Category Archives: Criminal Activity

September 21, 2012 · 0:00

It’s Spreading!

Just the other day, I told you about the epidemic of folks waking up dead in Texas.  But it’s spreading.  Yes, last night I learned that it is also happening in North Carolina.  A swing state where President Obama won by 14,177 votes.

Rachel Maddow told me just last night that a group of folks had sent the NC Elections Board a list of 30,000 voters in NC (of 6 million voters) who the group claims are dead.

Yes, a group called “The Voter Integrity Project,” a group that is following in the footsteps of the folks in Texas who started this epidemic, “True the Vote”  found its way to North Carolina.  You will, of course, find it shocking that these groups are affiliated with the Tea Party.

And according to Rachel Maddow, this is also happening in Ohio. where the group claims that over 700,000 should be stripped off the voting lists because those folks are dead.  The group is also playing this game in California, Illinois and Arizona.

Here is the link (sorry I cannot figure out how to embed an MSNBC video) http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26315908/ns/msnbc_tv-rachel_maddow_show/#49112935

Now back to North Carolina.  This list forced the Election Board, using due diligence, to use up manpower to check into this claim.  Before the election.  They have revealed 0 dead people on the list of 30,000 provided by The Voter Integrity Project.

They are doing it in part to strike it lucky, and in part to use up valuable Election Board resources that might be better used.

But I have a theory.  And this combines two of my faux talents — lawyer and medical person.

You see, in 2004 I volunteered to help with voter fraud allegations at the polls here in Virginia.  To help folks who call up and say they were prevented from voting, or they were intimidated or told that the election is next Tuesday for Democrats not today.  Things like that.  And boy oh boy did I get an earful.

But by far, the most impressive maneuver of the Virginia GOP was to outlaw the color yellow.  Yes, it’s true.  I actually saw the legislative language.  No fliers printed on yellow paper may be given out at polling stations in the state of Virginia.

Now you say, “Elyse, Why does this matter?”  And I’ll tell you.

In Spanish-speaking communities, it has been traditional for the Democrats to print illustrations of the straight Democratic Ticket on yellow paper.  Spanish speakers came to depend on them.  They also came to vote overwhelmingly for those Democratic tickets.  So the Republicans outlawed yellow fliers at polling stations.   [Fortunately, the Dems were smarter.  They got a law passed specifically permitting fliers printed on Goldenrod-colored paper.

And in 2006 when I was at my polling station handing out fliers, well, we’d all forgotten.  But about 15 minutes after the polls opened, all of our fliers were taken away because they were printed on plain old yellow.

My theory?  These folks on these Tea Party lists all suffer from Yellow Fever.

*     *     *

The GOP can’t win because of its ideas or its candidates.  But they can — AND WILL — cheat.

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September 16, 2012 · 0:00

Something to Brag About?

If you’re sick, do you try to choose the smartest doctor or the dumbest?

When you want an accountant, do you want to feel confidence in the ability of that man/woman to add, subtract, multiply and divide?  Use excel formulas?

When you need legal assistance, do you want a wise man/woman or a dope?

These are not trick questions.

I’ve always asked myself similar questions about the people who want to run my country.  I want the smartest people in office, from Town Selectman to President.  Naturally, that means I’m a Democrat.

But you know, I always sort of figured that Republicans at least thought (mistakenly) that theirs were the smart candidates.

Ummm, not so much.  At least, not according to one of the GOP’s shining stars, Rick Santorum.  You know, Rick “Don’t Google Me” Santorum, the former Senator from Pennsylvania (who lost by 18 percent!) who was also a former GOP candidate for President just this year.

Listen up to Ricky speaking just the other day to the Values Voter Summit here in DC:

We will never have the media on our side, ever, in this country. We will never have the elite, smart people on our side.

Well, Duh!!!!!  You got that right, Ricky.  But is it something to be proud of?

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September 11, 2012 · 0:00

The View

Today at lunch, I am sitting in my office having my salad, looking out the window and reading the newspaper.  It is September 11, 2012.  Eleven years after.

My office overlooks the Capitol, the Lincoln and Jefferson Memorials.  The Washington Monument.  The Pentagon.

From here, I can just barely see the flag that was unfurled this morning on the side of the Pentagon that was struck that morning.  Another Tuesday.  Another beautiful, blue sky day.  Folks who still work in my office were here that day, I was not.  Of course they still remember.  (We all do.) They heard and felt the impact; nobody saw it hit, as everybody except me keeps their blinds down because the office gets the hot morning sun.

I have long felt that George W. Bush let us down.  That the attack shouldn’t have happened.  That it should have been foiled.

Remember this?:

On Aug. 6, 2001, President George W. Bush received a classified review of the threats posed by Osama bin Laden and his terrorist network, Al Qaeda. That morning’s “presidential daily brief” — the top-secret document prepared by America’s intelligence agencies — featured the now-infamous heading: “Bin Laden Determined to Strike in U.S.” A few weeks later, on 9/11, Al Qaeda accomplished that goal.

Might they have prevented the attack?  We will never know.

Well, in today’s NY Times, there is more evidence that the Bush Administration had more than the one presidential daily brief.  There were numerous reports, meetings and presidential daily briefings:  ON May 1, on June 22, on June 29, on July 9, on July 24.  These are the ones the reporter, Kurt Eichenwald, saw excerpts from.

But, and there’s always a but, isn’t there.

But some in the administration considered the warning to be just bluster. An intelligence official and a member of the Bush administration both told me in interviews that the neoconservative leaders who had recently assumed power at the Pentagon were warning the White House that the C.I.A. had been fooled; according to this theory, Bin Laden was merely pretending to be planning an attack to distract the administration from Saddam Hussein, whom the neoconservatives saw as a greater threat.  Intelligence officials, these sources said, protested that the idea of Bin Laden, an Islamic fundamentalist, conspiring with Mr. Hussein, an Iraqi secularist, was ridiculous, but the neoconservatives’ suspicions were nevertheless carrying the day.  [Emphasis is mine.]

The link to the full article is here.

These neocons who got everything so disastrously wrong are the same folks that are working with Romney/Ryan on Foreign Policy.  This time they want us to go after Iran and Syria.

Elections matter.

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September 9, 2012 · 0:00

First Amendment Rights

Adlai Stevenson is one of my heroes.  I’m sure you remember him (well, probably if you are an American).  He was the Democratic nominee for president in 1952 and 1956 and ran against Ike.  Now, that was a tall order — running against the guy who led the Allied Troops in World War II.  So really, Adlai was a bit of a sacrificial lamb.

But he had a heart and a spirit and he didn’t take bull from anyone.  And he repelled bull with finesse.

Stevenson was the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations during the Cuban Missile Crisis and famously asked the Soviet Ambassador to explain why missiles were being put into Cuba.  When the Soviet Ambassador, Valerian Zorin, didn’t respond, Stevenson famously responded:

“I am prepared to wait for my answer until Hell freezes over.”

Stevenson was the sort of man who made up the Pre-Reagan government, actually.  The Best.  The Brightest.  The Most Articulate.  Smart folks who made the government work.  Who made our government the envy of the world.

Now, I’m not in Adlai’s class.  Nope, I’m not even close.  But as a concerned citizen, I feel compelled to watch what is happening and call out injustice when I see it.  I call a lie, “a lie.”  And shout to the rooftops when I see the bullshit that passes for public discourse coming from the GOP and its evil twin, the Tea Party.

You see, I really love my country.  I am a liberal Democrat and proud to be one.  And you know what?  I am angry.  And vocal.  I also take full advantage of my First Amendment right to Free Speech.  Now remember, I live near Washington, DC.  And I pay attention.  That’s important.

I see a lot of folks in and around government who believe it is their duty to make sure that President Obama fails.

Now think about that.  There truly are powerful people in the GOP who believe that the GOP is more important than the country.  That what they believe is more important than what the voters (YOU AND ME!) chose.  That the country can go to hell as long as the result is that they will get more power.  More money.  More, well who cares what else they’re looking for.

Yes, it’s true.  On January 20, 2009, the night Barack Obama was inaugurated, a group of Republicans meet and decided that, rather than giving the new president their backing to help the country, that — nope.  They weren’t going to go along with the mandate of the people of the United States.  Nope.  They would impede Obama in every way they could.  Invalidate him.  That way the GOP would retake the House of Representatives in 2010 (they did) and maybe the Senate too in 2012.  Paul Ryan was there at that dinner.  Yup.  A fine group of patriotic Americans.

Now think about that.

They didn’t give Obama a chance to succeed or to heal the country.  More importantly, though, they didn’t give the American people a chance.  Because by electing Obama, people chose his ideas, his plans, his hopes.  The People rejected those of the GOP.

Nevertheless, the power brokers of the GOP banded together to  stamp their feet and say:  “I don’t care if the American People decided that your way is what we should try.  WE SAY NO.”

And you know what?  They’re doing it again!  Yup it’s true.

Senate Majority Leader, Mitch McConnell (R-KY) has already stated publicly that even if Obama wins a second term, the GOP will not cooperate with him.

Can you say “gridlock”?  Sure, I knew you could.

So, when things like this happen, well, I get mad.  I get angry.  And I make my feelings known.  I have a platform.  I have a soap box.  I have a blog.  And while I will try to write about politics with humor, sometimes, dammit, it will be in anger.  Like tonight.

Because there is a hell of a lot to be angry about.

Take for example the latest example.

Saturday in Virginia, Myth Romney implied that President Obama, should he be re-elected, was planning to take the word “God” off our currency.  Off our money.

Huh?

Romney made it up.  Completely out of that whole cloth his underwear is made of.

Yes, this is the same guy who chose Paul “Sure, Vouchers for Senior Citizens is the best idea since sliced bread” Ryan as his running mate.

The same Myth Romney who went Birther on us all a week or so ago when he commented that he was in Michigan and nobody was asking for his birth certificate.  Ho ho ho, Mitt.  Good try at a joke.  Try another next year.  Maybe that joke will work.  Maybe that joke will be funny.

[Now I’m going to digress here a bit.  Because the whole Birther issue just makes me want to scream.  It points out the complete and total ignorance of those who insist that Obama was born in Kenya and that his Hawaiian birth certificate is a hoax.

Do these folks even realize that in order to be an American Citizen by birth and therefore qualify to be president, you have to be born to an American Citizen.  Yup.  It’s true.  The fact that Barack Hussein Obama’s mother was an American entitles him automatically to American Citizenship.  And she could have given birth on the moon; her son, Barack Obama would still be an American Citizen.  By birth.  The same as John McCain, who was born in Panama.  The same as George Romney, Mitt’s Dad, who was born in Mexico and who also ran for President.]

There has been much ballyhoo on the nets, in the press, on the TV about folks wanting us all to play nice and just get along.

No.  Sorry.  I am not going to play nice with the folks I think have damaged my country.  I would not play nice with folks who tried/succeeded in burning down my house; who killed a friend or family member.  So I am not going to play nice and polite with folks who have destroyed our economy, undermined our willingness to work together to solve problems, and the pride that made the American Dream a reality.

Nope.  Not gonna do it.

The folks who ask for that often tend to be folks who don’t want their opinions questioned or challenged, or folks who don’t want to pay enough attention.

I have a voice.  I have a First Amendment Right to voice it.  And I plan to us it.

So, as my hero Adlai Stevenson would have said:

If the Republicans will stop telling lies about the Democrats, we will stop telling the truth about them.

*     *     *

Other wonderful quotes from Adlai:

  • Freedom rings where opinions clash.
  • A hypocrite is the kind of politician who would cut down a redwood tree, then mount the stump and make a speech for conservation.
  • A free society is one where it is safe to be unpopular.
  • A hungry man is not a free man.
  • I don’t want to send them to jail. I want to send them to school.
  • Freedom is not an ideal, it is not even a protection, if it means nothing more than the freedom to stagnate.
  • We have confused the free with the free and easy.
  • I believe that if we really want human brotherhood to spread and increase until it makes life safe and sane, we must also be certain that there is no one true faith or path by which it may spread.
  • Those who corrupt the public mind are just as evil as those who steal from the public purse.
  • Saskatchewan is much like Texas- except it’s more friendly to the United States.
  • As citizens of this democracy, you are the rulers and the ruled, the law-givers and the law-abiding, the beginning and the end.

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August 29, 2012 · 0:00

French is Dangerous

You’ve heard me talk about this before (Merde 101).  But the world has gotten more dangerous since I wrote that piece.  We need to be on the lookout.  We need to be vigilant.  We need to speak English.  No, this is not an anti-immigrant piece.  This is a potential-worldwide-calamity-caused-by-incomprehensible-grammar piece.

Yes, it’s true.  I’m saying that all roads to terrorism are sign-posted in FRENCH.  Believe me.  I lived there.  I know.  Well, I don’t know the language, but I know those signposts.  And what they say.  More or less.

Why would I make such an accusation?  Because French is stupid.

Well, actually, it’s really French possessives.  French possessives are stupid, illogical, dangerous.

You see, in French, objects get the gender of the object/noun, not the owner.  And that, is of course, the problem.

Imagine that there is a man and a woman in a train station.  Between them is a suitcase.

Google Image (or KGB?)

In it is a nuclear bomb.  Desperate to foil the bad guys, you cannot just shout out “It’s HIS!” pointing to the man who can be arrested and the bomb diffused.

Google Images are everywhere

Why not?

Because the word for suitcase in French is “valise” which is feminine.  Therefore, you can only say “It’s HERS” (“Est la valise!”) — regardless of who owns the suitcase/nuclear bomb.  The bomb would go off and everyone would die.

The terrorists would succeed because French is stupid.

Not speaking French is the way to protect the world.

*****

One of my blogging buddies, Paprika of Good Humored felt stupid recently.  She wrote about it here:  At Least We Can See France From Our Toilet.  And it’s not her fault.  You see, Paprika and her husband Oregano found themselves in French-speaking Switzerland, just down the road from where I used to live.  They came back feeling stupid.  They shouldn’t have.  Instead, they should have come back relieved that they had survived a nuclear attack.

[Note to folks who actually know French:  Before you get on my case, I do know that there are other was to say “It’s HIS.” But they are not short, sweet and to the point.  They are long and involved and the bomb would explode by the time anyone could get the sentence out.  The Terrorists would still win.]

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