Michael Leon blogs at http://malcontends.blogspot.com. Michael is a writer living in Madison, Wisconsin. His writing has appeared nationally in The Progressive, In These Times, OpEdNews.com, and CounterPunch.
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Bush Seeks Forced Provisional Voting in Ohio
Posted October 24th, 2008 by mal contends
in
Incredible! Bush wants the US DOJ to look into the GOP's proposed Ohio vote suppression scheme using HAVA, seeking forced provisional voting that suppresses legal voters.
After being shot down by the US Supreme Court on using the Help America Vote Act (HAVA) for the purpose of declaring eligible voters to be tentatively ineligible because of database mismatches - a purpose that the text of HAVA expressively forbids - Bush and the Republicans will not give up.
As the Milwaukee Branch of NAACP and the Milwaukee Teachers Education Association write in their amicus brief in the Van Hollen v. GAB Wisconsin case, provisional voting is inherently suppressive, and many provisional voters will not be able to come back the next day to corroborate their legal voting status, and leave the voting process with questions about whether their votes counted.
A provisional ballot is a second-class vote. The voter leaves the polling place not knowing whether his or her vote will count. He or she will only find out by calling a toll-free number or checking a website. If the answer is that the vote was not counted, the voter will be given a reason, but by then it will be too late to correct. That voter will have been directly and absolutely deprived of the right to vote without a meaningful remedy. (Link to brief filed by Milwaukee Branch of NAACP and the Milwaukee Teachers Education Association in Van Hollen v. GAB.)
This will not be a problem in Wisconsin, but the GOP is not giving up on stealing Ohio, again.
From RollCall:
President Bush is asking the Justice Department to look into whether 200,000 Buckeye State poll-goers must use provisional ballots on Election Day because their names do not match state databases.
White House spokesman Carlton Carroll confirmed Friday that the president will forward a letter to Attorney General Michael Mukasey from House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio), requesting that the Justice Department look into whether the state’s voter rolls comply with the Help America Vote Act.
In a letter dated on Friday, the House GOP leader wrote that with Election Day 'less than two weeks away, immediate action by the Department is not only warranted, but also crucial.'
Folks, we have a major political party, the Republicans, who will do almost anything to stay in power. It's time for mass civil disobedience, something, to disrupt this outlaw element in the American political body. This is not a Party that is deserving of any respect whatsoever in our democracy.
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Democratic Party caused Wall Street Crisis
You can thank your Democratic Party for the current financial crisis.
The Democratic Party(through Democratic dominated organizations such as ACORN, Fannie Mae, and Freddie Mac and Democratic inspired laws such as the Community Reinvestment Act) intimidated banks into lending money to poor minorities and whites who could not possibly pay the money back.
The resulting bad loans were packaged into mortgage securities which(since they were based on fraudulent loans) had no significant value.
It is no accident Obama and Dodd are the top two recipients of Fannie Mae campaign contributions and that Obama chose Jim Johnson(former Fannie Mae executive) to select his vice presidential nominee. It is no accident Obama represented ACORN and that he and Ayers donated to ACORN while they were on boards together. It is no accident Democrats such as Frank, Dodd, Reid, Pelosi and Obama did not join John McCain when John McCain called for reform of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in 2005. It is no accident Democrats like Obama, Dodd, Reid, Pelosi, and Frank resisted President Bush’s calls for reform of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Don’t buy Obama’s demagogic claim Bush “deregulation” caused the current crisis! There was little financial “deregulation” under Bush and Gramm Leach Bliley(1999) was not only under Clinton but, by its breaking down of barriers between commercial and investment banks, has helped to alleviate the current crisis by facilitating recent mergers between commercial and investment banks. The media and Obama can cover up the above truths but the above truths can not legitimately be denied. The current crisis is directly traceable to your Democratic Party.
Goofball logic
This writer is living in an alternate universe. It seems some people will say anything to deflect blame from the real perpetrators to the Democrats. Its plain to see the motive behind such ignorant ranting. The writer obvisouly knows nothing about the economy, finance, the debt industry, derivatives, credit default swaps, the markets and probably a host of other topics. The idea is to take any problem we face and twist all logic to somehow blame it on the Dems. I suppose the Democrats were responsible for the fall of Rome, eh?
reply to dem party causing wall street crash
I thought this article that blames the Wall Street crash on the Mickey Mouse's and Bugs Bunny's who registered to vote was a spoof. Joke was on me. Someone out there has their tinfoil hat on backwards.
Tool
Good little ignorant right-wing tool..repeat what you are told to..any thought of yours would die of loneliness
Subprime Scapegoating Opinion-Pushing 4 Fun and Profit?
Though I have the details on file- (names, dates, wordings of Rep. presentation conc. 'need for' "rectification of the disparities" in the discrimination against minorities in mortgage lending practices, etc., that prompted the Congressional Hearings, etc...) -and don't have them 'with me', as not yet imprinted in the gray matter for use in instant recall..... There has been too much coming too fast to keep files neatly organized and "handy"----
BUT still, THAT being info. that is readily accessible by anyone who has and takes the time to look, I will just proceed then to describe the ACTUAL failing of the Dems in this regard:
This "issue", as it was presented TO the Dems, with the usual Rovian oxymoronic Ace of Spades up the sleeve, Queen of Spades easily accessible in the right back pocket, Jack of Spades likewise in the left backpocket, NOT originally initiated by Dems, but by Repugs., should have been well scrutinized for "debugging" of its trojan-horse designs as a necessary first step before proceeding with anything else about it. This should have been inherently suspicious, coming as it was from those whose normal motivation of record has been set staunchly opposite measures aimed at rectifying or preventing such discrimination against minorities, yet then, quite suddenly and publicly, here they came, notably pinpointing "for rectification", an actual problem of active discrimination against minorities; one that HAS perpetuated denials of mortg. apps. for qualified "minority" applicants. This issue indeed WAS in need of attention, but the kind of attention that would arrive at a sincere, honest, EQUITABLE solution. Being presented as such by those long known for their notably established track record of reliably upholding and defending such deprivational disparities should have set off loud alarm bells. The Dem. conducted Hearings should have been probing first for the hidden, trojan-horse proferring motives behind this push to gain "equal opportunity FOR minorities."
First probing for and uncovering the intent at the highly uncharacteristic root of this, should have been the first order of business in the Hearings held. This would have de-fused any chance for it to be used as a method of ADDING TO the greed-infested course of economic sabotage that was then well underway in "all departments". Besides greatly increasing the already monumental level of unsupportable debt accrued with the push of an active and deceitful program of ramping up the already artificially generated ballooning extremes in the "housing market", it stood also to gain the Reps a convenient Scapegoat upon which they could misappropriate, then heap the blame for their own actively profitable engagement in collapsing the economy! A comparison of videos from the Hearings should be very illuminating in this regard. A comparison, that is, of the original full content video of the complete Hearings, as compared to the cherry-picked selectively edited and "pasted together" propaganda versions that have been posted in multiples all over youtube. The selective edits versions, of course, completely change the meaning of each bit of testimony they "show" by eliminating context and substituting juxtaposed context. Try it, and see for yourself! You likely would be appalled. It is all too obvious to miss. They count on YOU not bothering to check with the source, the original, unadulterated videos with the full testimony, in which each part then can be seen in all its original full context and meaning.
Since this intentional trojan-horse set up and the heavily pushed promotion job of its resultant deceitfully edited production have been in use to cast a grossly dishonest slant upon things, the perpetrators of it have grown too egotistically attached to it and have pushed it to cover up for more than it can possibly cover. Even if the intent of the Dems who, after the hearings, submitted legislation to ensure equal opportunity for minorities, had not been "above board", still the legislation does not excuse the massive predatory practices that ensued. Keep in mind, that MANY lawyers, accountants, realtors, and other "experts" have stated that the mortgage contracts developed and used by predatory lenders were totally and egregiously incomprehensible. Many have commented such that they couldn't make heads nor tails of them. For further illucidation in this regard, see:
"Subprime meltdown culprits", an article posted 10/25/08 in the Los Angeles Times
w.latimes.com/news/opinion/editorials/la-ed-cra25-2008oct25,0,394443.story
A little HONESTY goes a LONG way! A little dishonesty is like the proverbial bad apple. Which do YOU prefer???
(-:G
Re: Democratic Party caused Wall Street Crisis
YOU ARE DELUSIONAL DUDE!
Re: Democratic Party Caused Wall St Crisis
Ok, so you have your mostly debunked or half-true talking points memorized or you can cut and paste. Fabulous. However, your argument is totally one-sided and blames the victims. Ok, some of the victims since we, the taxpayers, are also now victims. I suggest a little reading of a good editorial posted recently that looks at how the blame has evolved and where this whole mess went wrong. There is enough blame to go around, but it definitely is to be shared by BOTH parties and by lenders as well as some buyers.
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/editorials/la-ed-cra25-2008oct25,0,3...
But a better point is - What does this list of Limbaugh-approved talking points about the financial crisis have to do with orchestrated voter suppression in Ohio (not to mention Colorado, New Mexico, Florida and who knows where else)? Absolutely nothing would be the only acceptable answer here. You are talking (typing?) just to hear (read?) yourself no matter what the topic at hand was. Having lived in Ohio during the last election cycle, I can say firsthand how unequal and unfair the voting experience was and how dirty the state GOP was in the 2004 and 2006 race. Yes, yes, there are dirty tracks on both sides, but not at the criminal levels I am referring to. There are people in jail over what happened - and not enough in my opinion. Some were allowed to just resign - and take another high paying job for a lobbying company or a partisan organization in repayment for their efforts on behalf of the party - not the people, the state or the country - just on behalf of the party. Therein lies the problem.
Before I go on and on, I will sign off and remind everyone that this "voter fraud" is a mere smoke and mirrors game to distract from the true greatest danger to democracy - privately owned electronic touch screen voting machines that have been proven to be easily hackable. At the risk of being falsely labeled a communist sympathizer from people who will surely miss the bigger picture, just remember the immortal words of Joseph Stalin: "He who votes decides nothing; he who counts the votes decides everything." Now that man knew how to steal an election...
Boy, Aren't you a
Boy,
Aren't you a wrong-headed, redneck, stupid son of a bitch. Get your facts straight, idiot! Ever hear of the McCain-Graham deregulation bill? Maybe you should look it up. Every economist in the US knows that the Repukelagns are responsible for the current economic crisis. Just so the the corporations who pay NO taxes-1/3rd in all, can make even more money off the backs of working people like me!!! Stop listening to Rush and Fox and get your facts straight!!!!
The current crisis is directly traceable...
...to McCain economic advisor Phil Gramm: It was the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act that in 1999 repealed the Depression-era Glass-Steagall Act and allowed banks, securities companies, and insurance companies to directly compete with one another and led to the creation of financial conglomerates like Citigroup, that is the single act that contributed most to this current crisis.
As for Fanny and Freddy, even Republican God, Alan Greenspan, said that they were not the problem. They held a much smaller number of bad loans then other lending institutions.
And the stale canard that Community Reinvestment Act was a problem is exactly opposite of the truth. If all of the loans done in the this country had to follow the rules that loans done under the CRA do, we wouldn't be in this mess,50% of subprime loans were made by mortgage service companies not subject comprehensive federal supervision, as the CRA loans are, and another 30% were made by affiliates of banks or thrifts which are not subject to routine supervision or examinations.
You wing-nuts keep pounding the same stale, untrue and simply wrong points. I suspect that's why there is so much anger and frustration in the conservative community: Most of you realize that you entire view of life and the world is based on lies, mis-understanding and ignorance. Its very sad.
nonsense
Liberty11 is one of those deluded liars that is called a Republican. The 2005 mortgage debacle was during TOTAL REPUBLICAN control of the Senate, House, and Presidency. The democrats could do little even if they wished because everything was totally controlled by the GOP.WHY DIDN'T THEY DO SOMETHING??????The 1977 Community Reinvestment Act was an attempt to prevent bigotted "redlining" of black communities. If it is now condemned, why not condemn Republican Presidents Reagan, Bush Sr., and Bush Jr.........they were in control for most of that period and DID NOTHING to correct the problem...because there was no problem to correct. The data is in about the subprime loans, and Freddy and Fannie...since 2005, the overwhelming majority of bad loans were made by private banks..un-related to the CRA. This is just more of the RNC attempt to blame anyone...everyone...other than themselves, and their policies of deregulation and greed. It doesn't fly.
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