Reblogged from Dailykos.
Tomorrow is National Voter Registration Day. If you need to register or check on your current registration, this website contains a widget that will help you.
Elections matter.
Open thread for night owls: National Voter Registration Day, happens Tuesday, Sept. 25.
Filed under Campaigning, Elections, Law, Politics, Voting
This video is NOT work friendly, but it is really funny. But only if you read the subtitles.
I simply couldn’t resist posting it for anyone who hasn’t seen it.
From Meemsy.com
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.
Filed under Campaigning, Criminal Activity, Elections, History, Humor, Hypocrisy, Law, Politics, Stupidity
The memory is still sharp. Clear. Painful.
I don’t think my brother Fred ever hurt my feelings as much as he did when he laughed at me that day. When, as a 4- or 5-year old I shouted at him:
“You’ll be sorry when I wake up DEAD.”
Instead of being cowed, well, Fred laughed at me. I was devastated. Confused. I didn’t understand what was so funny. Later he explained it to me:
“Lease,” he said patiently, “You can’t ‘wake up dead’!”
“Why not?”
“Because if you’re dead, Lease, you don’t wake up. You can’t. Cause you’re DEAD.”
“Oh.”
It was the first time I understood that I had done something incredibly stupid. I learned my lesson, though. Never again did I threaten anyone with the possibility that I’d wake up dead.
So imagine my surprise when I read about high school nurse Terry Collins in this article. I learned that I wasn’t so dumb back then after all.
You see, Ms. Collins woke up dead one day. Yeah, it’s true! She got a letter saying that she was taken off the voter registration list because she is dead. She was quite surprised because, well, she felt just fine! Coincidentally, her 80-year old father was equally surprised when he got a similar letter. He had woken up dead, too! Even more coincidentally, they are both African-Americans registered to vote in Texas! Or they were until they woke up dead in a state where the Governor is a Republican and the legislature is run by the GOP.
Apparently, there is an epidemic in Texas. An epidemic of waking up dead! And the number of folks who are caught up in this, umm, problem? According to NPR, there are about 80,000 Texas voters who woke up one day and found out via the US mail that they were dead. Most are African American or Hispanic. Imagine that, they were members of minorities who tend to favor Democrats, and they woke up dead.
I’m calling Fred. He’ll be so sorry he made fun of me.
* * *
The creativity of the folks who try to keep others from voting is quite impressive. If only they used it to govern, the U.S. might be in much better shape today.
Filed under Awards, Campaigning, Childhood Traumas, Elections, Family, History, Humor, Hypocrisy, Politics, Stupidity
My head is exploding and there is no visible evidence. Nope. Not a bit of gray matter on the walls. Shouldn’t there be serious cleanup involved here?
What could cause this explosion? This combustion? This sharing of gray matter with my surroundings?
You might think that it is this video of Mitt Romney insulting about half of the country (47 bloomin’ percent!), by saying that
Well, certainly Mitt Romney doesn’t care about them.
Now normally, this video would get me pretty damn riled up.
But, of course, there’s more. Yes, it gets better.
You know how Mitt is always preaching about how he made it on his own? How he and Ann struggled, eating tuna and pasta. I wrote about it a couple of weeks ago. Yeah, it is so very difficult to just live off the interest and dividends from your stock portfolio, Mitt.
But did you know about George Romney? Mitt’s Daddy? The guy who gave Mitt and Ann the stock that eased Mitt and Ann’s struggle? He wasn’t always the successful businessman he became later. He wasn’t born the CEO of American Motors. Nope. He wasn’t always rich and well connected. Really! Who would have thunk it!
Still, George Romney was by all accounts 10,000 times the man his son is. He was an important member of the Moderate/Liberal Republicans that made up that impressive generation of politicians.
And do you want to know a secret? One that you won’t hear Mitt talkin’ about?
George Romney was on Welfare!
Yup! It’s true. When he was young he was a refugee from Mexico (where he was born and automatically became an American Citizen because his parents were American Citizens — but I digress.) And when he was a child, a refugee who fled back to the U.S. with his family, well, the United States Government helped him survive.
Here’s a clip of his wife saying what a good governor her husband George would be. And you know what? She was right by all accounts. He was a good man, a good governor, and would likely have made a good president.
One of the reasons he was such a good governor is that he had compassion all people. For the poor and downtrodden. Why? Well, partly because he was once poor. George Romney was once on welfare. And he understood that being poor doesn’t mean that you are lazy. That being poor doesn’t mean that you want a hand OUT but might just need a hand UP. And that’s what George Romney got from the United States Government.
So some questions for U.S. voters:
I can hear you shouting “NO!” from here.
* * *
Many thanks to my friend Lisa of Big Sheep Blog for telling me about this video. I was actually working …
I got TWO!
I recommend Karen Kingsley and Kingsley Ink
The Highest Honor
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FiftyFourandAHalf 