincts, by intimidating voters with bullies at the polls, by challenging Democrats right to vote. Republicans are engaged in everything except trying to get their ideas accepted by the public. Their ideas don't work so they cannot convince people to accept their ideas.
I could post a dozen sites that are informative, factual, researched/resourced, actual documents, actual participants who sued and won Election Fraud cases. These are very reputable people and sites comprised of Highly-intellectual, Well-educated, Professionals (Ph.D's Math, Sciences, etc). Websites eg: handcountedpaperballots.org; blackboxvoting.org need to be bumped. An informative public is the best defense against the "New Right" Ace-up-the-sleeve - ELECTION FRAUD.
http://handcountedpaperballots.org/documents/links.html Hacking the Machines
http://handcountedpaperballots.org/documents/links.html For Hand-Counting
Blackboxvoting.org will tell you what machines are used in your state. Many "New Right" states and swing-states have replaced Many machines this year!!
Romney owns Preferred Shares in Diebold (public record) and his old buddies from Bain, now own Scytl Voting Machines. It's just not that the machines can "flip" the votes to any "New Right" governor....it's that there is virtually Nothing we can do about it. Even when they proved in court that the machines were corrupt and fines imposed (&a CEO resigned) - we got BUSH. They Stole our Votes!
They haven't done enough with Redistricting (Snake-like); remapping, gerrymandering, restrictions, destroying & attempting to destroy ballots....NO!! They're NOT done just yet....Colorado just passed HB1036 which curtails our ability to verify the count which is a Right under the Constitution.
The polls mean Nothing...Getting the Vote out is Crucial ...BUT...It is Not the Finish Line!!!
We really need to mobilize a LOT of people...Volunteer at the polling stations - Help people understand their rights. True the Vote will be out in droves; but, their plan is intimidation. We MUST put pressure on the AG (202/353-1555) to BAN the machines. Germany, Iceland, Ireland just banned them - Why can't we!! The evidence of the importance to Protect our Vote is clear, unquestionable, and Proven in Courts of Law. That we sucumb to a new form of gov't (Theocracy/Oligarchy) because we were blind-sighted, bait & switched, or whatever strategy they use, is our fault...not there's...it's all out there and we can't give up until the Finish Line!
If you find the time to research the sites above....Please "share", bump, email
I can't say that I am surprised that the rethugs are trying to get away with voter/voting fraud. I look for that to happen here in Ohio, again, where it's a common occurence. After the 2005 (stolen) elections, Ohio was visited by a non-partisan group that looked at the election process. If I recall correctly, there were somewhere around 500 to 600 "issues" of voting irregularities. (Not to mention that before the vote the CEO of Diebold, voting machine co., was caught on camera bragging that Bush would win.) But nothing was ever done about these irregularities, some reforms were made, but no one went to jail.
The Ohio Secretary of State, Jon Husted (R), sent out early voting ballots. My husband thinks that we should be wary of rethugs encouraging voting and we should worry about those votes being counted. People have to register as voting absentee--aren't those often the votes that are counted later, after the offical voting day, or lost, conveniently?
I don't believe it's possible for your 'repy' to be any farther off topic.
On race and whether it has a genetic basis: http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/crux/2012/05/02/human-races-may-have-biological-meaning-but-races-mean-nothing-about-humanity/
You don't have to deny that race exists to deny that it should be used as an excuse to treat people differently.
The point is really that definitions of race are about superficialities of phenotype, and therefore cannot be counted on to indicate anything else.
Another interesting article, especially for the term "hypodescent": http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/gnxp/2012/02/the-social-and-biological-construction-of-race/
Thom may have mentioned this today when I wasn't listening, but I overheard a right-wing conspiracy-believing co-worker claiming there's some sort of phone giveaway scam by the Obama campaign. I don't know where this BS came from but a caller into Randi Rhodes referred to it, so it must be everywhere already.
Also worth remembering:
With one brief exception, the federal government has been in debt every year since 1776. In January 1835, for the first and only time in U.S. history, the public debt was retired, and a budget surplus was maintained for the next two years in order to accumulate what Treasury Secretary Levi Woodbury called “a fund to meet future deficits.” In 1837 the economy collapsed into a deep depression that drove the budget into deficit, and the federal government has been in debt ever since. Since 1776 there have been exactly seven periods of substantial budget surpluses and significant reduction of the debt. From 1817 to 1821 the national debt fell by 29 percent; from 1823 to 1836 it was eliminated (Jackson’s efforts); from 1852 to 1857 it fell by 59 percent, from 1867 to 1873 by 27 percent, from 1880 to 1893 by more than 50 percent, and from 1920 to 1930 by about a third. Of course, the last time we ran a budget surplus was during the Clinton years. I do not know any household that has been able to run budget deficits for approximately 190 out of the past 230-odd years, and to accumulate debt virtually nonstop since 1837.
3. The United States has also experienced six periods of depression. The depressions began in 1819, 1837, 1857, 1873, 1893, and 1929. (Do you see any pattern? Take a look at the dates listed above.) With the exception of the Clinton surpluses, every significant reduction of the outstanding debt has been followed by a depression, and every depression has been preceded by significant debt reduction. The Clinton surplus was followed by the Bush recession, a speculative euphoria, and then the collapse in which we now find ourselves. The jury is still out on whether we might manage to work this up to yet another great depression. While we cannot rule out coincidences, seven surpluses followed by six and a half depressions (with some possibility for making it the perfect seven) should raise some eyebrows. And, by the way, our less serious downturns have almost always been preceded by reductions of federal budget deficits. I don’t know of any case of a national depression caused by a household budget surplus.
Read more at http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2010/02/wray-the-federal-budget-is-not-like-a-household-budget-%E2%80%93-here%E2%80%99s-why.html#pogx8X7Bpqqawhks.99