You know, if the teahadists want to stop being compared to brownshirts, they might want to stop acting like them:
Tea Party members have started challenging voter registration applications and have announced plans to question individual voters at the polls whom they suspect of being ineligible.
In response, liberal groups and voting rights advocates are sounding an alarm, claiming that such strategies are scare tactics intended to suppress minority and poor voters.
In St. Paul, organizers from the Tea Party and related groups announced this week that they were offering a $500 reward for anyone who turned in someone who was successfully prosecuted for voter fraud.
The group is also organizing volunteer “surveillance squads” to photograph and videotape what it suspects are irregularities, and in some cases to follow buses that take voters to the polls.
In Milwaukee last week, several community groups protested the posting of large billboards throughout the city that show pictures of people behind jail bars under the words “We Voted Illegally.” The protesters said the posters — it was not clear who paid for them — were intended to intimidate people from voting.
In Houston, a Tea Party group called the King Street Patriots recently accused a voter registration group, Houston Votes, of turning in voter registration applications with incorrect information.
I’ve never heard of anything so obscene. By what authority can they do this? And why will they not be arrested en masse for voter intimidation?
And does anyone want to take a wild guess what criteria these “patriots” are going to use to determine who should be questioned? But then again, as DougJ noted, two guys did stand on a street corner in “black panther garb” in 2008, so both sides do it…
morzer
Those SS “re-enactment” uniforms are going to come in mighty handy for someone….
J.A.F. Rusty Shackleford
It’s the same
authorityauthoritah that Joe Miller’s private security cited when they arrested the reporter in Alaska at a public event held in a public place.morzer
I am sure Clarence Thomas can whip something up with a little help from his friends.
Comrade Luke
The solution: nationwide voting by mail.
MattR
As long as they are not dressed up as Black Panthers, it is all good.
anticontrarian
Rusty beat me to it, but I’d add that, to them, it’s probably their God-given duty as citizens to make sure that only the right people vote, because after all, their political enemies and other non-members of their tribe are illegally-immigrated god-hating liberal socialist muslim-loving terrorist-coddlers who must be stopped at all costs.
To paraphrase Peter Arnett, it’s become necessary to destroy America to save it.
kdaug
“Waiting to put on a black shirt.
Waiting to weed out the weaklings.
Waiting to smash in their windows
And kick in their doors.
Waiting for the final solution
To strengthen the strain.
Waiting to follow the worms.”
C’mon everybody, sing along!
beltane
Does this mean that voters now have to show up at polling stations armed with pepper spray? If one of those scumbags wants to try to interfere with my right to vote they should be willing to pay a price.
Gravenstone
@Comrade Luke: Which will just spur them to kill of the US Post Office even faster. Gotta trim the Federal deficit fat, don’tchaknow?
freelancer
They didn’t know what “Teabagger” meant til it was too late and somebody embarrassingly had to point them to Urban Dictionary. They didn’t know what Brown shirts were til someone pointed it out to them:
Voter intimidation. By people who, as TBogg has said, are so dumb they probably stick their tongues into wall sockets to see what electricity tastes like.
morzer
Can we perform citizens’ arrests in response to attempted intimidation? What’s the legal situation here? Any lawyers in da house?
Also too: if my back hurts that day, can I use my feet/katana/Kalashnikov?
gbear
It’s a lost cause for teabaggers in St. Paul. Even if they weeded out half of the non-white voters, democrats would still get 2/3 of the votes.
I hope the teabaggers get the shit beaten out of them.
Hunter Gathers
Their classification as Real Merikans. The ‘librul’ media will give them cover, conservatives in and out of government will give them support, and the fact that most voters don’t seem to give a shit anymore will allow them to get away with it. The next two years are going to be one long clusterfuck, even if the GOPers don’t take the House. Get ready for more curb stomping, along with ‘second amendment solutions’.
ice9
I wonder what can be done to counter this disgusting behavior. Perhaps I’ll turn myself in? I live near St. Paul. What if we all turned ourselves in? Sadly, I’m a pale white guy with three kids hanging on my arm, probably not on their profile.
On the other hand, this may be an excellent way to recruit black and latino voters…encourage them to register, then come out and act suspicious, maybe go in and come out a dozen times, exchange some currency with me–all to fuck with the minds of a bunch of paranoid dimwits with wet panties and an incomplete grasp of the Bill of Rights.
ice9
Jewish Steel
I can well guess their criteria. Woe be unto the foolish chump who challenges chairman of the Democratic party in Milwaukee, though. That dude can handle himself.
spudvol
Voting is a privilege, not a right.
Love,
Adolph
General Stuck
Now that ACORN is kaput, all attention for diabolical dem election stealing via MASSIVE fraud is focused on the liberal lord of the dark side, George Soros. Led by wingnut lawyers and the idiot former senator Norm Coleman, who has his panties in a wedge due to a commie Soros plot to make sure every vote gets counted. Which wingnuts are against, unless they are ahead. See Bush V Gore.
Actually, while very annoying, and possibly distracting from people actually getting to vote in the short run, the wild eyed firing in every direction by the wingers, I take as a long term omen toward their electoral demise. They see the writing on the wall as more minorities become voters, and they cannot control the bigot wing of the GOP chasing these new voters to the dem camp. It is as much a cry for help as anything. And when the democratic worm turns toward white folks losing their majority population status, we will be faced with something else more ominous. It is when they go quiet, the time to worry.
El Cid
Amazing coincidences.
No one could have anticipated.
But who needed all those extra Democratic voters anyway? After all, better lose all the things ACORN did than seem like we’re standing up to right wing race baiters.
morzer
@Jewish Steel:
With a name like Jewish Steel, I am guessing you aren’t going to take too much garbage from these schmucks, amirite?
beltane
@freelancer: From the viewpoint of their masters, it’s better that these folks are of not quite human intelligence. They are a paramilitary force, there for brute force only. With youth unemployment so high, it might not be a bad idea for the under 30 crowd to organize into civil defense groups. I personally wouldn’t mind seeing a video of a mob of fit, angry young people swarm around some of these diabetic, man-boobed, Gestapo wannabees.
Cacti
No less a luminary than former Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist used to participate in minority vote suppression.
Minorities tend to not vote for the
whiteright party, ergo they must be stopped, lawfully or not.Face
I believe the ratios the MM are currently using are 30 cameras/teatard arrest and 72 minutes of coverage/teatard incident.
John PM
@morzer:
I know in Illinois the Democrats are going to have poll watchers at the polls where “those kind of people” vote in order to try to prevent voter intimidation. However, I would love to see a handful of overweight, middle-aged white guys try to observe voters at 95th Street and the Dan Ryan, for example. So what I think they really mean is that they are going to stay in their mostly white neighborhoods and try to scare off the few minorities who live there.
Also, it seems to me that people who try to videotape people going to vote might be violating the privacy of the voters, since presumably the videotapers would not have asked permission. I believe that Illinois has a law on the books making it illegal to video tape police in the line of duty. I am sure that some enterprising lawyer could argue by anology that private citizens videotaping other private citizens going to vote should be subject to civil or criminal penalties.
I also think that a lawyer in Cook County could get a temporary restraining order if someone announces plans to engage in activity that sounds like voter intimidation. Given that every single judge in Cook County is a Democrat, Republicans might not fare very well.
Fern
This is legal?
Comrade Luke
@Gravenstone: I’m guessing the bigger problem is that not every voter has a mailbox, at which point the right will then change their focus to “fraudlent postal addresses” and “mail fraud”.
morzer
@Cacti:
What “Red Billy”? A secret fascist? You shock me, deeply. He seemed so… plump and happy at Beltway cocktail parties.
beltane
@gbear: I hope so too. When I see them brutally attacking petite women, it tells me they’re not really prepared to be on the receiving end of such treatment.
NR
@El Cid: This is the new Democratic party. “Bipartisanship” is more important than anything else, even the right to vote.
morzer
@John PM:
I wonder whether a plan of systematic videoing and citizens’ arrests might be enough to send the rabble back to their sunset towns. Can we legally perform a citizen’s arrest under circumstances of attempted intimidation?
jwb
@beltane: What you have to worry about is the unemployed youth being hired to play the thugs for the Teabaggers. That’s the real danger. And with another year of a bad economy it becomes a distinct possibility.
NineJean
Easy solutions — “motor voter” registrations, then vote by mail. Love Oregon, been doing this for years, no problem.
Mike in NC
A couple of weeks ago they held a Candidates’ Night at the local community college. I had to work late, but read that several hundred people attended. It was pretty civil until the incumbent Blue Dog congressman had to debate the GOP/Tea Party opponent. The heavily biased audience of teabaggers booed him and generally shouted him down whenever he tried to make his point.
Good times!
beltane
@jwb: The teabaggers are about as appealing to young people as their grannie’s girdles. While the youth may well become radicalized, it will be along other lines than the Fox News/Geritol/scooter model. As the corporatocracy consolidates power, it will attract enemies in unexpected places.
kommrade reproductive vigor
Voter Fraud: The act of casting a ballot when performed by a non-Republican.
However, as someone noted above, these schmucks will talk tough but decide they have “other priorities” on E-Day. More of this is what we will see:
Fine, we’ll remember that if Repugs do well in the elections. No, no. No take backs motherfuckers. You live by the made up bullshit, you die by the made up bullshit.
Gus
@gbear: Exactly. I wish I’d get confronted by these asshats, but I live in one of the most liberal neighborhoods in frickin’ Minneapolis. Not a lot of tea partiers in my neck of the woods.
sven
@El Cid:
Interestingly, Democratic officials take a lot less criticism once they are no longer in office…
noncarborundum
@General Stuck:
He’s working to re-elect the Senate Republican minority?
Bulworth
No one could have predicted…
Zam
@Mike in NC: The congressional debate here in my district was full of teabaggers making shitloads of noise. The moderator had to stop debate and shut them up multiple times. The rules were simple and stated multiple times, no crowd noise til after the debate. Yet these people couldn’t go one response without making their opinion heard. We couldn’t even get to the last 2 questions because of the time they wasted.
Brachiator
Every now and then, I get the feeling that the New Civil War has begun. Step by step, the Tea Party People do something new that reeks of authoritarianism or scapegoating, and always in the name of “taking the country” back.
As a related aside, I have been catching up on California politics related podcasts. I listened to an interview with the gubernatorial candidate from the American Independent Party. She coldly suggested that laws be enacted to prevent illegal immigrant children from attending public schools. When asked what the parents should do, she blithely suggested that they home school their kids.
These people clearly believe that voting is a fundamental right only for right thinking Real Americans. They don’t believe in general human rights at all.
These people will keep coming. More money will be poured into political campaigns backing Tea Party candidates even if they do poorly in the upcoming elections.
Oh well, I’m up for a good fight.
Jewish Steel
@morzer
You damn right. However, my poling place is in the professorial heart of the white side of town. Not likely to be a lot of action there. Like most northern towns it’s highly segregated. Anyone practicing voter intimidation on the West Side is unlikely to practice it for long.
Alas, my looks would suggest I should be called ‘Welsh Steel’ so I’ll never be directly confronted. Pity.
Gravenstone
@Comrade Luke: Yeah, yeah I know – the goalposts are forever in motion in Greater Wingnuttia.
jwb
@beltane: I agree at the moment. I pray that you’re right about the future.
junebug
You can’t have any electronic devices on in polling stations in Harris County (where Houston is). The King Street Patriots got in a little trouble for that Monday before last when early voting started. It seemed like they tested the limits of what they could get away with — only going to early voting places in minority communities, leaning over the shoulders of voters, taking pictures with their cells etc. They ended up getting the County D.A. and the Justice Dept. involved.
When I went to vote this weekend in my minority neighborhood, they were there, but the people running the polling place were literally running the place. They were kind of bossy, but in a good way. The King Streeters seemed a little cowed and or bored. They had nothing to do.
I almost waited until next Tuesday to vote. I’d love to see the little old ladies who run my precinct boss some teabaggers around.
Honus
“In Houston, a Tea Party group called the King Street Patriots recently accused a voter registration group, Houston Votes, of turning in voter registration applications with incorrect information.”
Because by law, you have to turn in every voter registration application. The registrar determines which are valid. You can’t just throw out the ones you don’t like.
Omnes Omnibus
Look, if we could just restrict voting to white male property owner who have attained the age of 21 years like it says in the Bible, none of these things would be an issue.
Left Coast Tom
@Brachiator:
Was she Pete Wilson’s (aka Pete Weasel) wife? At least, that’s what I thought Prop. 187 was.
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
I wonder if some GOTV effort should be spent at these polling places. You wouldn’t have to do a whole lot: Every time you see a bagger go up to someone just stand beside them as well, maybe saying things like “I bet you want to get in there and vote now, huh?”
jwb
@kommrade reproductive vigor: Well, considering that the Goopers are committing it even as we speak, I say they are just talking about themselves. That’s one thing I’ve noticed over and over about the wingnuts: you rarely go wrong presuming everything they say is projection.
asiangrrlMN
@gbear: Except with the independent party ALWAYS receiving roughly 10% of the vote, there is a slim chance batshitcrazyinsane Emmer will win. Fucker.
I see we have several MN people on this board. What say we do a little voter intimidation of our own?
@beltane: You beat me to it. This fucking enrages me. I am not the minority they are targeting, but one never knows. I think I will take my handy-dandy rusty pitchfork with me when I vote. I, too, live in a mostly-liberal area, but we have a heavy sprinkling of the ‘baggers.
@rikyrah: Right now, I am furious enough to HOPE you’re right. The motherfucking nerve of some people.
morzer
@Jewish Steel:
I am so ridiculously white I look like a caricature of the Englishman abroad. Still, that won’t stop me exploring the uses of a good right hook if one of those sad fat bastards tries appealing to our shared “white” heritage. I refuse to let a perfectly good skin color be shamed by that pathetic gang of small-town fascists and crack-brained bigots. Next one who tries it with me gets his Joe Arpaio pink underwear rammed down his throat until it hits Texas.
rikyrah
nobody is playing with these people. and, they think they’re just going to roll up on Black folks and do this shyt?
don’t start none. won’t be none.
but, I get the feeling that they believe they should be able to do what they want ‘ just cause’… and they’re gonna roll up on the WRONG folks. ……
morzer
@Omnes Omnibus:
Just make sure your Bible’s the American version in the original English. None of that bloody Middle Eastern rubbish.
GregB
Bill O’Reilly is whipping up his goons in order to deal with the Muslim problem and Sharon Angle looks like she’s eager to handle the Hispanic problem.
Does anyone think that a close Franken/Coleman race is going to be handled by the Marquess of Queensbury Rules this time around?
This time the Brooks Brothers will be strapped with Glocks.
Omnes Omnibus
@morzer: Well, duh.
morzer
@GregB:
You’ve hit on one major reason for the yapping about voter fraud. Any race that’s close will immediately be dragged through the courts so that Democrats can’t be seated. Think how many months Al Franken was cheated of the right to represent his constituents. Think what the GOP might do if it can delay certification of a couple of Senate seats.
gbear
@gbear:
Even if they
weeded outdenied voting rights to half of the non-white voters…Edited so that I sound a little less like a jackass. Sorry.
Omnes Omnibus
One of my second cousins posted a message on Facebook reminding people to “take out the garbage on Nov. 2.” Isn’t that clever? Most of my family is sane politically, but a few cousins are out there…
ETA: This cousin lives in Arizona and has taken up shooting as her new hobby. She just got a .40 cal. “purse gun.”
Luckily, since they moved to AZ, these guys no longer come to my parents’ house for X-mas.
morzer
@Omnes Omnibus:
How many heads does your cousin have? I hear that in the backwoods even perfectly good families sometimes produce… oddities.
gbear
@asiangrrlMN: I really don’t think Emmer is going to come up with the votes. I think that Hoerner is going to take more votes from Emmer than from Dayton. Pawlenty never even got 50% of the vote and Emmer is obviously more radical than Pawlenty without any of the fake charm.
& Welcome back. Hope your break was fun. Has your roof blown off yet tonight? I’ve been running out evey hour or so to bring stuff back into my yard.
John Bird
This is going to work out great for them for about five minutes until they harass somebody who decides to do something harsher than politely ignore them. At which point they will be clearly criminally interfering with the vote.
Omnes Omnibus
@morzer: Just one head, but she has never been too bright.
ETA: My grandmother, who will be 89 next week, on the other hand, dragged her ass to the polls in 2008 to proudly vote for the “colored guy.” So that’s good.
Seebach
Folks, what do you do when family members send you facebook messages saying Obama spends too much time on vacation? My head just exploded, and I cannot cope. Obama. On vacation. Too much. And these are Bush voters. WHy god why?
morzer
@asiangrrlMN:
How do we intimidate Minnesotans? Do we threaten them with Favre for four more years if they vote GOP?
John Bird
@General Stuck:
This is the exact flavor of bullshit that has sustained the Republican Party for years.
Mysteriously, a completely clean election manages to elect unelected dictators. It’s convenient because they’re the people you don’t agree with. The guy behind it? A JEWISH FINANCIER. Perhaps THE RED CHINESE. The solution? Republicans.
It’s actually pretty old-school, in my opinion. Glenn Beck’s got a whole little world whirling around on his chalkboard, with non-profits you’ve never even HEARD of, somewhere a couple ranks above Putin and the Crowleyan cult in Buckingham Palace.
morzer
@Seebach:
Write back asking why their brains have been on vacation for the last ten years.
asiangrrlMN
@gbear: I hope you’re right. I have heard from a Dem friend that several of her rabidly Dem friends are stumping for Horner. I would like to believe that Horner will grab more of the Emmer votes than the Dayton votes, but I don’t have that much faith in our fickle Dems. Plus, Republicans vote Republican. Pawlenty won with less than 50% each time, it’s true. That, in my mind, is one reason I’m wary of an Emmer win. The Democrats (as in voters) just can’t help themselves.
At any rate, I’ll be nervously watching the returns.
Thanks for the welcome back! I had a lot of fun in NC, but it sure fucked with my schedule (even more than normal).
In cheerier news: SNOW!
@morzer: Ouch! A palpable hit! No, we just threaten to take away their hot dish and lutefisk.
Omnes Omnibus
@morzer: Threaten to add spices to the food.
morzer
@asiangrrlMN:
This sounds somewhat hopeful:
http://politicsinminnesota.com/blog/2010/10/scsu-poll-dayton-over-emmer-horner-gains/
asiangrrlMN
@Seebach: Well, there’s this from factcheck.org as to the vacations taken by recent presidents during their first year of office. However, I highly doubt that facts will matter at all to the people saying this shit.
John Bird
@asiangrrlMN:
You went to NC during fall break for the university system? What did you do all day?
RalfW
Just like how we should welcome the FBI into our homes if we have nothing to hide. Or to allow super-snooper spy-bots to read all our e-mail if we’re fine, upstanding citizens.
Meanwhile, Congress’s only Muslim clearly doesn’t deserve to serve to be reelected since he held a press conference Tuesday to condemn efforts by groups that he says are trying to intimidate potential voters.
Read it all at MPR.
asiangrrlMN
@Omnes Omnibus: Bwahahahahah! Perfect.
@morzer: Thanks. That’s the most recent poll I’ve seen, and it’s reassuring.
@John Bird: Ha. I went to visit a friend and her family. Went to her son’s soccer game the first night I was there. Chilled the second day. Went to her daughter’s Irish dance competition the third day. Chilled the next. Left the day after. Had a blast.
morzer
@asiangrrlMN:
Sorry, couldn’t help myself. I will say that, if the NFL punishes Favre for something he did while neither he nor Sterger were connected to the league, I would consider it grossly unfair and damn hypocritical. On the other hand, if Deanna cuts his nuts off with a blunt pen-knife.. well, she’s the injured party.
John Bird
@RalfW:
VAT ARE YOU VORRIED ABOUT – ONLY KRIMINALS VILL BE PUNISHED.
morzer
@Omnes Omnibus:
Or vegetables? You know how to make a Minnesota salad?
Fry sausages and bacon, and add deep-fried potatoes for the vegetable content.
gbear
@morzer:
By standing within two feet of us. We need our space or we get nervous.
John Bird
We can only hope that a group of badly lost King Street Patriots attempts to verify the registration of a gaggle of Patriot Street Kings.
Now that would be a Houston election.
morzer
@John Bird:
Superb, sir.
Omnes Omnibus
@morzer: Lacks mayo.
asiangrrlMN
@RalfW: Straight to red with this quote.
He gets Roto-Rootered for that remark. I fucking HATE that supercilious crap.
@morzer: Wait, what? I thought it happened while he was a J-E-T and she was reporting? I haven’t been following the story too closely, obviously.
@gbear: That’s so very true.
ETA: Not yet, knock on wood. The winds are amazing.
RalfW
@morzer: I loved that Pawlenty went to the press to say that if Emmer isn’t elected, then T-paw’s policies will not live past his term.
Uhh, dude, you’re helping Dayton. The majority of Minnesotan’s hate your policies and surely don’t want a meaner version of you in the Governors mansion enforcing Pawlenty 2.0.
A lot of us think you should just stay away since you love campaigning for President out of state so much. Oops, I mean exploring your options and supporting fellow GOP-ers.
morzer
@Omnes Omnibus:
Well, if you are going to demand dressing as well as salad…
jwb
@John Bird: It’s all projection. Just take everything they accuse their opponents of doing and assume that’s what they are doing. Basically, they are trying to justify their own actions, which is why it takes the form of projection, but it’s all very obvious once you know to look.
Zam
@gbear: All my yard signs blew away :(
jwb
@asiangrrlMN: “The Democrats (as in voters) just can’t help themselves.” It doesn’t help that the Democrats (as in politicians) just can’t help themselves either.
morzer
@asiangrrlMN:
The version I have seen says that the messages happened in 2009, when they were both at a loose end, so to speak. Favre denies the pictures. I imagine the Commissioner will handle the relevant evidence with a gentle touch. And rubber gloves.
MattR
Part of me is a bit disappointed that I don’t get to witness any of these thugs. Even more, since I would like to stick my vote in their face, I wish I could trade places with another voter and deal with the intimidation attempts so that they don’t have to.
@morzer: Thankfully they should be able to verify where the pictures came from technologically and they won’t have to try and verify the images themselves.
Omnes Omnibus
@morzer: Shudder. I hate mayonnaise. I. Hate. It. It triggers an instant gag reflex. I am a bad WASP.
morzer
@Omnes Omnibus:
I like it, but avoid it as bad for my health. Which is why my beloved wife has just made a vat of the stuff, for no particular reason. Damn good mayo, alas.
asiangrrlMN
@jwb: Sigh. You are so right. However, as I told my friend, this year, no excuses. After eight years of Pawlenty, I’m voting straight Dem. I have voted third-party in the past, but not this year.
To be honest, I have my reservations about Dayton, though.
@RalfW: I hadn’t heard that Pawlenty said that in support of Emmer. Yeah, it’s so bad, even stalwart Republicans are furious with Pawlenty. Asshat. And still, if it were Pawlenty v. Emmer, I would vote for Pawlenty in a heartbeat. Ugh.
@Omnes Omnibus: I stopped using it decades ago, and I stopped liking the taste of it after that. I am a very bad WASP, which is fine as I am not a WASP at all.
sfinny
Any type of voter intimidation is unlikely in my area, and given that several of the election workers are neighbors who know me well, I don’t expect any problems.
One thing that really bothers me about this election is that my co-workers, mostly republican or independents that listen to alot of Fox, Limbaugh, Savage, etc. have made comments about Obama and social*ism. When I replied that being a liberal was no bar against being a good american, they were hesitant at the least in affirming that ideal. This after working with some of these people for more than twenty years. They know me, and yet buy into a lot of the crap spewed on the radio about how radical democrats, Pelosi, Obama, Reid are. I know that the industry I work in is dominated by republicans and republican leaning interest groups, but up until the last year or so I never felt personal hostility. I feel it now.
Last year I had a guy at the local gas station stop when he say an Obama bumper sticker on my car, and he asked ‘Did you actually vote for that guy?’ I just said ‘yes’ because it was the truth and the first thing that came to mind. Nothing further happened, but the incident played on my mind. In all my years nobody has ever asked me about my vote, and given that I live in NY, a state that voted for Obama, why even bring it up?
Well, enough about my long-winded thoughts for the evening. And for me the only excuse for mayonnaise is a tomato sandwich, with a perfectly ripe, recently picked tomato with a little salt. Otherwise, mustard all the way.
Jewish Steel
@morzer
Ha! Yeah, I can find 3 of me in any old picture of Welsh coal miners I’ve ever seen. An absurdly plummy voice to go with it.
When old fools parrot that line about the white male being the most oppressed etc it always makes me scratch my head. I can clearly remember the very day I started getting treated like a 1st class citizen. It was the very day I went out into the world and actually looked like a grown white man. Since then my life, while not being a cake walk, has been pretty easy. That is to say, most things I want to do are within my grasp. And that is largely because of my appearance plus my inheritance of a particular type of Western culture. Any white male who cannot make a reasonable success of their lives in this society with the deck stacked soooo high in their favor is either tragically unlucky or a complete idiot.
And consistently, a teapartier.
morzer
@MattR:
I must admit I find some malicious amusement in the prospect of the rather self-consciously virtuous Commissioner diligently handling Favre’s swizzle-stick. Favre seems to be saying that the sausage in question ain’t from his pig, so it may come down to a ritual examination of said sausage by worthy men and fine upstanding citizens.
morzer
@sfinny:
I probably should move to Minnesota, since I used to love a sandwich made up of salami, cheddar cheese and mayonnaise on white bread. Ah, the glory days!
asiangrrlMN
@sfinny: I’m a mustard gal myself.
@Jewish Steel: Well, to be fair, we have to add class to that list. Class is a big barrier as well.
@morzer: Ew. Just…ew. The idea of handling Favre’s grey badger…EW! Brain bleach in aisle three!
ETA: Salami is too exotic for MN, so you would be looked at in askance.
jwb
@asiangrrlMN: Yup, I voted straight Dem as well. One race pitted a Gooper against a Libertarian (with no Dem running). That one stumped me.
gbear
@morzer: You’ll have to switch to summer sausage.
asiangrrlMN
@jwb: Oh crap. I think I would have left that one blank. Stupid question: How do you vote early?
morzer
@jwb:
Vomit on the shoes of both candidates, and proceed with a serene sense of having overperformed on your civic duty.
Yutsano
@asiangrrlMN:
Heh. I saw what you did there hon.
And mayonnaise, even homemade, is death on a butter knife. And ten times as disgusting. My mom tried to buy me a jar once, the look I gave her would have frozen Arizona in July.
morzer
@gbear:
What dat?
Kryptik
Like I said before, how else do you think Republicans are going to combat that little demographic problem? Disenfranchisement.
God help us if they succeed.
morzer
@Yutsano:
So next time Brewer opens her yap, we just ship the two of you down there, and set you loose in the grocery store together?
asiangrrlMN
@Yutsano: Hey, babe! Whazzup? You’re another in the no-mayo camp? Woot-woot! How’s my federal shill doing?
@morzer: If you have to ask, you cannot live in Minnesota.
@Zuzu’s Petals: If you’re W., it’s a weekend. If you’re Obama, it’s a vacation.
ETA: Saturday is supposed to be 35 and snowy. I’m going to be in a sundress (Halloween party). That’s a tad cold even for me.
Zuzu's Petals
@asiangrrlMN:
What you said/linked. Especially the fact that leaving town for the weekend is not a vacation. It’s a weekend, just like it is for anyone.
James E. Powell
@Brachiator:
The New Civil War started when LBJ & the Democrats passed the Civil Rights Act, the Fair Employment Act, and the Voting Rights Act. It’s been going on steadily since then and the good guys have been losing all the battles, but will win the long war by the awesome power of birthrates.
George Wallace led the neo-Confederate attack in 1968. Since then, the Republicans have used both blatant and subtle racist messages to argue against voting for the Democratic candidate in every single election.
The Republicans are almost never called to task for their racist politics because:
1) the Democrats believe that they “lost” the white working class and middle class because Democrats supported a few things that African Americans supported, so they are not going to call anyone racist, and
2) the people who own the Republican Party also own the press/media and they are never going to run with a story that exposes the Republicans’ racist politics.
Omnes Omnibus
@morzer: A softer, less spicy sausage than salami. It is common, not to say ubiquitous, in the upper Midwest.
morzer
@asiangrrlMN:
I don’t believe Minnesota allows early voting. More info on all things voting here:
http://www.sos.state.mn.us/index.aspx?page=1530
Ash Can
@John PM: This. I mean, really, what would these idiots do here in and around Chicago? Go to Pilsen or Englewood or Grand Crossing? That’d be the day. Maybe they’d try pulling their bullshit in an upscale mixed neighborhood like Oak Park, where they’d promptly get their asses kicked. Or maybe they’d decide to go after all the Indians and assorted Muslims in DuPage County. That could be interesting. The other pasty whites out there would back them up, defend their “right” to make sure only eligible voters voted — until they found out that the people getting fucked with were their friends and neighbors and doctors and accountants and lawyers, at which point asses would get kicked. Or they’d do it until a pollworker came out and explained that, with our voting process, it’s us pollworkers who are legally charged with checking eligibility, not you, now beat it before I kick your ass.
As for me, I live in a pasty white neighborhood and am pasty white myself. There are a few folks of various color living here, though, and most of them are part of the neighborhood grade-school-parent network. If any TeaDouchebag Patriots tried fucking with any of them, said Patriots would find their asses on the receiving end of a kicking they’d never forget, courtesy of the rest of us moms and dads.
jwb
@asiangrrlMN: I did leave it blank since I hadn’t researched it (knowing that I was going into the voting booth voting a straight ticket). Early voting started here (TX) last week. One of the benefits of voting early is that the parties get the list of those who have voted and so stop calling you once you vote. One unusual thing is that I’ve been polled three times this election season (including once on my cell phone), which is more times than I’ve polled previously altogether.
@morzer: I wish I’d thought of that. That’s certainly how I felt.
morzer
@Omnes Omnibus:
Does it contain a variety of alarming ingredients, in the manner of a typical sausage?
Mnemosyne
@Seebach:
I would ask them why they’re too lazy to come up with their own criticisms of Obama and just keep recycling the exact same ones that lefties made of Bush. Ask them for some originality, damn it, rather than just doing a search-and-replace of lefty blog posts about Bush and putting Obama’s name in instead.
There are few things that annoy conservatives more than being told that their memes are old and tired.
Calouste
@General Stuck:
Note that there is no mention of who this voter fraud is going to be committed by. But considered they are so sure about it, the Republican National Lawyers Association might have a short line to the perpetrators.
Moses2317
Not to be a broken record or anything, but fight back against these voter suppression efforts by signing up to do voter protection on November 2.
Winning Progressive
Omnes Omnibus
@morzer: I don’t ask about specifics. It can be, and often is, made from venison.
asiangrrlMN
@morzer: Oh yeah. That’s right. jwb doesn’t live in MN any more. Duh!
morzer
For a classic British comedy discussion of sausage, try this, from about the 1 minute 20 seconds mark:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OzeDZtx3wUw
Mnemosyne
@asiangrrlMN:
Ah, the Midwest in October. I don’t think there was a single Halloween growing up where I didn’t have to wear my winter coat over my costume (after much whining to my mom and trying to squeeze the costume on over the coat).
Yutsano
@asiangrrlMN: I’ve been hunting tax cheats all day. Once you get into the swing of procedure then it becomes a fishing expedition that sometimes even bears fruit. And if so it gets moved to the next step. I found a few phone numbers and even more addresses today, so you can only hide from me for so long. :) It’s a good thing I only use my powers for light.
gbear
@morzer: What Omnes Omnibus said. It’s kind of like mild salami that has the texture of bologna. I would definitely call it ubiquitous.
Omnes Omnibus
@Mnemosyne: The vacation thing as a criticism for any president is odd. Do people really think that, if the president is not actually at a desk in the Oval Office, he is off duty? Further, if you look at the way the job ages people, I don’t begrudge them any relaxation. Except W, I begrudge that fucker just about anything.
morzer
@gbear:
Mild salami? That sounds like warm snow or honest Republicans.
asiangrrlMN
@Mnemosyne: Yep. I will probably have to wear my long coat. I will be in a sundress, maybe pantyhose, and heels. Yipes! Or, I may do the MN thing of wearing my boots to the party and switching to the heels at the party.
Oh, and I tried the makeup today (cheap stuff since I don’t wear it regularly). It only mildly itched (I’m allergic), so cross fingers that I don’t break out for the party. And, I did the beehive. I will have to spend more time on my hair. MUCH more time. I looked straaaange as I don’t wear any makeup normally. The dress is too tight in the chest area (elastic top, my flat ass), giving me the mono-boob look, so I am considering my options.
@Yutsano: But I don’t wanna hide from you!
Yutsano
@gbear: You’re confusing the poor lad. Salumi is very assertive and spicy. Summer sausage is kind of like a hot dog that can be eaten cold. Both are delicious, but very different sausage critters. And yes I went there.
@Omnes Omnibus: Yep. Minnesota is quite a bit more Scandhoovian. Mmm…lingonberries.
MattR
@Omnes Omnibus: With W I asked if people really thought that the president was on duty when he was actually at a desk in the Oval Office.
Omnes Omnibus
@gbear: I think we have more Germans and Poles in WI than you guys have over in MN, so our sausage options might be greater.
Jewish Steel
@asiangrrlMN:
Oh, absolutely w/r/t class. That’s what I mean by “a particular type of Western culture.”
morzer
@Yutsano:
Salumi? Or Salahi?
Omnes Omnibus
@MattR: Fair point. I stand by my begrudging though.
asiangrrlMN
@Jewish Steel: Ah! Got it. I missed that part.
@Omnes Omnibus: We actually have many Germans in MN. However, they got bland-ified by the Norwegians. It rubs off.
@Omnes Omnibus: That’s my fault. I taught him that little trick.
Omnes Omnibus
@Yutsano:Stop bending time and space.
sfinny
@morzer: I think part of the problem is that several families that were part of my overnights as a kid really liked Miracle Whip. This kinda ruined the whole mayonnaise thing for me. Later I found true mayo that topped a ripe beefeater tomato like no other.
@asiangrrlMN: Mustard rocks. I have yellow, dijon, horseradish, etc. Must always pick the right one for the dish.
jwb
@James E. Powell: Yes, I would concur with this, although I think it actually goes back to at least to opposition to FDR—though the racial and economic politics didn’t yet align at that point. The opposition to LBJ’s policies just allowed the terms to be aligned. But it’s actually quite fascinating going back and watching films. You a number of films each decade that show the undercurrent of teatardiste paranoid crazy has been a constant feature.
General Stuck
@Calouste:
It’s right there between the lines. Anchor Babies with a strong showing from Mickey Mouse and Santa. Everyone knows this. sheesh.
Mike in NC
@James E. Powell:
Nailed it for decades…
morzer
@asiangrrlMN:
Oh the double entendres lurking in the wings….
morzer
@sfinny:
I thought Miracle Whip was a punishment for criminals as an inducement to reform and repentance. You mean people voluntarily purchase and consume it?
BGinCHI
Anyone see Olbermann tonight?
I can’t believe how Keith missed comedy gold opportunity at the end of his show. He had on this classical violinist who bought that $3.6 million Stradivarius to show it and play. Before the commercial he met her and asked to hold it and of course it was a prop and fell to pieces.
I can’t believe that instead of the woman who was supposed to play they didn’t have David Cross, in drag, with full mustache and glasses.
I demand more David Cross.
J. Michael Neal
For the local Minnesotans, here are the statutes in question:
Conduct in and Near Polling Places
Challengers
Challenges to Voters; Penalties
Basically, each party is allowed to have one person present in a polling station to make challenges. Other than them, the only people allowed within 100 feet of the building the polling station is in are the election judges, employees of the Secretary of State’s office or the county equivalent, people voting or there with the intention of voting, and anyone who is assisting a handicapped individual to vote.
The only thing a designated challenger is allowed to say to a voter is a challenge and the reason why. No one who is not in the act of voting may get within 6 feet of a voting booth. Any challenge must be based upon personal knowledge that the person in is not eligible to vote in that precinct or reasonable suspicion thereof. The challenger must file a written affidavit that includes not only the reason for the challenge, but also full identification of the person making the challenge.
Using a list of people whose votes you intend to challenge is explicitly forbidden; it must be personal knowledge of the challenger. Using undelivered mail as the basis for a challenge is also explicitly disallowed.
Don’t expect a lot of fireworks or pestering of people trying to vote. Minnesota is going to be boring on election day. It’s why I like it here.
asiangrrlMN
@Yutsano: Mmmmmmm, sausage. Nom nom nom. I lurve me some sausage.
@sfinny: Honey mustard, too!
@General Stuck: Hey! I am a gen-yoo-wine anchor baby, so mebbe they are targeting me after all!
J. Michael Neal
Add me to the list of mustard lovers as well as mayonnaise loathers.
Also, that yellow stuff that comes out of a squeeze bottle that says “French’s” on the side is not mustard. It is a bad practical joke played on people who expect mustardy goodness when they see it, and then find that it really doesn’t have any more flavor than the mayo would have.
gbear
Summer sausage as I know it.
“…made with fresh trim from our healthy animals.”
What more could you ask for?
I’m going to bed.
asiangrrlMN
@morzer: And then I changed my comment on you! Bwahahahahahaha.
@J. Michael Neal: Ooooh! Thanks for explaining that. I feel much easier being an anchor baby now.
ETA: Ha! on your French’s Mustard comment, but so true.
@gbear: Night, gbear. Sleep well.
sfinny
@morzer: I just remember that my best friend’s family made bologna and miracle whip sandwiches for us when we took packages for walks through the woods (i.e. hiking). Just couldn’t understand why no mustard?
sfinny
@J. Michael Neal: OK, I understand the whole anti-French’s mustard thing, but a hotdog from a NYC cart with the works is a thing of wonder. And I actually like bologna sandwiches with yellow mustard.
Calouste
@General Stuck:
Oh, of course they suggest that, but really it is just standard GOP projection.
There will be voter fraud (and suppression), and it will be comitted by the GOP.
morzer
@sfinny:
And you are not filled with an insane rage against society and a desire to slaughter them in their beds? You are made of stoic stuff indeed!
morzer
@asiangrrlMN:
Oh, you said something? I must admit I didn’t notice you slinking through the shadows…
sfinny
@morzer: No, I have accepted that my love of French’s mustard is a cross that I must bear, and not apply that litmas test to all americans.
Suffern Ace
I have to admit that this election is wearing me down and I am numb to the crazy. To the extent that I will ignore everything that is said regarding voter intimidation. I am out of moral outrage over whatever they say or do tonight. Maybe I’ll get some back tomorrow.
On the other hand, whomever it was who compared a summer sausage to a hot dog and said that salami is spicer…jeesh. That kind of nonsense just makes me crazy.
Andy K
@asiangrrlMN:
That’s a pretty intricately crafted excuse for not being here on Sunday night. Two thumbs up for creativity. I’d have never guessed North Carolina….
Yutsano
@Omnes Omnibus: I can’t have all my fun at work. Otherwise they might catch on and fire me.
@asiangrrlMN: French’s lacks one essential ingredient that really makes mustard zing: alcohol. There’s an alcohol soluble compound in mustard seed that really can only be awakened with a good shot of booze. It’s why a true Dijon will always have white wine as an ingredient.
asiangrrlMN
@Andy K: I did watch, though. It was painful. The worse was as Favre was leaving the field, the announcer said, “He’s limping. It was too much to ask for a heroic get up and throw a touchdown win.” Motherfucker threw five to six picks. Why must we never mention that?!? Argh! I thought I had it all out of my system. Apparently not. Harrumph.
@Yutsano: Mmmmm….Dijon….I guess that makes me elitist.
@morzer: Ha! You amuse me.
Martin
@J. Michael Neal: French’s has a very limited place – corn dogs. That’s it. It’s a one-trick pony. But any proper mustard just doesn’t fit with a corn dog.
Yutsano
@asiangrrlMN: As elitist as a bisexual Taiwanese girl can get hon.
@Martin: I absolutely hate hot dogs with a passion. But I will go meschugnah for a good corn dog. Especially a Sonic corn dog. Mmm…now I’m craving one dammit.
J. Michael Neal
@Martin: A corn dog is a waste of perfectly good corn. You expect me to subsidize all that maize with my hard earned tax dollars, and then use it for that?
Feh.
The hot dog is to sausage what French’s is to mustard.
asiangrrlMN
@Yutsano: This is true. We can’t afford to be very elitist, can we?
J. Michael Neal
@asiangrrlMN: Dijon is all right. I’m not a fan of honey mustard, but I admit that it does contain actual mustard seeds in it, unlike French’s. You just ruined them.
Martin
@J. Michael Neal: Kids love corn dogs and home made, they’re pretty darn good.
morzer
@asiangrrlMN:
You are easily amused, alas.
Gravenstone
For the mustard snobs on the premises, I recently stumbled across this wonderful Dutch style mustard, Boetjes. Looks like it is made near Chicago so should be available at least through the midwest. It’s a stone ground, slightly sweet and horseradish enhanced little wonder.
asiangrrlMN
@J. Michael Neal: Ha! Mustard snob.
@morzer: Yes, I am. This is a good thing as so many things piss me off, too.
Yutsano
@Martin: If I had a deep fryer I’d make my own in a heartbeat. Alas I don’t, and I don’t really have a pan deep enough to substitute either. I’ll settle for a Sonic one though any day.
Suffern Ace
@Martin: A carefully selected mustard might improve that corn dog immensely. I’d recommend Martha’s Hot, a sweet hot mustard from Wisconsin. It also goes well with summer saugsage, a sausage commonly found in Wisconsin that is nothing like a hot dog.
Chuck Butcher
It is so damn funny what gets the GOPpers in an uproar. The law is clear about registration, once you take the card back you have to turn it in. It is up to the County Clerk’s responsibility (or whatever your state uses) to verify it. Do the idjits expect Mickey Mouse to show up and try to vote? Ears and all?
Oh hell…
morzer
@Chuck Butcher:
Hordes of illegal Mexican Muslims disguised as Mickey Mouse attempted to vote today in Minnesota, before being turned back when Karl Rove, Clarence Thomas and Ann Coulter linked hands and sang “We shall overcome” to a mouth-organ solo by James O’Keefe, while Christine O’Donnell executed an interpretative dance entitled Don’t Step On My Constitution.
Jacquelyn
@John PM: Given the names of some of these groups, I’m having a difficult time distinguishing them from street gangs. And, like you, I’d love to see someone try it at 95th and the Dan Ryan. Or Cicero, IL. Or any of the rest of our very diverse areas. I’m way out in the western burbs now, but I may vote early and then perch at a polling place closer in just to watch.
The Golux
Alternate post title:
“All Their Shirts Are Brown, and the Sky Is Grey…”
MJ
@morzer:
Hey BJ’ers,
Sorry that I’m a bit late to the party, but
as a karate instructoran attorney who volunteers as a poll monitor and does some voter education work, I’d like to invite you all to check outa really great Election Protection website that provides good <a href="http://www.866ourvote.org/state/">state by state information about voting rights. The site also provides specific guidance about how voters should handle challenges to their eligibility.If you’re too busy to slog through all of this information, you should feel free to call or email the Voter Protection hotline with any general elections/voting questions, or to report any voting problems.
Call: 1-866-Our-Vote
Email: [email protected]
themann1086
@kdaug:
“Waiting to turn on the showers and fire the ovens!
Waiting for the queers and the coons
And the reds and the Jews!
Waiting to follow the worms!”
Can’t wait to see that live in 2 weeks
DPirate
You out of toilet paper? I think you want papieren, the plural.