Fire Walker Chronicles: Home Field Shutout
Looks like not only will Wisconsin GOP Gov. Scott Walker get his day in court to argue that the state’s recall process is unconstitutional, but that Democrats will be locked out of the case, unable to present arguments to defend the recall.
A judge in Wisconsin has ruled that Democratic recall organizers cannot challenge a lawsuit brought by the state GOP against election officials — a suit that claims Gov. Scott Walker’s constitutional rights are being violated by the state’s petition review process.This means that barring a hypothetical appeal, any continuing litigation in this matter will be conducted exclusively between the state GOP and the election board’s attorney, without the Dems themselves being able to participate and present legal arguments.
“I was a little surprised,” said Jeremy Levinson, the attorney for the recall committee, in an interview with TPM. “It’s the first time I can recall — let me rephrase — it’s the first time I’m aware of a recall-related lawsuit where only the official who is being targeted for recall gets to be a party, and the folks who are working to recall that official are shut out of the process.”
It does seem rather pointedly ridiculous that Walker’s argument is that the burden of challenging recall signatures is “unconstitutional” abridgement of his rights, but being able to challenge that very argument in court is apparently completely unnecessary, and that the rights of the people of Wisconsin to exercise their free speech in a state-mandated recall process doesn’t actually matter so much compared to being Governor.
No wonder that the GOP filed the lawsuit in their home turf of Waukesha County to get a friendly judge, in this case a former GOP State Senator. The case will proceed forward next week with that same judge hearing Walker’s arguments and the motion to dismiss the case on January 5th. Meanwhile Walker and his allies are pushing to win the battle of public opinion, having already spent over a million bucks in ads fighting the recall petition in just the last six weeks.
We’ll see how that goes.
December 30, 2011 6:28 am
Posted in: Ever Get The Feeling You've Been Cheated?, hoocoodanode, Kochsuckers, Our Failed Political Establishment, Republican Venality, Vote Like Your Country Depends On It
92 Comments
92 Responses
amk - December 30, 2011 | 7:05 am · Link
Let this be a lesson for the whiny left. You don’t vote, you’re left with fighting rearguard action.
James Hare - December 30, 2011 | 7:28 am · Link
Something is seriously rotten in Waukesha County.
Michael Bersin - December 30, 2011 | 7:37 am · Link
@amk:
Uh, yep.
“...I’ve learned that it’s really important to fight for what you believe in. And I’ve learned that apathy is the, the greatest cancer our society could possibly have. And I’ve learned that if Scott Walker has given this state anything positive, it’s awaken the people of this state so they’re not apathetic. Because when you’re asleep that’s when anyone can take over your house, you know. Our house is this state. We’re the citizens of this state. We need to stay together even after this is over. We’ve formed coalitions in every county in the state and I think it’s, it’s going to be extremely important that we always stay vigilant, that we keep our coalitions together, that we don’t just break up, uh, and go our separate ways after this is all over. But, instead, that we, we stay together as a community, as a family, as a, as a coalition so this doesn’t happen in this state again…”
Wisconsin: in the trenches for the recall of Gov. Scott Walker®, part 3
Gromitt Gunn - December 30, 2011 | 7:39 am · Link
Even if there’s nothing fishy there (hah!), the optics of that are just horrible. The attack ads all but write themselves.
Norbrook - December 30, 2011 | 7:48 am · Link
@amk: Yes,and anyone who advocates not voting to “send a message” is an idiot. The only message they sent was that they were idiots and that they like getting hosed.
Mino - December 30, 2011 | 7:49 am · Link
If they get a bad decision, can an appeal even be filed, since they are not a party to the suit. Pretty cute, I must say. Are they just trying to run out the clock for next year’s election?
c u n d gulag - December 30, 2011 | 7:53 am · Link
Why is it, now that I think about it, that I’m not at all the least fucking surprised?
Sure, it’ll be a fair hearing!
This sounds ominously like our new military tribunals, to me. No defense, except that which the prosecution allows.
This is a fine way to run a country – INTO THE FUCKING GROUND!
Score another victory for The Kochsuckers.
At least for now…
Mino - December 30, 2011 | 7:57 am · Link
I think Michigan and Wisconsin have been a saltatory lesson for anyone paying attention.
Honestly, I’m shocked at how little national coverage these actions have gotten. It a disgrace.
Agrippa - December 30, 2011 | 7:57 am · Link
@amk:
Voting is a civic duty.
if you do not vote, you have earned whatever you get.
Agrippa - December 30, 2011 | 8:02 am · Link
@Mino:
It is what happens when very few pay any attention; it is what happens when ignorance is cheerfully willed.
And, who actually wants to do something as fatuous as voting?
amk - December 30, 2011 | 8:10 am · Link
@Agrippa:
One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors – Plato
DanielX - December 30, 2011 | 8:17 am · Link
I am shocked, shocked to hear that Governor Deadeyes would resort to such tactics…why, people will get the impression that he’s a slimy, underhanded, sanctimonious, corrupt hemorrhoid on the body politic.
Nobody could have predicted….
DanielX - December 30, 2011 | 8:17 am · Link
I am shocked, shocked to hear that Governor Deadeyes would resort to such tactics…why, people will get the impression that he’s a slimy, underhanded, sanctimonious, corrupt hemorrhoid on the body politic.
Nobody could have predicted….
ellennelle - December 30, 2011 | 8:28 am · Link
IANAL, but from the piece i read, not only do the dems have the option to appeal this judge’s decision, they have already filed a motion to dismiss the case entirely.
the latter will be heard very soon, and actually, has a reasonable chance of prevailing, given the absurdity of the suit. lord knows they can’t rely on bush v. gore; that SCOTUS decision ruled out any use of itself as precedent in future cases. (sorta gives you that warm, fuzzy feeling that the court had such confidence in its position that it was ever so willing to allow possible dem candidates to use that argument at some point, too, eh?)
as for the possibility of appealing this judge’s decision, the article i read quoted someone on the dems’ legal team that things were moving so fast through the courts, that the appeal would likely move more slowly than the motion to dismiss, so they’re not sure it would be worth the expense.
like da man says, we’ll see.
The Thin Black Duke - December 30, 2011 | 8:34 am · Link
Bottom line: if you don’t use your right to vote, you’ll lose it, because these thugs will take it away from you the first chance they get.
Mino - December 30, 2011 | 8:48 am · Link
Dems better start paying attention to judgships in the states. Here in Texas, I think they’ve just about stopped trying. Our party is morbund down here—totally concretized. I don’t know what it would take to blow up the conservadem establishment that chokes us.
c u n d gulag - December 30, 2011 | 8:50 am · Link
This is the new form of “Justice.”
“Who’s here in the Courtroom?”
‘Just us.’
Ok, you win!
And what was once America, loses – again…
The Mahablog » Today’s Facts & Follies - December 30, 2011 | 8:51 am · Link
[...] governor Scott Walker has found a friendly judge to hear his argument that recalling him is [...]
Mino - December 30, 2011 | 8:52 am · Link
Is that the problem in the states? Conservadem establishments that have to be blown up by someone like Walker before progressive thought can get a hearing.
That’s a hope—Republican overreach ignites the old coalitions.
cmorenc - December 30, 2011 | 9:03 am · Link
@Mino:
Is that because the dems left holding office or positions in the party apparatus appear more interested in carving out or maintaining sinecures in the reduced islands of offices they still hold onto than in doing what’s necessary to seize back a majority in the rest of the state?
Yevgraf - December 30, 2011 | 9:09 am · Link
From a legal standpoint, my opinion is that this decision is correct from pure standing issues.
Flame away.
amk - December 30, 2011 | 9:13 am · Link
@Mino:
Don’t something like 40 out of 50 states now have rethug legislatures ?
Dems seem have to forgotten the cardinal rule of all politics is local.
Xenos - December 30, 2011 | 9:20 am · Link
@Yevgraf: You have a link to the decision that you can throw out to the rest of us?
I am not sure how one or more advocacy groups that might be organizing or promoting the recall would get standing without something explicit in the recall statute, but it would be interesting to see the text of the decision. TPM, for some reason, could not be bothered to put it out there.
Mino - December 30, 2011 | 9:26 am · Link
@cmorenc: For one thing, and please don’t flame me, Hispanics tend conservadem. No populist history—not much union experience to radicalize them. La Raza has been totally neutered and co-opted.
Gonzales was flaming liberal by inheritance, one of a dying breed, bless him; he’ll be replaced by a Blue Dog, for sure.
Texas at one time produced major populists—I guess the blood has thinned or they just never gain a foothold in this Dem party.
Samara Morgan - December 30, 2011 | 9:37 am · Link
@Mino: bzzzt! wrong.
Pew polling: Latinos favor Obama
67% hispanic is the same as 2008.
Amir Khalid - December 30, 2011 | 9:44 am · Link
@Samara Morgan:
Courtesy and respect for other commenters will earn you their goodwill. (Not that I seriously expect you to take this to heart.)
honus - December 30, 2011 | 9:46 am · Link
@Yevgraf: That’s kind of what I thought (I’m a semi-pro at this, do a lot of mandamus in government contract cases). His argument that he doesn’t have to challenge the signatures (actually that the election board has a non-discretionary duty to do so) is pretty weak, though.
Trakker - December 30, 2011 | 9:55 am · Link
@amk:
Better yet, let this be a lesson for the Democratic party: Keep your base energized at all times. Keep the lines of communication open, make the base feel respected and needed, and even (gasp!) fight for some of the issues they feel strongly about (especially true in off-year elections). [Politics 101]
2010 was largely a failure by this administration to maintain the enthusiasm of the 2008 Obama voters (this is why you hire political specialists). If there is a silver lining, Republican overreach has scared the devil out of average voters in many states.
Mino - December 30, 2011 | 10:01 am · Link
@Samara Morgan: Obama would fall right in the pocket for most Hispanics. Conservadem does not equal voting Republican.
ChrisB - December 30, 2011 | 10:15 am · Link
Why wouldn’t there be an appeal? (Unless the motion to dismiss was granted first—but then Walker would certainly appeal that.)
PeakVT - December 30, 2011 | 10:15 am · Link
@Agrippa: Voting is about power. It’s about putting the levers of government power into somebody’s hands, preferably somebody who will best serve your interests.
buckyblue - December 30, 2011 | 10:30 am · Link
I’m about a mile away from the court house. The lege changed the law recently that then allowed them to file the suit in any court in the state. Previously they had been required to file it in Dane County, where the capital resides. Walker is making the claim that the recall signatures are violating HIS civil rights, somehow. The logic is so deathly thin I can’t make the connection on it. Something about how people who don’t sign have a similar right to be counted as those who do. I didn’t get it, but then again I was listening to Walker explain it an it may be way, way, way too deep in the weeds for him. Hell, anything beyond simple regurgitation of a wingnut talking point is beyond him. He makes Bush II seem like, ok, tough analogy to make here, lets go with rocketdesignivyleaguer. And yes there is something seriously wrong with Wuakesha County. I know a woman who is on Medicaid, welfare and getting disability checks for her son (who the local school district has paid literally tens of thousands of dollars to be sent to a specialty school for kids with emotional problems. He’s actually just a thug), who would never vote for a Democrat. Ever.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q) - December 30, 2011 | 10:38 am · Link
@Amir Khalid: And yet you remain studiously courteous. More than I can manage, good sir. Thank you for your fine example.
And yes, I recognize that with this comment, I’m behaving in a fashion that could be described as complicit in a threadjacking.
burnspbesq - December 30, 2011 | 10:44 am · Link
@Yevgraf:
Omnes, who is an actual Wisconsin attorney, should be heard from, but I’m inclined to think the decision not to allow intervention is legally sound (albeit politically tone-deaf). I also expect the suit to be dismissed, as Walker’s Due Process claim is, to put it charitably, laughable.
Michael Bersin - December 30, 2011 | 10:47 am · Link
@Trakker:
This, too.
After the 2008 election there was a meeting of campaign field people in Chicago in which they discussed “Hey, we’ve got this really neat operation, let’s help the new administration take it for a spin and see what it can do.” Meanwhile, faux republican “bipartisanship” happened. You know, Charlie Brown, Lucy, football…
hells littlest angel - December 30, 2011 | 10:53 am · Link
I wonder how Walker feels about 2nd Amendment remedies?
amk - December 30, 2011 | 10:57 am · Link
@Trakker: Pols go where there are votes, Obama included. With that ‘respect me or I will not vote’ bullshit, no wonder the left keeps getting marginalized and brings in whackos like walker and dems keep moving to the center.
You can learn one thing from the teabaggers – always fucking vote
grandpa john - December 30, 2011 | 10:58 am · Link
@amk: Hell they forgot that years ago
Yutsano - December 30, 2011 | 10:58 am · Link
@burnspbesq:
Doubtful. He’s been silent on virtually all of the recall legal wranglings, mostly because of conflicts with his current employ. Or some other direct involvement he has, I forget which. Either way, he might touch on the general legal issues but not the specifics. He’s kinda ethical like that. :)
Xenos - December 30, 2011 | 11:05 am · Link
Without seeing the pleadings, this appears to be the Governor suing the the state (elections board), which would have the AG, a separately elected constitutional officer, as the attorney for the opposing party.
Whether J.B. Van Hollen, a republican, needs to appoint a special attorney is an interesting question… any sense out there if this AG would intentionally spike a case like this? He predates the 2010 election, so he may not be to tight with the ALEC crowd at the state house.
burnspbesq - December 30, 2011 | 11:06 am · Link
@hells littlest angel:
“I wonder how Walker feels about 2nd Amendment remedies?”
One imagines that his views would depend on which end of the remedy he’s on.
Omnes Omnibus - December 30, 2011 | 11:07 am · Link
@ burnspbesq: I cannot comment on this issue or anything relating to it. I work too close to the controversy.
Benjamin Franklin - December 30, 2011 | 11:07 am · Link
@Trakker:
Yup. The Republicans have known that for what, 40 years?
Dems, not so much.
agrippa - December 30, 2011 | 11:39 am · Link
@amk:
Agreed.
Triassic Sands - December 30, 2011 | 11:41 am · Link
After voter fraud, petition-signing fraud is the most dangerous threat to Republicans. Poor babies.
agrippa - December 30, 2011 | 11:43 am · Link
@Samara Morgan:
Fail.
ignominious fail
agrippa - December 30, 2011 | 11:46 am · Link
@PeakVT:
True.
That is an idea that many have decided not to understand.
Trakker - December 30, 2011 | 12:03 pm · Link
@amk: I respectfully disagree. No committed lefty I know stayed home in 2010. The people who stayed home are those who aren’t that political but lean Democratic but need to be energized to vote. Yes, that may be a sad commentary on America, but the right has learned this lesson and that is why their leadership keeps throwing red meat to their voters throughout the year. This is politics 101 and the Democrats have yet to learn this lesson.
You can try to scold everyone who didn’t show up in 2010 but I doubt you will find many of them here.
RalfW - December 30, 2011 | 12:25 pm · Link
@Trakker:
It gather you’re not suggesting this tactic, but I sure see it pop up a lot. Who besides angry idiots thinks scolding works?
TenguPhule - December 30, 2011 | 12:40 pm · Link
Let me say that if this actually goes through, the only legitimite recourse left is the assassination of Walker.
And no jury would convict.
Benjamin Franklin - December 30, 2011 | 12:41 pm · Link
Anger is the enemy of instruction.
Mnemosyne - December 30, 2011 | 12:45 pm · Link
@RalfW:
Some people seem to think that pointing out the consequences of someone’s action (or lack of it) counts as scolding and we should never, ever point out that, hey, maybe if more Wisconsin liberals had voted in the last election, this guy might not have been elected in the first place.
You have to be careful not to slide into “toldjaso!” but IMO it’s not rude to remind people that elections have consequences and, if you don’t vote, you don’t get to complain about those consequences.
Benjamin Franklin - December 30, 2011 | 12:49 pm · Link
The contrarian, G. Carlin had a different view.
Mnemosyne - December 30, 2011 | 1:16 pm · Link
@Benjamin Franklin:
Okay, now you’ve managed to send me off into a rant. :-)
George Carlin is part of the 60s generation that got us into this fucked-up mess in the first place by deciding that they were too good for electoral politics and, since the revolution was coming, they didn’t have to bother to vote.
Well, the revolution came, only it was the Reagan Revolution, and it happened because assholes like Carlin thought voting wasn’t important enough to bother with despite being the generation that saw people literally die to secure the right to vote.
Fuck George Carlin. Seriously, he helped create the problem and now he’s going to whine about it? Fuck him.
Benjamin Franklin - December 30, 2011 | 1:19 pm · Link
@Mnemosyne:
From what I’ve seen, that’s not difficult. You should develop a sense of humor.
burnspbesq - December 30, 2011 | 1:22 pm · Link
@Benjamin Franklin:
Being contrarian is neither a necessary nor a sufficient condition for having a clue.
In this case, Carlin didn’t, and if you think he did, then neither do you.
ornerycurmudgeon - December 30, 2011 | 1:25 pm · Link
@amk: Let this be a lesson for the whiny left. You don’t vote, you’re left with fighting rearguard action.
The lesson YOU need to learn is to stop believing voices in your head.
Maybe then you might stop firing on your own allies thinking they are alien badgers coming over the hill in your fake red dawn.
Benjamin Franklin - December 30, 2011 | 1:25 pm · Link
Gawd, save us from angry Millenials.
Mnemosyne - December 30, 2011 | 1:31 pm · Link
@Benjamin Franklin:
God save us from whiny Baby Boomers. If you didn’t want people to be angry at you for fucking up the world, you shouldn’t have fucked up the world.
Oh, and Gen-X, not Millennial. When I graduated from college, people held up “Will Work For Food” signs at the ceremony because it was the middle of the Bush I recession.
Benjamin Franklin - December 30, 2011 | 1:35 pm · Link
A distinction without an angry difference. Still pissed at Mom and Dad for your difficult youth?
FlipYrWhig - December 30, 2011 | 1:37 pm · Link
@Trakker: I agree for the most part with your diagnosis that it was actually the Obama-specific 2008 voters who didn’t stick around to vote in 2010—which, it should be said, was widely predicted as a pitfall of the whole idea of turning out youth and minorities in the first place. But because of that I don’t think that “red meat” is the right prescription, because (though you didn’t use the word) those voters aren’t “the base.” AFAIK, no one has ever been able to figure out how to get those voters to turn out for midterms. At a certain point it starts to seem like a structural problem. Whoever does crack it will be the savior of the Democratic party, especially its left arm.
Mnemosyne - December 30, 2011 | 1:38 pm · Link
@Benjamin Franklin:
My mom died when I was seven years old, so my difficult youth was kind of beyond my parents’ control. But I am always glad that they weren’t Baby Boomers (born in 1938 and 1939, respectively) so I didn’t have to deal with all of the “Aren’t we awesome for going to Woodstock?!” bullshit my friends had to deal with.
My stepmom is a Baby Boomer, but she had her first son at 16, so she didn’t have a lot of time to run around with flowers in her hair.
FlipYrWhig - December 30, 2011 | 1:41 pm · Link
@Trakker: I mean, just as a parallel, I will watch a fair amount of the NBA playoffs, but I just don’t care about the regular season, because it doesn’t seem like very much is at stake and half the teams suck. I assume that’s the way most people feel about the midterm elections. (For that matter, it’s probably the way most people feel about the presidential elections.)
Benjamin Franklin - December 30, 2011 | 1:42 pm · Link
@Mnemosyne:
Sorry about your Mom. i introduced the Carlin quote because I thought it humorous. Mea Culpa. But get off the Boomer thingy. Your generation hasn’t exactly transformed the World.
jheartney - December 30, 2011 | 1:45 pm · Link
@FlipYrWhig:
So who was it that turned out in 2006 and flipped both House and Senate to the Dems?
Cain - December 30, 2011 | 1:46 pm · Link
@amk:
It’s not just Dems, but our professional Left folks who spend most of their time yelling at Obama rather than trying to get Dems in local politics. Get good progressives. If you can’t find a good Dem, find a green party and see if they can do what the Dems can’t (eg Texas)
If we can grow the pool of voters, then we can do something about it… but we’re too busy making all politics at the federal level. (probably because that is where the money is.. after all easier to appeal there than in local politics)
Mnemosyne - December 30, 2011 | 1:49 pm · Link
@Benjamin Franklin:
Yes, I’ve heard plenty of Boomers who got free state university educations tell my generation and those younger than me that we’re just so materialistic for taking corporate jobs that allow us pay off the tens of thousands of dollars in loans we were forced to take out because of tuition hikes at those same state universities.
But, hey, George Carlin named the seven dirty words you can’t say on television, so we’re even, right?
DanielX - December 30, 2011 | 1:54 pm · Link
@TenguPhule: Don’t EVEN go there. Advocating the assassination of any public official is just about guaranteed to bring unwanted attention to you and those with whom you debate. If you WANT to have a personal interview with humorless men in dark suits, that’s the way to do it. If you don’t think this site and others like it, left and right, are monitored, you’re naive at best.
Also, too…one of the major differences between this site and say, RedState is that a whole lot of the commentary on RedState and other sites of that persuasion features references to shooting, hanging and otherwise doing violence to political opponents. I don’t know how to put this other than ‘we aren’t them’.
Don’t mean to be self-righteous or a scold, but referring to assassination as “the only legitimate recourse” under any circumstances gets on my nerves even if it is an old American tradition. Maybe that’s why it gets on my nerves.
Benjamin Franklin - December 30, 2011 | 1:54 pm · Link
Talk about ‘whiney’. Next he’ll be screaming “You baby boomers are eating all the cat food!”
FlipYrWhig - December 30, 2011 | 2:01 pm · Link
@jheartney: Good point. I don’t remember anyone saying it was due to a surge of youth and minorities, though, as opposed to a decline in Republican core constituencies demoralized by Bush. But the polling on 2010 suggested instead that the liberals you’d think would be demoralized by Obama’s setbacks actually did turn out to vote; the ones who didn’t were apparently the infrequent and first-time voters who were fired up for Obama in particular.
Mnemosyne - December 30, 2011 | 2:10 pm · Link
@Benjamin Franklin:
I do find it funny that the Baby Boomers are now flinging the same “overprivileged” and “spoiled” accusations at the Millennials that were once flung at them when they were the same age that the Millennials are now. Almost like it has more to do with commonplace conflict between generations than with Millennials being particularly spoiled, innit?
Benjamin Franklin - December 30, 2011 | 2:14 pm · Link
@Mnemosyne:
I’m just happy you see some humor, somewhere.
jheartney - December 30, 2011 | 2:15 pm · Link
@FlipYrWhig: I don’t know enough about the demographics of the 2006 electorate to tell who was in it, though there is a very long tradition of midterms going against the party with the WH. This seems most pronounced in the midterm immediately following a new Dem administration (based on a grand total of two examples – 1994 and 2010).
If Obama follows the Clinton model, he’ll win reelection, but the second term will degenerate into a loud standoff. (Not sure how this would play out in the absence of a Monica-type imbroglio. If the goopers retain the House they’d have to think of something to impeach Obama over.)
Mnemosyne - December 30, 2011 | 2:17 pm · Link
@Benjamin Franklin:
Yeah, it’s so weird how I don’t find the Baby Boomers’ proud abdication of their responsibilities as citizens to be humorous, especially when they then scold the rest of us for actually taking elections seriously and thinking that politics matter. Just one of those things, I guess.
Yutsano - December 30, 2011 | 2:25 pm · Link
@Benjamin Franklin:
Who’s he?
Benjamin Franklin - December 30, 2011 | 2:26 pm · Link
@Mnemosyne:
WTF are you on? Limbaugh wants to know…
Benjamin Franklin - December 30, 2011 | 2:27 pm · Link
@Yutsano:
A thread infection, apparently.
RalfW - December 30, 2011 | 2:27 pm · Link
@Mnemosyne: I agree. Naming consequences is fine. If some view that as scolding, tough.
RalfW - December 30, 2011 | 2:30 pm · Link
@FlipYrWhig: Turnout is higher in Presdentials than the following Congressional. Maybe the effect was increased by a couple percentage points this time due to Obama excitement among first time voters (young ppl and traditional non-voters). Returning to type isn’t, IMO, Obama’s fault, not that you said it was.
Mnemosyne - December 30, 2011 | 2:40 pm · Link
@Benjamin Franklin:
Dude, have you already forgotten what was in the Carlin quote that you posted? Maybe you need to get your memory tested.
ETA: And Yutsano was pointing out to you that I am a she, not a he. Pronoun trouble.
Baron Jrod of Keeblershire - December 30, 2011 | 2:45 pm · Link
@FlipYrWhig:
Nationwide voting by mail with automatic registration for every eligible person who gets an id or pays taxes. Also make Voting Day a federal holiday. Maybe have polls open over a three day weekend. You know, in case some would prefer to drop off their ballots rather than mailing them in.
These may not really be solutions, as people could still choose not to vote, but they would certainly help. Of course, Republicans would battle all of these changes with a fury, since their entire electoral strategy now revolves around suppressing turnout.
Benjamin Franklin - December 30, 2011 | 2:48 pm · Link
@Mnemosyne:
Get a sense of humor, lady. Your health will benefit.
Petulance is cute in a pre-teen; not so much in later years.
Interrobang - December 30, 2011 | 3:38 pm · Link
@Benjamin Franklin: Piss off with the sexism. Shit, if I had a nickel for every time I heard a man tell a woman she had no sense of humour (cue the late unlamented Teh Hitch on how wimminz aren’t funneh) and use other sort of bullshit language to demean her (“petulance”? “not cute”?, WTF do you think she’s doing, entering the Little Miss Hangtag pageant?!), I wouldn’t be sitting here goldbricking at my corporate job on the Friday afternoon before New Year’s. I’d be on a swanky beach somewhere, maybe Eilat, eating pareve desserts and watching the sun set over the mountains.
Bill Arnold - December 30, 2011 | 3:56 pm · Link
@Mnemosyne:
This.
If you don’t vote, then you are irrelevant.
(Unless you influence the votes of at least several other people in one direction. Influencing another voter into irrelevance-by-not-voting counts for at most 1/2 a vote.)
Bill Arnold - December 30, 2011 | 4:01 pm · Link
@DanielX:
This. Also, there is always the immeasurable risk of incitement-of-the-unstable.
Benjamin Franklin - December 30, 2011 | 4:05 pm · Link
@Interrobang:
Well, if you were a student of context instead of a mouth-breather you would have seen I didn’t even know the gender. As it is, a sense-of-humor deficit is not the sole provence of females. But you go ahead and build your bonfires.
Mnemosyne - December 30, 2011 | 4:12 pm · Link
@Benjamin Franklin:
Yawn. If I had a dollar for the number of guys who told me I needed to get a sense of humor because I didn’t laugh at their racist or sexist “joke,” I could have retired at 30. I’m afraid I’m immune to the “well, you just need a better sense of humor to understand why Andrew ‘Dice’ Clay is so funny” accusation at this point in my life.
Sorry I don’t find George Carlin’s proud abdication of his responsibilities as a citizen to be funny. I’ve found other stuff of his funny, but not that.
Benjamin Franklin - December 30, 2011 | 4:18 pm · Link
First it’s ‘sexism’, now ‘racism’.
“We’re building the ‘Burning Man’ out of straw, this year, folks.
Get your over-priced tickets, now”
FlipYrWhig - December 30, 2011 | 4:23 pm · Link
@Baron Jrod of Keeblershire: I always liked the voting day holiday idea myself.
Mnemosyne - December 30, 2011 | 5:04 pm · Link
@Benjamin Franklin:
If you don’t want to be accused of sexism, don’t try to play the “chicks need to get a sense of humor” card when you find out you’re arguing against a woman.
Benjamin Franklin - December 30, 2011 | 5:10 pm · Link
@Mnemosyne:
You are fundamentally dishonest. Begone….ppffffft…
The Mahablog » When Freedom Is Dictatorship - December 31, 2011 | 1:38 pm · Link
[...] I read that Scott Walker is trying to use a conservative judge to have Wisconsin’s recall law declared unconstitutional. This is how many totalitarian governments start, you know; not with tanks in the street but with [...]