I do not remember hearing about this convention until Dave Weigel’s Slate post today…
John Fund, the reporter and freelance pro-voter-ID speaker, encouraged the morning audience at Herman Cain’s “Solutions Revolution” to mark April 27-28 on their calendars. On that weekend, the Tea Party spinoff group True the Vote will hold its second annual summit on election fraud — or, at least, the threat of election fraud.
__
The conference will feature some mainstays of the conservative voter integrity circuit. James O’Keefe; former DOJ lawyer/anti-New Black Panther crusader J. Christian Adams; and so on. But the star is Artur Davis, the former Democratic congressman from Alabama who has started irritating his old party by ringing bells about voter fraud…
Also among the promised “and so on“: Hans von Spakovsky and Tom Fitton:
Registering [poor people] to vote is like handing out burglary tools to criminals. It is profoundly antisocial and un-American to empower the nonproductive segments of the population to destroy the country — which is precisely why Barack Obama zealously supports registering welfare recipients to vote.
Yeah, I know there are many fine individuals living in the Houston area who aren’t professional liars, sociopaths and/or deluded paranoids. So I’ll settle for a weekend outbreak of a particularly virulent norovirus at the Sheraton Houston Brookhollow…
Baud
These people exist because not enough poor people vote.
Just Some Fuckhead
Still, you shouldn’t just be able to walk up and vote without proving who you are. Imagine if we ran society with that sorta lax attitude. I’d be able to walk up and steal people’s mail right out of their mailbox or shoot someone in the face.
Violet
I’m quite familiar with that location and that’s not a great hotel. Reasonably convenient location, but not near much of anything that tourists would want to visit, like shopping or restaurants. Plus it’s in a very loud location next to two freeways. They’re not spending a ton of money on the hotel. As of last Friday the flyer says you can still get a room for $79. That doesn’t make it sound like it’s sold out.
MikeJ
Two choices. Poor people vote or poor people start going Defarge on some asses.
mk3872
How many occurrences of “we ran out of ballots” do you think we’ll hear about this year in large black neighborhoods in inner cities with all of the Republican-run states?
It’ll be a replay of Ken Blackwell stealing Ohio for W in 2004 x10.
Kitty
Winger relative of mine was in a tizzy once because “the Obama campaign was bringing in homeless people to register to vote” I said aren’t homeless people Americans too? Much huffing and spluttering ensued.
BGinCHI
Well, at least the Houston strip joints will do some bidness that weekend.
Xecky Gilchrist
Registering [poor people] to vote is like handing out burglary tools to criminals. It is profoundly antisocial and un-American to empower the nonproductive segments of the population to destroy the country
O.o
Holy fuck.
Egg Berry
@Xecky Gilchrist:
Yes. When will we disenfranchise the FIRE sector?
devore
Someone in the MSM needs to ask Romney if he supports their position on minorities voting
BruceFromOhio
I’m thinking these klowns don’t read the papers, so I thought I’d lend a hand.
Linnaeus
Shit, let’s just bring back property requirements to vote, just like in the old days.
Violet
If the attendees get bored they can always go to the Houston International Festival. That’s gotta be way more fun than that conference.
BruceFromOhio
@Kitty: Well, now, when this Great Country was formed, only landed gentry and slaveholders could possibly understand the gravity of responsibility demanded by a functioning Democracy. In upholding the patriotism witnessed therein by our proud Forefathers, it would seem only rich, white men should be enabled to vote.
Or some such fucking bullshit.
@Linnaeus: I say, sir, I *do* like the cut of your jib!
boss bitch
So Arthur Davis found him a nice group of suckers, eh?
PsiFighter37
What the hell is wrong with Artur Davis? Ever since Ron Sparks handed his ass to him in the Alabama gubernatorial primary, he’s gone from being an irritating DLCer to basically a turncoat shilling for the GOP. The Joe Lieberman of the South, if you will, but with even less electoral skills.
What a turd.
Violet
@Linnaeus:
Does your vote count more if you own people with dark skin?
gbear
I think some brave and ironic soul should be out in the parking lot stealing vehicle licence plates during this event.
pseudonymous in nc
@mk3872:
Or unexpected blackouts that shut down the electronic voting machines?
As I said in a thread on one of the primary days, if the observers who oversee countries’ transition to democracy were to apply the same criteria to the US, the report would be fucking ugly reading. Partisan officials in charge of county elections? Different standards applied from precinct to precinct? The press reports totals before they’re properly tabulated? That’s even before getting into the weeds about Diebold-ESS and Sequoia issue, and before engaging with the active voter suppression efforts in state legislatures and pundit shops.
Spaghetti Lee
Vote GOP 2012, and we’ll make sure it’s the last vote you ever make!
Roger Moore
Fixt.
lamh35
Check out the transcript for the interview. Did this guy give an actual answer to any of the damn question Diane asked? Did Diane even try to get him to answer the damn question? NO and NO!
Transcript: Mitt and Ann Romney’s Interview With Diane Sawyer
El Cid
God, damn, but I fucking hate these fucking assholes.
Anya
Why is Artur Davis destroying his reputation over this manufactured issue? Surely, playing the reasonable centrist pundit on teevee, like Harold Ford Jr, is more lucrative than his current gig.
PsiFighter37
@Anya:
Uh, what reputation? He’s solidifying his reputation as an asshole, if anything.
Linnaeus
@Violet:
Well, if said folks can’t vote, that just magnifies the power of the owner’s vote. Brilliant, I say!
Horrendo Slapp (formerly Jimperson Zibb, Duncan Dönitz, Otto Graf von Pfmidtnöchtler-Pízsmőgy, Mumphrey, et al.)
You know what? It floors me, but I think this guy is dead on. I never would have thought that I’d say something like that about a right-wing turd, but, damn, when you’re right, you’re right: Mitt Romney, George Bush the Younger, and all those other lazy, worthless, layabout, ne’er-do-well assholes who just inherited all their money, well, I mean I know they’re Americans and all, but they are non-productive, and it is profoundly antisocial and un-American to empower–wait, what? He isn’t talking about Romney? What? Poor people? What the fuck? Shit. Well, never mind. What an asshole.
R Johnston
@Anya: Even though “reasonable” centrist pundits appear all over television and can make a good stipend, pretty much everyone hates them. Some rich idiots think “reasonable” centrist pundits are useful for something other than fertilizer, but that’s because the rich idiots are idiots. You can make a living as a “reasonable” centrist pundit, but no one will love you, not even your spouse or children.
Crazy melanin-enhanced teatards, however, are loved. The Derbyshires of the world have great affection for their house negros.
SES
I believe you left out “dickhead.”
cckids
You left out the air quotes around “integrity”. The definition of it, O’Keefe knows it not.
Anya
@PsiFighter37: I think an African American from the freaking south who’s working hard to disfranchise AA voters is the worst human being. How can he live with himself?
@R Johnston: I think being a villager darling is better than contributing to the active oppression of the most vulnerable segment of the American electorate.
Anyway, this just proves that Artur Davis is a vile sorry excuse for a human being.
Mike G
So right. The political tapeworms of the wingnut welfare circuit should be driven from DC and forced to find productive employment that suits their actual abilities, like clerking at a 7-Eleven in Abilene, Texas.
dmsilev
I’m going to go out on a limb here and guess that random Internet morons are not privy to the detailed fall media strategy for the Republican campaign.
Edit: Did we lose Veritas’s latest UNLIMITED CORPORATE CASH gem? So sad.
Anya
@lamh35:
this woman’s sense of entitlement is astonishing. Why doesn’t she just ask the President to step aside so that Mittens can assume his legitimate role as POTUS.
R Johnston
@dmsilev: I’ll go out on a different limb and say that Karl Rove has at least a dozen online sockpuppets that routinely get mistaken for random internet morons.
Amir Khalid
@lamh35:
It seems to me that his repeated evasions are telling enough. And that when he does try to answer the question he doesn’t do particularly well, even though Diane Sawyer doesn’t give him anywhere near as hard a time as I could have.
How hard should Sawyer have pressed for answers on topic? You have to play those things by ear. It might have been satisfying to watch the gears jam on the Romneybot; but you don’t want to look like you’re hectoring an interviewee, particularly on TV. On the other hand, you don’t want them to get mad at you, and let the conversation degenerate into a shouting match: “Yes, I did answer your question!” “Oh no you didn’t!” That too is unpleasant and uninformative for the viewer.
arguingwithsignposts
@dmsilev: I blame you for summoning it.
Anya
@dmsilev:
Why, oh why did you have to mention him?
El Cid
@Veritas: What? The soshullist Green Bay Packers with their soshullist publickly owned stadium? That’s kind of commie.
MikeJ
I’ve met one after six months of working there. I’d give his wife and kid the benefit of the doubt too. So, uhm, three.
martha
@Veritas: Speaking as a Packer fan and someone who knows many of them, bring it on. This excrescence will simply piss off all the independents, moderate republicans, and conservadems. And there are quite a few in this state. They’ll be so sick of all the big money BS ( we actually do read up here) they’ll likely vote for the incumbent, even if they aren’t thrilled.
VICTORY!
Amir Khalid
@arguingwithsignposts:
Aw, c’mon. Veritas is part of the entertainment around here. I’m particularly amused by his fond belief that fans all over America are going to tune in to football games just for the political ads in the commercial breaks — during which, as most people know, real fans get up to fetch more beer and snacks.
Jibeaux
@MikeJ: Is it Brian? I know him.
BethanyAnne
Hrm, mebbe I should show up with an “Arm the Homeless” sign.
lamh35
Ann Romney could learn something from Michelle Obama…CLASS!
Michelle Obama: ‘I Don’t Have The Stressful Job. He Does’
mdblanche
@PsiFighter37: Davis’ (ex-)constituents dared vote for the white guy just because they liked his platform better. They deserve everything they get for betraying him like that.
Anyways if this Truth the Vote thing is as well attended as the Solutions Revolution we could be in trouble.
Veritas
@El Cid:
I don’t give a rip about the Packers. Don’t really hate them either, thought, since they’re not even in my teams conference. I’m a Hoosier, born and raised.
GO COLTS!
R Johnston
Ah. Ultimate proof of trolldom. No Colts fan would actually go there after last season and this offseason.
There is no chance whatsoever that you are a Colts fan.
Veritas
@R Johnston:
Two words:
Andrew. Luck.
MikeJ
@R Johnston: The Mayflowers have actual fans?
NobodySpecial
Yeah, like William Clay Ford is going to want advertising on his games that advocates shutting down Detroit. VeritASS belches again.
The prophet Nostradumbass
@Veritas:
“We”? So, you work for the Romney campaign then?
GregB
Advertising during a football game.
Background noise while the fans get more beer, food, smoke a dube or drop a deuce.
Spend away.
scav
Veritas’ teams don’t win games, they shower the field with unlimited amounts of cash and buy trophies.
smith
@Veritas:
99% of football fans use the commercial breaks as bathroom time or refrigerator run time. Or if they have the DirecTV NFL package, switch to a game that doesn’t have a commercial. Fans in bars don’t pay attention to the ads either.
Almost every NFL fan I know, liberal or conservative, hates motherfucking political ads interfering with their football games – no matter which party the ad is from.
So, good luck reaching the 1% of football fans that actually watch the commercials. Tell Romney if that’s the way he wants to waste his money, he’s free to do so.
gex
Well, they are up front about wanting to take back the country and do how the founding fathers did. You know, wealthy white men only.
The problem is there are a lot of white men who think they’ll be extended the franchise when they absolutely will not.
ETA: Anyone who decides they are so rich they can just destroy my enjoyment of the NFL season for their own personal gain will never get my vote.
Anya
I can’t be the only person in America who’s already tired of MittAnn. I really want them to disappear from my internets. Is that too much to ask?
Spaghetti Lee
@Veritas:
During those games, the NFL will effectively become an advertising arm of the Romney campaign that happens to have a football game inbetween.
Wow, just what football fans always wanted! Like others have said: bring it on, you dumb putz.
mainmati
@Baud: Exactly. And the GOP are determined to make it even harder to vote.
Martin
Someone needs to ask Hans von Spakovsky what, since all of these half measures seem to not be working, his final solution would be?
Martin
Shorter Veritas: I desperately need to see 22 fat sweaty guys every 9 minutes to prevent me from having my Romerection last more than 4 hours.
R Johnston
@Veritas: If you were a Colts fan you would know and readily acknowledge that the final demise of your offensive line means that Andrew Luck will be the Ken O’Brien to RGIII’s Dan Marino.
Egg Berry
@Martin: I saw what you did there.
Calouste
@Amir Khalid:
Jeremy Paxman from the BBC pretty much build his reputation on asking a politician the same question twelve times in a row during an interview.
Brother Shotgun of Sweet Reason
@Veritas: As a Baltimorean, I just found another reason to dislike you and all your comments. You probably had Mayflower do your last move, too.
AA+ Bonds
“True the Vote”?
It’s an unexplored spectrum from normal to paranoid schizophrenia is my explanation for all this
“True the Vote” is something I’d expect to see on a Geocities site circa 1999 about the Freemasons
AA+ Bonds
Wait what was that bit about football games and Romney
kdaug
@MikeJ:
What was that Plato quote? “When smart people stay out of politics, they will be ruled by stupid people”?
Get involved.
Phoenician in a time of Romans
Different standards applied from precinct to precinct?
Actually, I’m wondering if anyone can preemptively sue for officials to be required to impose uniform standards throughout a State under the 14th amendment, citing _Bush vs Gore_. Even with their oh so cute “this only applies this one time” clause.
The wingnut faction of the Supreme Court took a big old shit on the Constitution with that one – the least that can be done is to shove it back
in their faces.
TenguPhule
One Drone Strike and so much evil would be removed from the world.
Just one damn Drone Strike.
Debbie(Aussie)
Easy to solve; just have compulsory voting for all over 18, just like in Aus &NZ. See problem solved.
Bruce S
For the record, Fund was speaking to a smattering of stragglers who showed up for what turned out to be a non-event. Cain’s pizza is a cold leftover slice with a bite out of it. This would have been a significant crowd for a book-signing in Boise. “Solutions Revolution?” Not so much…
Kay
The whining on poor people voting makes me laugh, because there were two huge studies on what group of voters influence Congress, one in 1963 and another in 2005, and poor people have NO influence on Congress, at all. Not among Republicans and not among Democrats.
Republicans and Democrats are both hugely influenced by well-off voters, and Democrats are more responsive to middle class voters than Republicans are, but NO ONE pays attention to poor people.
Both studies excluded the effect of political donations, so we’re just talking about voting and the amount of noise voters make and the amount of attention they get.
I would ask the luminaries gathered at this summit how many people know who James O’Keefe is, compared to how many people know the name of ONE SINGLE voter access advocate. There are thousands of voter access advocates. Know any names?
Voter access summits are held all the time. They get NO coverage.
One of the reasons well-off people have such outsize representation in Congress, all out of proportion to their numbers, is because of “elite opinion” (the 2005 Princeton study) promoting their interests.
Again, neither study looked at the HUGE thumb on the scale that political donations add. If they had, the amount of influence well-off people have compared to their numbers would have been off the fucking charts.
So, whine away, you spoiled brats. You’re much better represented than the people you’re trashing, and you’re too stupid to know it.
Kay
Here’s the 2005 Princeton study (pdf).
Bruce S
“You’re much better represented than the people you’re trashing”
Actually, Bartels’ study is almost as shocking for how skewed political influence has been against the middle group. And his data is based on the 1980s and 1990s. When, uh, you could actually raise tax rates in Congress – even under Reagan. Bartels uses income inequality as the analytical backdrop for the drastic imbalances in political influence of actual voting segments, so consider the likely impact of the dramatic increase in income inequality, wage stagnation, etc. since even the 1990s which was the time-frame of his most recent data. So now we see garbage like the GOP filibustering a principle of fair taxation that “even Ronald Reagan” had fully endorsed and something like 70% of people support.
Bruce S
FWIW the highest voter turnout in 2008 was among black women.
Biggest shift downward from 2008 to 2010 – about 50% less turnout – was youth.
Kay
@Bruce S:
It’s incredibly hard to get young people to vote. It’s just so time-intensive. Our system is so dependent on an address, too, and they move all the time.
I don’t think we’re ever going to get them out in midterms. They’ll vote in midterms when they are at one address long enough, plan to stay there, and care about a House district or a governor’s race: when they’re older.
I think a lot of them vote in Presidential years because that actually fits how they see political representation, ie: not a state or district but the whole country, and that makes a kind of sense if you’re 22 and not “settled” anywhere.
evinfuilt
Wish granted…
Okay, maybe. A few years back my parter got us a couple nights there courtesy the owner so we could “secretly” rate the hotel (my partner is in hotel biz, and got the lucky consultant job.)
This Sheraton was a sad sad joke, the owner had high expectations of making it a jewel in Houston. Instead, it was poorly run, the food was atrocious and the hotel overall was unkempt. Yes, it was a couple years ago, but still, a norovirus outbreak could easily happen at that place, the kitchen was run as a disgrace.
Then again, maybe the owner fixed it all up after getting the information requested.
liberal
@MikeJ:
IMHO history shows that revolutions are really led by the middle/upper middle classes.
art josephs
@Debbie(Aussie):
after the MAN has had his foot on the neck of poor folks for the 200 or 300 hundred years voting more once , twice or even three or four times is only fair. VOTE EARLY & OFTEN