NYT: GOP planning to disenfranchise millions in 06, 08

[Doctor_J]

Looks like Smirk could go into November with 98% disapproval and GOP will still pick up seats.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/30/opinion/30tue1.html?ex=1306641600&en=757f0f02f2bb6a8d&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

[MountainLaurel]

1. Wasn't this one of Mark Crispin Miller's predictions

in "Fooled Again"? That the shenanigans of 2000 and 2004 are just the beginning?

[Joanne98]

23. It's a Greg Palast prediction too.

[MountainLaurel]

24. I'm not surprised

Palast predicted the horrors of the Bush at its start. But too many Americans refused to hear him.

[katty]

59. Palast was one among many+Hightower, Ivins others from T X

[ugarte]

2. They just keep stealing the country

Creeping fascism is building speed.

[Doctor_J]

3. IMO creeping fasism became galloping fascism in 2000

when they stole the WH, and we could do nothing about it, we became Stalin's Russia.

[ladjf]

6. It is largely a "fait accompli".

[bluefish]

4. I hope people start to wake up

This is outrageous!

[Doctor_J]

38. Wake up?

whadya mean? They know it's happening. 1/2 are glad, and the other 1/2 know they can't do anything about it.

[Nostradammit]

50. We can do PLENTY about it.

First thing you do, if you truly love your country, is to shoot your television right in the eye.

[bluefish]

57. My point was people do not read

It has to be on the news or by word of mouth to get the people to wake up.

[dbackjon]

5. Disgraceful

K & R

[RaleighNCDUer]

7. I should hope that, by this time,

this comes as NO SURPRISE to anyone.

We've been noting the trends for 5 years.

The repukes CANNOT allow a Dem victory, because that would be followed by a slew of indictments and an overthrowing of their ideological program. They want to stay out of jail, they have to do this. And they know it.

We should know it, too.

[Doctor_J]

8. We all know it, and there isn't a FUCKING thing we can do about it

[Demeter]

11. Well, There Is....

as Al Gore said, and I paraphrase: the only thing left to our hopes for this country after a just ruling by the Supreme Court (which isn't going to happen) is rebellion.

Rebellion is what Bush is anticipating, and I've been fearing since 2000. But there isn't anything short of that left for us citizens of the late great United State.

That is how big a criminal Cheney and his wooden dummy are. They shall not prevail. Our failure is impossible! (Thanks, Susan B.)

[lostnfound]

17. They will crush it mercilessly.

And call it terrorism.

[Name removed]

19. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Doctor_J]

22. Too many people are either happy with tyranny, or

believe that the current state of the nation is due to Hillary Clinton, Jesse Jackson, and Al Gore. The GOP is now up to two or three new scandals or outrages per day. The outrage I posted in the OP will never, ever, ever be mentioned on TV or hate radio, and will be forgotten by the weekend.

If I thought we could retake the nation by civil war, I'd be there. There is simply no hope. Our dictatorship will end like Hitler's.

As far as marching on the WH in November, you might recall that Smirk turned his 9/11/01 cowardice into a fundraising photo and 90% popularity. If we were to storm the WH exactly the same reality inversion would happen. In Nazi Germany, the average 1940 equivalent to the Limbecile was happy as could be until Berlin was flattened. The same thing will happen here. And then it will be blamed on Clinton.

[Demeter]

30. With What Army?

[ugarte]

12. And of course our elected Demos wouldn't dream of filibustering

such legislation. God forbid the Republicans or the right-wing media should say something nasty about them.

[YOY]

54. Legally

but two wrongs don't make a right.

[Doctor_J]

55. No, but they might save the republic

:eyes:

[katty]

60. concur-this should be NO Surprise by now! volumes spoken/written

since 2000

[warrens]

9. It's time to sue the crap out of these nazis

They have no concept of honesty or constitutionality or morality. Just naked lust for power and money.

[Doctor_J]

10. Any suit would quickly make it to a Bush hack judge,

and at that point would be killed. The Nazis look like cub scouts compared to the current GOP/

[Fiendish Thingy]

13. It's about time! k&r! n/t

[AX10]

14. kick

:dem:

[ourbluenation]

15. GET THIS ON THE FRONT PAGE NOW! (please..)

This is so frustrating I could scream. The majority party is paving the way to keep a permanent majority...where is the outrage. All we can hope for is that enough people can't stand them enough that they're inundated with non GOP votes.

[electropop]

16. The good news is, the MSM is daring to publish this.

It might open a few more eyes to the dirty tricks.

[WhoWantsToBeOccupied]

26. Gee, thanks. Now that it's too late, you're timidly beginning to cover.

Thanks for nothing, "MSM."

[EVDebs]

18. GOP candidates partricipating in this conspiracy need to be charged

with conspiracy, don't you think ?

[Doctor_J]

20. Charged by whom? Gonzales?

:rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl:
:rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl:
:rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl:

[OneBlueSky]

21. BushCo/PNAC stole elections in 2000, 2002, and 2004 . . .

is there any reason to believe that they won't try to do the same in 2006 and 2008? . . .

or that they won't succeed? . . .

Fascism, thy name is BushCo . . .

[wildeyed]

25. I do registration drives.

In 04, I had a stack of maybe 10 completed forms stolen by an unbalanced volunteer. In FL, that would cost $50,000. I would need to stand guard over every volunteer and practically strip search them before they could leave an event to be certain they were not walking off with a few forms.

Will these laws be challenged in court? Is FL a voting rights state? Seems like you could make a case that this type of law was designed to disenfranchise minority voters. I believe that is how they struck down the GA ID law. This is all so depressing.

[Doctor_J]

39. Challenged in court?

In front of some hack appointed by Smirk? I don't see that doing much good.

[wildeyed]

40. Would be worth a try.

Not all judges were appointed by Bush and the Georgia ID law was struck down by the courts.

[mia]

42. Florida law to be challenged in courts

LEAGUE OF WOMEN VOTERS, OTHERS FILE SUIT TO STOP FLORIDA LAW’S ‘CHILLING’ EFFECT ON VOTER REGISTRATION


Non-Partisan Groups Suspend Voter Registration Drives,

Claim Onerous & Unconstitutional Fines Represent a ‘Tax on Democracy’

MIAMI, FL – May 18, 2006 -- A new Florida law that imposes crippling fines on voter registration groups was challenged in a lawsuit filed in federal court here today. The plaintiffs, civic organizations and voting rights groups that have been working in Florida through many election cycles without government interference, say that the law has shut down or dramatically curtailed their efforts to help eligible voters get on the rolls.

In filing the lawsuit on behalf of the League of Women Voters of Florida, Miami-based People Acting for Community Together (PACT) and other public interest and labor groups, attorneys at the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law and the Advancement Project, voting rights advocates representing the plaintiffs along with pro bono counsel, have asked the U.S. District Court in Miami to immediately suspend the fines imposed under the challenged law (Fla. Laws 2005-277, Secs. 2 and 7), which went into effect on January 1.

“I’m not sure what our representatives in Tallahassee were thinking when they voted for this law,” said Dianne Wheatley-Giliotti, president of the League of Women Voters of Florida. The Florida League, a plaintiff in the suit, is a nonpartisan, largely volunteer organization that has been helping to register Florida voters since 1939. By a unanimous vote of its Board, the Florida League for the first time has suspended all voter registration operations with its 27 local Leagues across Florida....



Joining the Florida League of Women Voters in completely suspending Florida voter registration efforts in the face of the new law are PACT and the AFL-CIO, while the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, Council 79 (AFSCME) has substantially scaled back its voter registration activity.



Should plaintiffs succeed in their lawsuit and the federal court agree that the First Amendment protects voter registration activities from the fines and other burdens Florida has established, the legal outcome will help to head off comparable voter-suppression statutes in other states, such as Ohio, New Mexico, and Colorado....

http://www.lwvfla.org/MoratoriumSuitPressRel.html

[wildeyed]

53. Excellent.

Thanks for the link.

[Senator]

27. Talking Points to Move the Debate on Elections

For those "being the media," here are some talking points to use that have gotten through to even hard-core members of the "all is well" crowd. They are intended to change people's thinking about elections in general. (Not least of which, the real target, our own thinking on the left.)

God bless us on the left, but try as we might (and we do), we cannot (and never have been able to) teach/inform our way to success with the general public. There are just too many of our fellow Americans who have been trained to NOT WANT any more information. Furthermore, our penchant for getting bogged down in process-tinkering battles with the anti-democratic opponents has not served us well. In fact, their side has come to rely on it.

Using these themes will help you break down resistance and more quickly change minds. (We've seen it happen. You will too.)

1st - An election is a survey, not a contest.

Just like the census, an election tries to measure an objective reality: the will of the electorate. There's no reason (maybe cost) why we couldn't conduct them in the same way, with bonded agents going door-to-door collecting private ballots from voters.

The point(of view) being made(changed) is that an election is about the voters (not votes - ever). Candidates, campaigns, Parties, officials, equipment manufacturers, are all nearly-irrelevant. There is only one principle/interested-party/owner and that is the electorate as a whole.

2nd - It's the "ERRR," stupid!

Count every vote! -- ERRR!!! -- Count every vote! -- ERRR!!!

Forgive my stupid illustration, but see how easily we can be nudged away from our most powerful moral position and into their pre-gamed arena of discussing only vote-counts, ballots, chads, etc...

This is not simply a bolstering of the first meme (it may seem so, but only because your mind doesn't need much changing). We must always speak of voters, and never votes, because unless we do, such things as suppression become "separate issues." We can't allow this.

Victims of poll-tax-lines and "missing" registrations are voters. With the same right to be "surveyed" as everyone else.

3rd - Election manipulation is a capital crime.

(Ok, ok, stop screaming. The sentence can be commuted, all right?)

Yes, this seems extreme. Even a bit looney. But it gets your attention, right? That's the power. That and the fact that it's a simple, completely serious, moral proposal.

Election theft is far worse than cop-killing. Worse than 9/11 or any incident of terrorism. It is literally High Treason. It undermines the only moral principle on which the nation was founded and continues (in theory) to rest -- that gov't power can only be derived from the consent of the governed.

So what's so extreme? The truth is that we've been extremely lax in defending our most important of values. We need to be "born again" as Fundamentalist Americans engaged in "refounding" the nation.

That's the way to curb this electoral Stalinism. ("Those who cast the votes decide nothing. Those who count the votes decide everything." -- Josef Stalin)

------
www.january6th.org

[Doctor_J]

28. Your points are based in a 1960's mindset

First of all, if you think that Repubs believe that an election is not a contest, you've already lost. You're playing lob-pitch softball while they're playing to kill. Karl Rove has the morals of a serial killer. Many in the GOP have stated out loud that fixing elections is the right thing to do if it's for the good of the country (in their perception). They are evil to the bone - much moreso than Stalin or Hitler.

Second, err? It sounds like you're applying pre-school psychology to people who would kill their own mothers if there were $10 to be had in it. If "err" is the best we can come up with to counter what you say is a capital crime, then what should our reaction be to little things like illegal wars and Anthrax being mailed to Tom Daschle?

Third, in reality, NOTHING that the GOP does is criminal, because there is no one to bring them to justice. They have completely saturated the courts, media, and executive branch with members of their syndicate. Anton Scalia said after he fixed election 2000 that nothing in the constitution guarantees a citizen the right to vote. they are above the law, and there is nothing we can do about it, legally. You probably need to come to grips with that fact if you are to pursue a remedy.

[Senator]

45. Your response is based in a 1990's mindset

Since the Stolen Election of 2000 more and more of us have stopped caring so much about what DC Repubs believe.

We've realized that this obsession with our nation's abusers is akin to a "battered syndrome" and our most productive activity is to confront those slightly to right of us. Prime targets being our "leaders" and "allies" among the DC/Euphemedia Analstocracy that perpetuate incapacitating notions like "there is nothing we can do about it, legally."

We are demanding that they take actions against the neo-fascists -- to object to unlawful electors, shut down the Senate, propose Censure motions, mount filibusters -- just to name the few minor, initial successes. We will demand much more.

We are also reminding the American People that they remain sovereign; that they are the government; they are the law.

We are pointing out that, save the tragic human costs, there is nothing that has been done in our names that can't be undone or remedied. That includes impeachments, war crimes prosecutions, and tax-kickback recovery.

You have the option join us in this century's battle or not.

Only one of those options is patriotic.

--
www.january6th.org

[redqueen]

29. geeeeez...

spread awareness about these democracy-stifling laws

spread awareness about how much every vote counts

get people invested to the point that they'll be ready to cause a ruckus if the SCOTUS or these GOPrano bastards steal yet another election

all i can come up with

i *used to be* an optimist, yeah

[roseBudd]

31. What is sad is here on DU many have argued for a photo ID requirement

why should people who do not drive because they do not own a vehicle (hint they are more likely to be carless because they are poor) have a requirement to vote that the drivers (people who can afford a vehicle) don't have to do just to vote.

We try to convince the poor that they should vote even though it really makes no difference, their constituency basically ignored by both parties and when the GOP as part of their likley democratic voter suppression propose ID requirements so no one else sneaks into a polling place and steals my right to vote and we fall for it.

My MIL is in a nursing home and I seriously doubt she has a valid driver's license or any other photo ID. How exactly are the bus taking nondrivers going to get these state issued IDs. Will they have to travel to a BoH and pay to obtain a birth certificate. What is to guarantee the person requesting the BC is actually who they claim to be.

If I say I am so and so and I know my birthdate, address and last 4 digits of my social. Chances are pretty darn good I am not some identity theif trying to make off with very valuable voting privileges.

[wildeyed]

34. What is really infuriating about the ID proposal

is there is no evidence of any type of organized voter fraud being perpetrated in this manner. The pubs make allegations, but never prove any fraud. So they want to create a whole other level of bureaucracy to vote, and why does the party of small government want to do this absent any proof of wrongdoing? Maybe, just maybe, they don't like the way that people without ID might vote. They are also probably cognizant of the fact that many of us rank and file dems are concerned enough about the state of the nation to spend our evenings and weekends encouraging others to make their voice heard at the polling place, and we can't have that.

The whole thing is so infuriating. If you have the votes to win, fine. But if a major part of your election year strategy is disenfranchising as many voters as possible, there is something wrong with your party. Really, really suck-assed wrong.

[roseBudd]

58. What is sad is the DUers who are for photo ID to vote thought it would be

easy to get the poor all photo IDed. Yeah right. I canvassed in '04 where most suburbanites would not even roll down the windows of their car.

[wildeyed]

61. Or that we should trade paper verified voting for an unjust

and completely unecessary ID law. It is the SAME THING. And both are cheating. Either way, voters are disenfranchised.

Oooh, this subject really gets me going. :mad:

[rucky]

32. And what are *WE* going to do about it?

Same thing we did in '00, '02 and '04, that's what. Which is...






































































NOTHING

[Doctor_J]

36. What would you suggest?

we're completely powerless. Let's say, for example, that Whitewell decides to provide on (defective) voting machine per precinct in the Dem areas in OH. Or none. What can we do?

NOTHING

[EFerrari]

46. County by county. State by state. You aren't fighting for one

election or the next election or the presidential election but for all elections.

Who is working in your state? Find them. Do it this week. They need your help.

[burythehatchet]

33. The next free and fair election will be

after the next revolution.

[Miss Chybil]

35. I say we just go with purple ink on the finger... nt

[Doctor_J]

37. Or numbers tattooed on the arm

[Old and In the Way]

49. Hate to say it, but secret ballots are being used against us.

How about a focused effort to get people to sign affidavits in those precincts where fraud is a concern? If the media won't believe exit polls, maybe they'll take note when legal documents of voters show Democrats beating Republicans.

[BrklynLiberal]

41. How is this going to be stopped?

[Cha]

43. We'll see who's more

determined ..the nazi jackals or the Democracy loving Activists.

[Blue_Tires]

44. 41st rec nt

[bleever]

47. GOP: Democracy is a crap shoot. We're shaving dice;

who's gonna stop us?

[Kablooie]

48. This WILL be stopped. But not in time.

What I predict:

Criminal Repubs keep control 06.

In 08 they elect a new Repub president and keep control.

At this point we see that it is serious. There is no more fooling around.

Secret groups will form. Gov will crack down violently and put the new

Halliburton detention camps to good use.

And then ...

it starts.

We begin to live history book history. One of those major turning points
for the human race. No more fantasy land for the U.S. We will be living a
modern and more violent version of 1789.

How it ends is a toss up but in any case I'm afraid the comforts of the 20th
century will be gone for decades.

A couple of years ago I would have thought I would have to be crazy to say this stuff but unfortunately it seems all too possible at the moment.


At least we'll get a real big font in world history timelines.

[vanboggie]

51. Halliburton Happy Camps

I have no doubt this is the exact reason Halliburton is building those camps. Political dissidents they'll call us. Fallout from election fraud is the first thing that came to mind when I heard about Halliburton's contract - we know it isn't for immigrants (though "bird flu" could put the populations of blue states in them in November I suppose). Bastards will do anything to carry out their evil plan. With luck we'll be sent to psych wards, but more likely these 21st Century Nazis will continue taking their cues from Hitler's playbook.

This does need to be on the front page.



:kick: for freedom.

[Up2Late]

52. This doesn't surprise me at all.

:mad:

[Anarcho-Socialist]

56. Incredibly sickening

The U.S.A. needs another Voting Rights Act to stop this banana republic-style garbage.

[Jack Rabbit]

62. Can you say "Orange Revolution in the US"?

I knew you could.



Liberty Leading the People (1830) by Eugène Delacroix
From the website of the University of Southern California