The McCain-Palin campaign and the Republican National Committee (RNC) spent the better part of the fall screaming about alleged "voter registration fraud," and to this day the GOP and the right-wing media machine continue to raise the specter of voter registration shenanigans that are somehow undermining the integrity of American elections. Now, after months of reckless invective and fruitless investigations, incontrovertible facts have been admitted in court, and someone has finally been convicted of voter registration fraud.
Fraud did take place in the 2008 election-conducted for, and paid for by, the Republican Party.
Week before last it was Newt Gingrich tweeting, "White man racist nominee would be forced to withdraw. Latina woman racist should also withdraw." A week later, on his website, Newt wrote:
The word "racist" should not have been applied to Judge Sotomayor as a person,
as if some stranger had done it, not Newt himself.
Today, it was Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley, usually regarded as one of the few non-insane Republicans on Capitol Hill, making a fool of himself on Twitter:
Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley... issued two angry "tweets" Sunday morning as the president wrapped up an overseas tour.
For months Obama had left the details of health care legislation to Congress, then inserted himself firmly into the debate in recent days, including using his weekly radio address Saturday to declare "it's time to deliver" on health reform.
Grassley's first tweet: "Pres Obama you got nerve while u sightseeing in Paris to tell us 'time to deliver' on health care. We still on skedul/even workinWKEND."
A short time later: "Pres Obama while u sightseeing in Paris u said 'time to delivr on healthcare' When you are a 'hammer' u think evrything is NAIL I'm no NAIL."
Old habits die hard, I guess. The Republicans had a good long run snarling at everyone and everything in sight. It's pitch perfect for talk radio or cable TV. But it's not 1994 or even 2001 anymore. And Twitter is not Faux News. You don't impress or intimidate anyone when you strike a belligerent pose on Twitter for no good reason whatsoever, except that you're a one-trick pony and that's your trick; you just come across as a petulant twit. Which, of course, you are.
Asked to respond to Grassley's Twitter commentary, White House spokesman Reid Cherlin said: "President Obama is gratified that the Senate is working hard to bring a health reform bill to the floor on schedule. He looks forward to continuing his work with them upon his return from the commemoration of Allied heroism at D-Day."
While Rush Limbaugh calls Supreme Court Nominee Sonia Sotomayor a racist and Ann Couler calls for a filibuster, GOP Senators are in a political bind. For a party already shrinking due to demographic changes (and lack of ability to manage any part of the government well) attacking an "up from the Bronx" Latina woman apparently isn't very palatable. Here's the best Republicans can muster:
Charles Grassley: "We need to ask tough questions to learn how this individual views the role of a Supreme Court justice."
Ouch. How about Jeff Sessions? He's attacking with a sports metaphor:
...we must determine if Ms. Sotomayor understands that the proper role of a judge is to act as a neutral umpire of the law, calling balls and strikes fairly without regard to one’s own personal preferences or political views.
But John Cornyn means business. He's making demands. Cornyn says the Obama administration won't get any cooperation unless... unless Sotomayor agrees to answer questions:
...the president has assured me that we will have ample time to give Ms. Sotomayor's record a full and fair review.
And while it was certainly most entertaining, we shouldn't lose sight of the fact that the Senate Republicans are trying to terrorize the American people, and that this makes them, quite literally, terrorists.
Of course this is nothing new on their part. But previously there's always been at least some element of plausible deniability involved. They could point to some sort of policy argument, no matter how lame. Now, that's gone. With the absurdity of the premise totally exposed, this is nothing left but the naked attempt to terrorize America.
That's what the GOP has finally become: America's largest terrorist organization.
I promised that I wasn't going to put much more work into estimating crowd sizes for yesterday's tea party events, but here is one last update. The important thing is that we now have a credible estimate for Atlanta at 15,000 persons; we were previously relying on an estimate of 7,000 that the Atlanta Journal-Constitution had initially made yesterday evening but then pulled back upon.
It's not surprising that Atlanta had the largest turnout (in fact, the largest turnout by far, according to our collection of nonpartisan estimates). Turnout was much higher in state capitals than in other cities, and seems to have been much larger in the South than in other regions of the country. Atlanta, being by far the largest Southern state capital, therefore did very well
Are the Republicans Going Galt? by Nate Silver @ 1:36 PM
Are Republicans turning into libertarians?
Last week's Tea Party protests had their origins in the libertarian movement. Although many conservative groups were eager to co-opt their purpose, the core of the message -- anti-tax, anti-big government -- was about as libertarian as it gets. Participation in the rallies was also proportionately quite high in areas like New Hampshire and the Interior West, which are traditionally more sympathetic toward libertarian concerns.
Like many progressives, I've been laughing a lot about the GOP's tea-bagging antitaxation demonstrations planned for tomorrow. But childish jokes aside, here's why these protests are so insidious. They will provide a staged, corporate lobbyist-sponsored moment for Republicans and Fox News personalities to amplify their specious objections to President Obama's tax increase for the rich, while furthering their own right-wing conspiratorial claims about liberal values. By usurping and bastardizing an iconic event from the American Revolution, they offer an ersatz grassroots movement from the right--complete and utter AstroTurf--in an attempt to reclaim the national spotlight.
As Think Progress's Faiz Shakir exclaimed last night on Fox Business as he ripped the network a new one:
These tea parties are a sham. The reason they're a sham is because they're directed by lobbyists here in D.C. ... And on top of that, you've got this network, Fox News, which is advocacy - pushing this, promoting this with all of its heart. And it is not a grassroots movement when you have Jonathan Hoenig, Neil Cavuto, Glenn Beck, Greta Van Susteren promoting this up the wazoo. That is not a grassroots movement.
When I was a kid in Philly, Veterans Stadium was known as a "career-killer" because the cement-like AstroTurf wrecked the knees and ankles of so many promising baseball and football players. Let's hope tomorrow's AstroTurf movement turns out to be a career-killer for all the lunatic Republicans and hedge fund directors and Fox shock jocks who make the wild accusations that Obama isn't from our country, or that evolution is a lie.
Quick question for readers of Open Left: which person, after being introduced to the nation with some fanfare, ended up being a bigger liability to the GOP, Sarah Palin or Michael Steele?
When Palin was introduced as John McCain's running mate there was a honeymoon period that lasted a couple weeks before she opened her mouth without benefit of a script. After the interview with Charlie Gibson her favorability ratings started a quick dive and soon (especially after the Couric interview) her negatives were higher than her positives. Any chance McCain had to win Independent voters was gone.
When Steele was introduced there was similar GOP optimism for awhile. Like Palin, he was a rare non-white-male Republican who they hoped would help the GOP expand its base. Nationally he was just as much of an unknown as Palin was before her selection and many Republicans projected their hopes onto him. Like Palin, however, he seems to have a problem speaking without a script (such as the new revelations here). So much of a distraction as he become that he may be dropped as RNC Chair.
Of course there was also talk of dropping Palin from the ticket. But, as many here pointed out, McCain was is in a no-win situation at that point. Keep her and he would lose the moderates. Dump her and he would lose enthusiasm, turnout and contributions from activist Republicans.
A similar situation faces the GOP now only the sides are reversed. Keep Steele and try for moderates or dump Steele (and go with Katon Dawson) take a lot of bad press and give up, to some degree, on moderates. It's a no-win and it's just as fantastic as the McCain situation was last fall.
I wish I had a better read on Josh Marshall, I really do. Can he possibly be so naive that GOP stupidity still surprises him? I'd like to think not, believing he's in perpetual Claude Raines mode. But if so, he does it so well, he should be in show biz, not politics:
Not So Smart
It pains me to say this. But Sen. John Cornyn doesn't seem to be too bright. Cornyn was just on MSNBC explaining that spending in a severe economic downturn doesn't make sense and should be replaced by tax cuts since individuals can spend money "more efficiently" than government. I guess he doesn't get that the whole point of a stimulus bill is that in a severe recession individuals -- acting on rationale individual economic motives -- aren't spending. And only government, as a policy decision, can spend at a high rate notwithstanding the state of the economy.
He also claimed a 3x multiplier for tax cuts, which I don't think anyone believes. But I'm more interested in his point about the relative efficiency of private vs. public sector spending since it seemed to show that he doesn't understand what a recession, let alone a severe recession (which has qualitatively different dynamics), even is.
I know there are contrary theories of how economies work. But not grappling with the high level of risk in the economy that makes businesses and people unwilling to spend ... not sure you can enter the conversation without getting that.
Besides, he got MSNBC to give him face time for shoveling this shit, so who, exactly is the really dumb one, anyway, Josh?
A note of introduction: I am the editorial director of Brave New Films, and I'll be blogging about all things related to the economic meltdown, foreclosure crisis, and the war in Afghanistan, as those issues represent our biggest campaigns right now.
The GOP and Fox News have been ganging up on the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) like a couple of bullies picking on the scrawniest kid in the schoolyard--and they can only push that kid so far until he gives them a well-deserved bloody nose. Last week, House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) unjustly accused ACORN of receiving a $4.19 billion bailout from President Obama's economic stimulus package. His false claims were echoed by Sen. David Vitter (R-LA) on Fox, who claimed this money was a "payoff" for ACORN's activism in the last election. That was all it took for bloviators Rush Limbaugh and Michelle Malkin to resuscitate allegations of ACORN's voter fraud. They even blamed the low- and moderate-income advocacy group for the subprime meltdown, rather than discuss the banks actually caused this mess and have subsequently received tens of billions in bailout funds they continue to squander.
These cries amount to nothing more than fearmongering in the name of obstructionism, what ACORN CEO Bertha Lewis called "a complete fabrication of overheated partisan fever dreams." As Congress Matters noted, the $4.19 billion was actually set aside for "neighborhood stabilization activities related to emergency assistance for the redevelopment of abandoned and foreclosed homes." In other words, any non-profit housing developer could bid on this money.
Here comes the bloody nose. On Monday, the organization sent a letter to Boehner's office and media in Ohio shooting down each and every accusation and attacking Boehner on his home turf, a district where more than 4,800 families faced foreclosure in 2008 alone. They also went after Boehner's record of voting against the Foreclosure Prevention Act of 2008 and the Mortgage Reform and Anti-Predatory Lending Act. Simultaneously, they're asking everyone to contact their Senators and tell them to support the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, a version of which passed in the House last week despite the GOP's partisan rancor.
(I'll be writing some more about this on the weekend. But at this point, the voter suppression front needs daily attention. - promoted by Paul Rosenberg)
It happened in 2004 and 2006, and it may be happening in 2008
In the 2008 election Americans may once again be seeing law enforcement turned into a tool of voter suppression.
It is illegal for law enforcement agents to use their authority to attempt to intimidate or suppress the vote. Section 11(b) of the Voting Rights Act (VRA) of 1965 states that no person “whether acting under color of law or otherwise,” shall intimidate, threaten, or coerce any individual forvoting or attempting to vote, or for attempting to assist others to vote. Section 12 of the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA) of 1993provides for criminal penalties against any person who intimidates or attempts to intimidate any person for registering to vote, voting, or attempting to register or vote.
In the past few weeks, however, partisan forces have manufactured hysteria around the myth of “voter fraud” that they have used to help goad law-enforcement into intimidation and politically motivated investigations into eligible voters. As the election approaches Project Vote and other voting rights organizations are seeing law enforcement officials inserting themselves into election administration, and partisan pressure to coerce law enforcement agents into overreaching investigations into the eligibility of legal voters.
The Ohio Democratic Party has intercepted - from anonymous sources - a press release from the McCain-Palin campaign. Our sources report that this press release is scheduled to be released later today. Below is the text of the release.
Italy today is experiencing an unprecedented racism and xenophobia. What began as a hate for a religion, Islam, has moved on to race, ethnicity and old fashioned hatred of different skin colours.
A Roma (Gypsy) woman in Milan. Recently, the Italian government decided to fingerprint all Gypsies, including children. What began as a targeted campaign against Muslims is now spreading to become a larger, white supremacist movement under color of a Fascist political takeover.
Gabriele Marranci is an anthropologist who was born and raised in Italy. He is currently doing research in Singapore, but he frequently visits and is closely attuned through family and friends to Italy. Link to complete essay after excerpt.
Gabriele Marranci writes: In Italy, in a new and unrecognisable Italy, everybody is losing. Yet only few Italians seem to notice this. Italy is today probably the most concerning and least friendly country of the EU, marked by the return, from bottom-up, of a fascination with a defeating, and defeated, past called Fascism. Notwithstanding the similarity in the terminology, dress styles, and references (the Lega Nord, the most social nationalist party of Italy, has 'green shirts' only because it cannot refer to brown ones), this revival of fascism is not like the historical one.
The progressive stages of xenophobia that has marked the home of pizza and 'bel canto' began with the fear of Muslims and their cultures. The great majority of Italians, though not hating Muslims, have formed chimerias about Islam. Fallaci helped after September 11 to develop them from 'concerns' and 'fear' of a different unknown religion, to hate for whomever practiced that religion. She wished to bomb mosques, or at least one of them. Although Fallaci and others (in particular within the Lega Nord ) were responsible for, not always cleverly disguised, ideological incitement toward violence, there were other individuals who decided (as usually happens) to make real, what Fallaci and others fantasised about.
The reality is that Italians, the majority of them, do not care. Too busy with economic issues and social instability, endemic unemployment, workers alienation and unbelievable exploitation (my sister had to work without salary for months as 'probation' before she was granted a temporary contract of three months), the majority of Italians remain silent; a minority celebrated the beginning of the new crusades, and a few others, often from the radical left, protested. Lega Nord, with the European MP Mario Borghezio took part in the planned, but than forbidden, Nazi event against Islam organized in Cologne. An event that even Robert Spencer felt the need to distance himself from and rejected.
Lega Nord is a social nationalist, populist party, and a dangerous one, whose main force comes from the fear of others and the idea that immigrants can take over the white-celtic man. Vulgar in its language, reminiscent in its populism of Fascism, Lega Nord, mixes a fake Celticism (to replace Aryanism) with a new idea of the- again fake and historically nonexistent- superior nation, the Padania, Lega Nord shifts recently from targeting mainly Muslims to all not-white (hence non-Celtic) foreigners.
Italy today is experiencing an unprecedented (and unusual in its violence even during historical fascism before the German-imposed racial laws) racism and xenophobia. So unexpected and violent has been the phenomenon that even a post-Fascist like Gianfranco Fini (today president of the Parliament) had to raise the alarm. There is no area of Italian civil society which has not been affected by this new wind of xenophobia and violent racism.
Recently during the match for the World Cup qualification in Sofia, the Italian supporters started to invoke the 'Duce', sung 'Fascist songs' and attacked the hosts because they were 'communist', despite the historical changes in Bulgaria. Children are not spared from this white supremacist new culture: finger prints for little Roma (Gypsy) even when they are Italian, vandalism of children's work representing their perception of multiculturalism, attempts to form 'migrants only' classrooms and impose an 'Italian-ness test' for entry into Italian schools on children of legal migrants. I have been informed of racism within school and even Sunday Church schools.
What began as a hate for a religion, Islam, has moved on to race, ethnicity and old fashioned hatred of different skin colours.
Yesterday the Republican Party of Montana announced that it was abandoning its plans to challenge the voting eligibility of at least 6,000 residents of that state-mostly in democratic strongholds-who had filed change-of-address cards with the U.S. Postal Service. In a letter sent to election officials in seven counties, state GOP executive director Jacob Eaton withdrew the party's challenges and said they would be issuing no more. Several hundred letters requesting that individuals confirm their correct addresses had already gone out from overworked election offices before the GOP withdrew its challenge.
And it's crucial that we get this ad on the air right now, because voters - particularly persuadable voters - just started voting yesterday in Ohio.
The ad is tough, aggressive, and hard-hitting against the GOP's failed economic policies. But we need your help to get it on the air by Friday.
This ad highlights the report released by the Ohio Democratic Party on Monday, Ohio's Eight Years of Economic Pain. You can download the full report at www.ohiodems.org/economicpain
And you thought all of those sexy GOP yard signs were just gonna be thrown away. Well thankfully we have a great new use for these signs: Homes for the Homeless!
The Reno Outreach Gospel Misssion is accepting the now unneeded Primary Signs and will be used in the new "Bushville" program. These "Bushville Towns" have been springing up all over the US lately as thousands of middle and lower class families that have lost their homes and jobs during the past 7 years of Republican Administration.
If you wish to turn in your GOP Yard Sign so it can be used to "House the lower classes", please take it to the Washoe County Republican HQ at 3652 S. Virginia St, Suite C8Reno, NV 89509.
Please make sure you scrape all of the caviar and cocaine off of your signs, as they will be many small children living in the thin cardboard shacks this Fall as our Country continues to "imagine" it is suffering.
God Bless you for turning your trash into something "Fan-trash-tic" for your homeless ex-nextdoor-neighbors!
ZekeSaysSo.com READ MORE
One of the stories of our age has been that there was a cultural revolution which started during the Nixon era and reached its culmination with Reagan. I claim that this shift never took place and that the population has always been more progressive than the conservative history states. There are three parts to this view of history.
1. Conservative "values" became the majority viewpoint in the nation
2. Evangelical Christian views on social issues were made into policy
3. Libertarian style economic policies became the norm
The press and many politicians have certainly acted as if these were widely accepted ideas. Recently, as the age of Rove winds down, people have been discussing the fall in the power of the GOP and implicitly equating its political power with the conservative themes listed above.
