If you’re not too busy, perhaps you could look into this:
Kay covered Florida Governor Rick Scott’s brazen attempt to steal the upcoming election here yesterday. The issue is getting some local press, and it was heavily covered on the MSNBC line-up last night. But aside from that, the story isn’t getting a lot of play in the national press.
Maddow pointed out that whites make up only 13% of the names on the purge list (and are more than 60% of the state population as a whole). The whole thing stinks to high heaven, and unless the DOJ steps in, it looks like Scott might get away with it.
But it’s only a fundamental right being stripped away from legitimate citizens. I’m glad the media decided to focus instead on what the guy who wears a hair clump from the shower drain on his head says and how it might affect the fortunes of the guy who strapped a dog to the roof of his car.
[X-posted at Rumproast]
Clime Acts
What’s awesome is how the Democratic Party has relentlessly worked to secure voting rights for ALL ever since the election theft of 2000, and how their resolve to keep the issue in the spotlight and write and pass corrective legislation has never flagged.
Awesome also is the powerful, consistent effort of the Obama White House over the last four years to prevent this entirely predictable development.
Oh wait…
ornery_curmudgeon
Maybe the media knows our weakness as a people: we can’t avoid shiny objects on the teevee … and can’t pursue an outrage more than a few days.
Downing Street memos what? Torture and wiretapping who? Domestic drones when?
A new day is upon us, and a new set of outrages to coat over the last.
danielx
Hey, it’s a Republican suppressing Democratic voters. It’s just Republicans doing what they do so it isn’t news. And the voters are mostly black and Hispanic so who cares?
Now the pronouncements of a rich asshole who wears the worst rug east of the Mississippi River, those are news.
Chyron HR
@Clime Acts:
As always, you’re a bastion of progressiveness.
GregB
Democrats, Blacks and Hispanics aren’t legitimate citizens.
I think that is the implicit message here.
Hopefully the Florida zombie apocalypse hits the GOP leadership down there.
humanoid.panda
There is one thing I don’t understand about people like Clime Acts. Let’s assume, for the purposes of the argument, that the Democrats are a bunch of corporate whores, only in the game to get a paycheck from the their puppet/pay masters. They still have to win to get their payday, and to win, demographics being what they are, they must get the minority vote, and lots of it. In other words, vote suppression goes against their naked self interest, which we already agreed is the only thing that motivates them. Why would they go along with it?
We are left with 2 hypotheses:
1)The conspiracy goes deeper than that and the dems are being paid to lose.
2)The electoral system is a mess, it’s administered by the states who are the moment controlled by loons, the feds can’t do much about it outside the Civil Rights Acts framework, and the Supreme Court screwed the pooch when it approved the Indiana voter ID bill.
Which hypothesis rings true, oh mighty prophets of progressivism?
Mino
Honestly, I don’t think I’ve ever thought a Democratic AG as worthless as Holder. It boggles the mind.
And speaking of worthless, could a meteor please hit the next meeting of the governing body of the Texas Democratic Party? Voters were so desperate for a liberal, they voted for a Yarborough who misspelled hisname.
Jerry
Republicans just pretend to be freedom-loving, American, conservative, religious people. In reality, republicans hate America, which they prove every time they talk about their need to destroy our system of government, which was created by the Founding Fathers.
In reality, what real American in favor of freedom would
authorizerequire the rape of a woman prior to allowing her to have a life-saving medical procedure? That is what penetrating the genitals of a person against their will is, after all, rape. You don’t have to use body parts to commit rape, an ultrasound probe is a fine raping tool, a tool republican fundamentalist christian terrorists are proud to use on their fellow Americans. Just be glad the procedure calls for lubricant, so far. Heck, what real human being would do what they are requiring be done?In reality, what freedom-lover would try to end the right to vote for “randomly selected” people who might be expected to vote against republicans based upon some selection criteria created by – gasp – republicans!
In reality Republicans are engaged in a coup to take total control of America and turn it into a theocracy where religious loons pretending to be Christians will control every aspect of our lives. With control of our justice system and courts, the legislative bodies of the national government, the executive branch of government, they will end the right to vote for candidates not part of their authorized cults.
The existence of political parties not controlled by the theocrats will end.
The right to read and write opinion pieces will end, and if you criticize their ruling party you will visit a military detention camp, with no right to a court hearing, or a lawyer, or life itself.
It won’t matter that WASPs are a minority of the population, because they will constitute 100% of the population allowed to vote. Brown and dark folks, and ex-democrats will be allowed to work for them, but we won’t have rights, voter’s registration won’t work for us, and women will only vote when their husband/owners cast their votes for them.
Some of these adjustments to the interpretation of the constitution may take a few years – the voting parts will come first, they’re already there in some states. These computerized voting devices are already taking care of many states where Diebold builds the machines.
Maybe this won’t come to pass, I’ve been known to be depressed and cynical before. But it is what the Republican party wants and intends to happen. That burning desire to destroy what makes America exceptional is what turns them into monsters
Hill Dweller
I blame Obama for Voldemort’s voter suppression.
boss bitch
It appears that some of you do rely solely on the MSM to provide you with news. The Democratic party, the DOJ and the White House have been doing all they can to protect voter rights and to let voters know that their voting rights are being stripped. It is a part of the campaign, Holder gave a speech on it and has been taking solid steps to make sure that citizens can vote in November and beyond.
I see this news on Talking Points Memo all the time. Go look it up. Google is your friend.
And the way to have prevented Rick Scott from purging the voters rolls was to..uhm…not have elected him governor.
gene108
I agree with the Gov. Scott: If you aren’t smart enough to vote Republican, you shouldn’t be allowed to vote. Period.
Clime Acts
@Chyron HR:
Wow, you continue to double down on the idiotude.
Problem is one side does do it, relentlessly, and the other does almost nothing in return.
And you’re just dumb enough to eat it up.
Ash Can
@gene108: Now that’s some strong Poe-fu.
Kay
Exactly. There is hope, though.
Legitimate election officials (county level), both Republicans and Democrats, are pushing back against Scott’s order.
The guy who tweeted the photo of the wrongfully disenfranchised voter is a Republican.
Odie Hugh Manatee
@humanoid.panda:
He’s a sick pedo and Sandusky rape apologist, don’t waste any more time on him.
He ain’t worth it.
Clime Acts
@Odie Hugh Manatee:
Tee hee.
Hey Odie, all my little boys say a very special “hello” to you.
Mnemosyne
@humanoid.panda:
You’re assuming that there’s any kind of logic or rationality behind the web of conspiracy theories. There isn’t. It’s just a mass of free-form paranoia combined with the smug certainty that everyone else is just a bunch of sheeple and only he knows the TROOF!
burnspbesq
@Chyron HR:
Hope you’re OK with the edits.
The problem here, folks, is that only certain counties in Florida (couldn’t find the list, but I’m sure it’s out there) are subject to preclearance under Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act. Anything that’s done at the state level goes unless DOJ takes the initiative. And I assume it didn’t escape your notice that the NFIB chose the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida as the venue for its challenge to the PPACA. That was done for a reason.
Clime Acts
@burnspbesq:
Any thoughts on why the DOJ did NOT take the initiative?
I mean, it’s not as though no one saw this coming.
SteveinSC
It will really be most intersting if Scott Walker wins in Wisconsin. Certainly voter supression will not be of much impact, since I think the voter obstruction laws were deferred. If Wisconsin doesn’t recall that asshole, I think we are headed to plutocracy with the tacit concurrence of the American public. We’ve been there before. In South Carolina the legislature was apportioned equally on population AND wealth. Slaves, naturally, were counted in the wealth part, but not the population count. Welcome Home America to the Middle Ages.
HG Hay
Thanks for that!
Lurking Canadian
@Jerry: Republicans just pretend to be freedom-loving, American, conservative, religious people. In reality, republicans hate America, which they prove every time they talk about their need to destroy our system of government, which was created by the Founding Fathers.
You’d have a hard time proving that the Founding Fathers would disapprove of a republic in which only wealthy white men were allowed to vote.
Sidney18511
@Jerry:
You have just described my worst fears, and I can’t for the life of me understand why more people can’t see this comming.
The repubs are so full of hubris they don’t even make up lies for what they are doing.
gluon1
Thank you, @boss bitch, for saying that. The Dems in the House released a bill that would prevent lots of the tricks Lex Luthor d.b.a. Gov. Scott and others are using. And the top Democrat on the Elections Subcommittee did condemn the Florida purge, while the Ds in the Florida delegation wrote directly to Lex. DOJ has numerous lawsuits going on, in Florida and other states, as Boss Bitch said. We can wish they were more effective or in more places, but we can’t claim that they’re not doing anything.
Michael57
The DOJ is too busy going after Macmillan and Penguin for making Amazon take a small profit on e-books. They don’t have time for voting rights. Priorities, people! Do you want e-books that cost the same as a latte, or do you want democracy?? You can’t have both–says the DOJ.
John Casey
@Michael57: Troll says trollish things
burnspbesq
@Clime Acts:
Neither you nor I have any idea what DOJ might be working on behind closed doors and getting ready to file.
Michael57
@John Casey: Troll? Kiss my arse.