James O’Keefe must be pretty unhappy with Mr. Derbyshire-late-of-the-National-Review, not to mention Mark-“No-More-White-Guilt“-Judge-still-of-the-Daily-Caller, because they’ve totalled cornered this week’s media market for Stupid White Dude news. Thereby leaving no space for an enterprising young hustler eager to prove that a “pointless form of voter fraud is possible” (maybe). As NYMag‘s Dan Amira points out:
In a new video, a member of James O’Keefe’s “Project Veritas” manages to enter a D.C. polling station and receive a ballot for none other than Attorney General Eric Holder, simply by providing Holder’s address.
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Assuming the video isn’t deceptively edited — and it doesn’t appear to be, but that will always be a concern with O’Keefe — it does do a good job of demonstrating how easy it is to carry out voter fraud without voter I.D. laws.
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The question is whether anyone should really care. Yes, if you wanted to, you could risk five years in prison and a $10,000 fine to vote for someone else, but we’re not sure why you would, since a single vote, or even a few votes, will never make a difference…
But then, O’Keefe is only a semi-professional rightwing hustler, unlike This Guy, as profiled by the LATimes (via Paul Constant):
… Why does Beck have an Oval Office set? To give presidential speeches, of course.
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The set, which Beck has nicknamed “The Oval,” will make its debut on his daily program Monday as part of a regular segment of the show in which he’ll be delivering speeches on what he thinks the president should be saying to the American people. According to GlennBeck.com, we should expect the speeches to be “Reagan-esque in tone.” Of course, Beck’s presidential speeches will probably be a good deal more emotional than any actual televised presidential speech…
Apart from White Dudes Behaving Badly, what’s on this morning’s agenda?
Mino
Shit. An 8.9 earthquake 20 miles deep in the Indian Ocean. Tsunami warnings all over the area.
JGabriel
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Anne Laurie @ Top:
We’re a political blog snarking Republicans/Conservatives. White Dudes Behaving Badly is our agenda.
.
kdaug
@Mino: Heard. How long ago was the last Banda Aceh tsunami?
Triassic Sands
The quake’s magnitude has been revised downward to a mere 8.7.
I hope everybody in the affected areas is living it up on high ground. A repeat of the 2004 disaster is unthinkable.
In other news, it occurred to me that depending on how the Martin case turns out in Florida — I’m not optimistic — we could see Zimmerman running for office in 2014. Is he any less qualified than Joe the Plumber? The bar for being a Republican candidate is set so low I can’t think of anyone offhand who would be disqualified from running for the GOP outside of serial killers (who are currently incarcerated) and members of certain disfavored ethnic and religious classes. Otherwise, being notorious and representing one of the GOP’s bizarre positions of honor (like being a “Stand-Your-Ground Killer) ought to give someone a perfectly good resume.
Triassic Sands
@kdaug:
December 26, 2004.
Mino
India is predicting a 20 foot rise for early evening.
It might be hitting Srilanka right now. We should be hearing pretty soon. Hope for the best.
kdaug
@Mino: N/M. December 26, 2004. 164,000 died last time.
MikeJ
@Mino: PTWC has watches up as far away as South Africa, no warnings yet.
Raven
@Triassic Sands: “The magnitude scale is really comparing amplitudes of waves on a seismogram, not the STRENGTH (energy) of the quakes. So, a magnitude 8.7 is 794 times bigger than a 5.8 quake as measured on seismograms, but the 8.7 quake is about 23,000 times STRONGER than the 5.8!”
The last one was 9.1.
Raven
@MikeJ: PTWC, what’s next, some stupid volcano warning system?
Triassic Sands
Of course voting fraudulently seems like an act for an insane individual, but we all know the GOP is filled with lunatics. So, this kind of voter fraud might be almost plausible if you had a president like Bush who would be willing to guarantee pardons to those who are caught. Even so, despite the level of insanity among Republicans, this seems like a virtually non-existent threat. But if it is a threat, I’m pretty sure it will be Republicans perpetrating the fraud.
So, what else is new?
Raven
@Triassic Sands: Extremism in the defensive. . .
amk
@Mino: Self and family felt the tremors in Chennai, India. Lasted for about 10 minutes intermittently. No damages. Hope people in Aceh did not suffer much.
Mino
@amk: From what is out there right now, seems to have inflicted minor damage in Sumatra.
Mino
One expert told the BBC the Wednesday quake as a “strike-slip” fault, meaning a more horizontal shift of the ground under the sea as opposed to a sudden vertical shift, and less risk of a large displacement of water triggering a tsunami.
Maybe not so likely for tsunami.
Schlemizel
I read some time ago that earthquakes actually cause a ‘ripple’ of later earthquakes. The thinking is that a sharp movement in one spot on the fault increases the pressure at other points along the line & causes them to shift in the years after.
The article showed several major earthquakes in history and how they were followed by a series of other large quakes on the same system in the decade or two following. These bursts were separated by many decades, or even centuries, of relative calm.
Hope thats not whats happening here or it could be a long ugly streak
Raven
@Schlemizel: Well, the last one was 8 years ago and that’s nothing in geological time, right?
WereBear
As usual, the Republicans are pointing at the guy jaywalking so we don’t notice them stealing the bank vault down the street.
No one, ever, stole an election with individuals running around to the different precincts. What steals an election is the Guy in Charge racking up nonexistent votes when the numbers get turned in.
What have the Republicans done about that?
The Ancient Randonneur
If I ran over O’Keefe with my vehicle that would do a good job of demonstrating of how easy it is to run over dog shit. Of course running over dog shit isn’t a crime, but obtaining a ballot under false pretenses is.
Joseph Nobles
Glenn Beck is so far past his die-wearing-two-wetsuits-and-a-dildo date.
Mino
@WereBear: What have the Republicans done about that?
Tried to monopolize the position.
WereBear
Fascinated with Showdown by David Corn.
Still in the first chapter (so much competing for my attention) but it’s well-written and well-researched. And here’s a big thing:
In it, the President comes off exactly as I’ve seen him being, these past few years.
A Progressive who puts the wellbeing of all Americans ahead of his ambitions. Willing to bargain and compromise to get something instead of nothing. Admittedly did not put their weight behind marketing… because they felt it took all they had to get the legislation the country needed through the process.
Dayum. I feel vindicated… and fired up!
Foregone Conclusion
I would be willing to bet that there is less voter fraud in America now than there has ever been. Go back to the middle of the last century, and people sort-of accepted fraud in at least some areas as expected. Look at how LBJ won his first Senate election, look at JFK in Chicago in 1960. Thank goodness, those bad old days are over.
Phylllis
@WereBear: Thanks for the heads-up on that yesterday. It’s still in cataloging at my local library, so I’m first in the queue for it.
SiubhanDuinne
@WereBear:
I just started reading that yesterday!
kindness
I thought I had read yesterday that O’Keefe’s video wasn’t an actual polling place as he & his actor didn’t want to be arrested for violating Federal election laws. That it was all staged in a make believe polling place and that this is what is ‘supposed’ to happen if someone did request a ballot. I know that sounds more plausible given O’Keefe’s preference to going with the big lie rather than 10 little ones.
Omnes Omnibus
@kindness: So basically, if I set up an Oval Office set and filmed myself sitting behind the desk and ordering a nuclear attack on Belgium – these things always start in Belgium – it would have the same effect on the nuclear security debate that this video should have on the voter security debate?
runt
Jebus, that’s a scary picture. It will probably haunt my nightmares for years to come.
Egg Berry
In other O’Keefe news, the ACORN sting earned him a cool $65,000, according to Wonkette.
Michael57
Maybe this is a minority view, but I LOVE the Beck/Oval Office set. Crazy is fun to watch, and he has really taken it up a notch this time.
the Conster (f/k/a Cat Lady)
What you don’t see in that Beck picture is the men with butterfly nets just out of the frame.
dr. bloor
@Egg Berry: That will cover about a month’s worth of legal fees for him these days.
kdaug
@Omnes Omnibus:
Kind of. I’m going with Mount Olympus, a thunderbolt (h/t Tesla) and a white beard, but the principle is the same.
You just have to capture the “Kneel before Zod!” vibe, and you’re good to go.
Chyron HR
@the Conster (f/k/a Cat Lady):
You also don’t see the giant rabbit standing next to him. But I guess that’s kind of the point.
gocart mozart
On behalf of the white race and the male gender, I would like to apologize.
nathaniel
@kindness:
I read it was an actual polling place but since the guy wouldn’t sign for the ballot, and thus commit fraud, he was never given a ballot. It is the equivilent as if you put some fake guns under your coat, went into a bank and walked out and used that as proof you could have robbed the bank.
Further even if the guy would have voted, if holder would ahve shown up later and also voted, both ballots would ahve been placed int he provisional category and it would have been sorted out then.
danielx
@Egg Berry:
$65k for the ACORN sting? I have to confess a certain reluctant admiration – as grifting goes, that’s positively Palinesque.
Glen Beck with an Oval Office set? He’s been constructing elaborate fantasies for years, so I can’t say I’m exactly surprised. If he wants to spend money on an elaborate backdrop for his ravings it’s his privilege; I’m only surprised he’s not delivering his speeches in Tea Party garb. Now, Beck in the real Oval Office is a concept worthy of my worst nightmares, and I’ve had some over the years.that have brought me awake screaming.
El Cid
Indian Ocean tsunami warnings have been cancelled.
Nemesis
We will hear much more about vote fraud after this election.
“Barry” will be in the crosshairs of the continued “illegitimate” accusations and the rw will finally burst at the seams, while the anti-anything-not-white-or-light-beige brigade will doom any mid-term pickups in 2014.
America citizens will need to become seriously more impaired to vote gop for the next few years.
gnomedad
Yeah, the right is all about harsh punishment to deter crime, except when the real goal is to suppress voting. When are we going to have photo ID laws for bank robbers?
The Republic of Stupidity
Does that mean they’ll be delivered by a corpse?
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
If he’s going to be Reaganesque, then he’d better use a teleprompter.
moonbat
@kdaug: Thanks for the fair trade Ethiopian coffee snort. Invigorating! Starting to wonder if it will help my allergies…
Tone In DC
@JGabriel:
LULz.
David
What happened to Breitbart’s toxicology report? What are they hiding?
ericblair
@David:
Probably ran the samples through the detector and it overloaded the machine.
kdaug
@moonbat:
Don’t start me on allergies – t’is the season and all that, but I look like I’ve been crying nonstop for the last two days. (Psst: I have been, and it ain’t sadness).
Fun times.
Saying in Austin: You’ve either got allergies when you got here, or you will.
flukebucket
@El Cid:
So now is the time to head for higher ground.
Scott S.
I’m pretty sure this is Beck’s way of sending a message that he’s ready to make the jump to politics.
redshirt
I’ve been trying to put perspective on my fear/paranoia/sense of doom: There were other crazy times in American history – lead up to Civil War, Reconstruction, Alien Sedition Act, Anarchist bombings, Yellow Journalism, Great Depression, etc.
Was shit as crazy back then as now? Or are we in uncharted waters? If so, the difference seems to be based in two things 1. Technology, and 2. The sheer power and money backing the insanity.
Soothe my nerves! Tell me it’s always been so, and this too shall pass.
Cmm
True story: Glenn Beck is so far out of sight out of mind for me that when the paragraph started with just “beck” and I didn’t recognize the picture right off, I was thinking, wait, that “Two Turntables and a Microphone” guy has a talk show?
Valdivia
So Gov Christie is calling americans couch potatoes?????
WTH? Because the govt gives the poor help.
I am seeing red from that. Ugh.
redshirt
@Valdivia: He would be an expert on the subject I assume.
kdaug
@redshirt: It’s always been so, and this too shall pass.
Ash Can
@Scott S.:
I have mixed feelings about that. The entertainment value would be tremendous, but I’d always have this nagging feeling in the back of my mind that it’s just not right to make fun of the mentally ill (both him and his followers).
redshirt
@kdaug: Methinks you’re lying.
Ash Can
And in other news, Little Green Footballs is reporting that the NRO has fired another white-supremacist writer (after a LGF diarist called him out). (Artcle may require scroll-down, depending on whether any others get posted above it as time goes on.)
At this rate, they’ll have nobody left. Will the last racist douchebag to leave NRO please turn out the lights?
Valdivia
@redshirt:
ha too true!
Scott S.
@Ash Can: Too nice. I’m starting to think it’s gonna be fun to comb through old wingnut pundits’ archives for a few weeks to see if they can all get fired at once…
handsmile
@redshirt: (#50)
Nope, it’s the End Times, brother! Put your affairs in order and pray you’ll be among those who get Raptured. Hope you make the list to get in.
In the meantime, you might want to read the New Yorker essay on the Book of Revelations that Anne Laurie linked to last night (“Open Thread: Seventy-Seven Seals”).
(Pedant alert: A review of Elaine Pagels’ new book by someone who actually knows something about the subject may be found in the last issue of the NYRB, “Apocalypse Then” by G.W. Bowersock.)
Until then, stockpiling canned food, bottled water, and ammo may help with the paranoia and fear. I know it helps me.
bemused
Beck’s Oval set is a piece of buffoonery designed to get viewers. The scary part is that the faithful, zombie Beck fans would love to see Beck in the actual Oval Office.
kindness
@The Republic of Stupidity:
Does that mean they’ll be delivered by a corpse?
No it means we should understand that someone needs to be addled by the early stages of dementia via Alzheimers disease to believe what the right offers.
g
Reaganeque? Late Reagan, I presume, the doddering senile years?
Villago Delenda Est
@WereBear:
Feature, not a bug.
Tone In DC
@Ash Can:
True colors finally show through.
from the NRO page…
The Republic of Stupidity
Yes, indeed…
And I believe what you are accurately describing would be considered ELECTION fraud, and not VOTER fraud…
Oh those Republicans…
JGabriel
@WereBear:
Practice.
.
Svensker
@Chyron HR:
The giant rabbit would NEVER stand next to Glenn Beck. Never.
Mnemosyne
@Tone In DC:
The only thing that comes to mind when I read this sentence is, “What the fucking fuck?”