More bullshit from the lie factory:
On July 17th, the Obama for America Campaign, the Democratic National Committee, and the Ohio Democratic Party filed suit in OH to strike down part of that state’s law governing voting by members of the military. Their suit said that part of the law is “arbitrary” with “no discernible rational basis.”
Currently, Ohio allows the public to vote early in-person up until the Friday before the election. Members of the military are given three extra days to do so. While the Democrats may see this as “arbitrary” and having “no discernible rational basis,” I think it is entirely reasonable given the demands on servicemen and women’s time and their obligations to their sworn duty.
Absolute nonsense. Spun all out of recognition.
After the 2004 elections, Ohio lawmakers passed a bipartisan law on early voting. The objective was to relieve pressure on polling places on election day because Ohio’s election in 2004 (under then-Secretary of State, now media personality Ken Blackwell) was incompetently administered, leading to long lines and disenfranchised voters. It was a national disgrace.
Ohio fixed that problem by extending early voting. Bipartisan. Fixed the problem. Fewer voters on election day, no long lines. People love early voting. It’s wildly popular, because it’s convenient.
In 2010, when former Fox News personality and now Governor John Kasich came in, the early voting window was rolled back to deny all BUT military voters those extra three days.
Just as a side note, is anyone else bothered by what seems to be a revolving door between media personality status and government? I mean, good Lord. Is it any wonder we’re all so brutally misinformed? They’re all current or former co-workers! Fabulous. Let’s make this media-politician club as exclusive and insular as we possibly can, shall we?
President Obama’s re-election campaign has filed suit in federal court to block a Republican-sponsored Ohio law that mandates an end to early, in-person voting a full three days before Election Day this fall.
The lawsuit is the latest twist in an ongoing battle over early voting in the state between Obama allies and the Republican-controlled Ohio legislature and Gov. John Kasich.
Democrats say the Saturday, Sunday and Monday before Nov. 6 are critical days to “bank votes” needed to win Ohio. In 2008, 30 percent of the total vote came during early voting, including 93,000 votes during the last three days.
Republicans say the early vote process is too long, too costly for budget-strapped counties and too prone to fraud and abuse. They also insist trimming the voting period – not eliminating it entirely – does not upend the convenience of the current process.
Before the law, local election boards could decide at their own discretion whether or not to hold early, in-person voting during the last three days.
“The last three days of Early Vote are especially important to ensuring a free and fair election,” Obama’s Ohio campaign said in a statement. “We are moving forward in the fight to reinstate the last 3 days of Early Voting and ensure that all Ohio voters can make their voices heard this November.”
AA churches in Ohio do something called “Souls to the Polls” the Sunday before the election. After church, they go and vote. Republicans and John Kasich seek to halt that practice, so ended the last three days of early voting.
Spatula
My god, these people are bastards.
Mike Goetz
OT, but somewhat funny. Just read this passage in my book:
“Hallowell and Harrison seized the ship at sunset and imediately signaled the Romney, a fifty-gun man-of-war, to move her away from the wharf and out into the harbor. The Romney dispatched a small boat to accomplish the job. Removing the Liberty proved to be difficult: a mob gathered and fought the contingent from the Romney to keep her tied up at Hancock’s wharf. No one was killed or even seriously injured in the struggle, and the men from the Romney getting the upper hand towed the Liberty out under the guns of their ship. Thwarted at the wharf, the crowd, ‘chiefly sturdy boys and Negroes’ according to Thomas Hutchinson, turned its attention to Harrison and Hallowell, who were lucky to escape with their lives.”
The Romney forces have been taking away the liberty of the working class and blacks at gunpoint for 250 years!
sharl
Hmm, a Breitbart link?
{Don Corleone}
“Kay, you shouldn’t be dealing with these people. I have someone for that.”
{picks up phone, punches speed dial for TBogg…}
{/Don Corleone}
Valdivia
So in their world trying to get everyone equal treatment under the law to vote early equals treating the military badly. Got it.
erops
Does anyone know when the court will have a ruling on this?
Kay
@sharl:
A commenter in the other thread mentioned it, and although I know it’s fruitless, I thought I’d tell you about it in case someone comes up to and screams that you hate the troops.
They did this in Florida in 2000. An oldie but a goody, on the Right, the alleged troop disenfranchisement schemes of liberals.
Governor Kasich is fully aware of Soul to the Polls. You betcha.
GregB
@Valdivia:
Now paste that over a flag behind a picture of a nice blue eyed, blonde haired soldier and post it on Face Book with outrage caps.
Repeat as necessary.
HyperIon
Kay, you are getting shrill!
Thanks for making me aware of this.
Kay
@erops:
No, I don’t, but Democrats have been doing well in federal courts on Ohio voting issues. They’re on a bit of a roll. Early voting is popular, so conservatives MUST KILL IT. They’re freaking incredible. It just never stops.
Valdivia
@GregB:
that just sounds like propaganda circa Germany 1930s, not to Goodwin the thread so early. Just sayin’
TK421
“Is it any wonder we’re all so brutally misinformed? ”
Yes, the problem is that the media leaves people misinformed. Fortunately, when you tell people what’s really going on–for instance, that president Obama claims the right to kill any American citizen he wants without trial or oversight–they arrive at the correct conclusion.
Kay
@HyperIon:
I know. I damaged my c6 and c7 discs in my back (neck?) and I was getting physical therapy which was working, so I felt much better, so I went kayaking, like an idiot. The kayaking was perfect, though. Western Michigan is just lovely.
I was warned not to over-do. I was trying not to paddle. That’s what I plan to tell the physical therapist. “I didn’t PADDLE that much!”. The best defense is a good offense :)
My left arm is numb and I’m cranky, so I’m going to see if they can stretch out my neck or whatever the hell they were doing that was working.
BGinCHI
Too depressing. More education please so people can see through this bullshit.
Fucking GOP dicks.
mainmati
@Valdivia: As long as it’s before 1932 you haven’t invoked Godwin’s Law.
jl
@TK421:
And what is the ‘correct conclusion’? That the GOP would produce better civil liberties policies?
Why don’t you say what you mean, or SFTU?
BGinCHI
@jl: Convoluted Greenwald is convoluted.
Valdivia
@mainmati:
ha! I think I was definitely thinking past that date ;)
Steve
What was the ostensible reason for getting rid of early voting? Saving money?
burnspbesq
This is what happens when you start electing people who are too dumb to practice law or lobby when their political careers end.
jwest
OT – Breaking News.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D) spokeman, Adam Jentleson, replying to questions from prominent conservative blogger Ace of Spades, refused to catagorically deny multiple accusations that Sen Reid is a practicing pederast.
jwb
@BGinCHI: Yes, of course, because the best way to get your natural allies to take up your cause is to attack them like they were your enemy. All tactics, no strategy.
jwb
@jwest: you’re so cute when you’re angry.
burnspbesq
@BGinCHI:
Greenwald malgré is malgré.
WereBear
I point out stuff like this during arguments and they want to shift the subject. I don’t let them.
If I need an Atomic Gobstopper, I point out that I like President Obama for reasons that are true, and that they hate him for things that are not true.
The conclusion I leave for them.
RaflW
I’d suggest that rather than ‘uncategorized’ that this entry go under ‘Bigots and Proud Of it’
The desire to stop African American churches from doing their Souls to the Polls thing is grotesque.
But then again the entire voter disenfranchisement drive is morally abhorrent. Not new, of course, since Jim Crow and poll taxes and all that are firmly part of US history.
But still. Its nauseating to see it in action in 2012.
RaflW
@Steve:
Ending waste, fraud and abuse? That seems to be a stock (aka useless) GOP answer.
Too much democracy? That seems to be the kinsley-gaffe we’re waiting for, though that “yay for Romney” dude in PA came damn close.
kay
@Steve:
Yeah. It doesn’t hold water though, because county bds of elections have disrection on their budgets.
So, a county like mine would not open Sunday (they don’t need to) but a college town or urban area would decide to allocate resources there.
As a practical matter, the savings don’t add up, either. Heavily populated areas will just have to budget up for more back-up on election day. They hire temps, essentially, for early voting. They’re not adding staff.
It’s really worked very well. 2008 went off without a hitch.
jl
The GOP political sewer backing up?
Here is some more material, in addition to sudden discovery that Reid
wears a g string is a pederatst likes goatsasked some question Rmoney should but will not answer…He Speaks With Great Credibility
” Heard about that new ‘voter fraud’ study ballyhooed in conservative media which claims that Democrats are the main perpetrators of vote fraud and that voter ID laws protect rather than disenfranchise minority and elderly voters?
Well, turns out the ‘study’ is a short paper cobbled together from unsubstatianted media reports and the author is a GOP operative who himself had to plead guilty to falsifying documents in the Abramoff scandal. ”
talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2012/08/he_speaks_with_great_credibility.php
Rmoney’s mind bogglingly humongus IRA has not received much attention. Gee I hope there is some time to discuss that, during the slow summer months.
Nina
A blog post I just read is claiming that early voting for the inner city blue counties in Ohio will be allowed only during normal business hours. Yet mysteriously enough the suburban counties found enough money to keep their offices open on evenings and weekends as well.
Terry
@RaflW: I like “Bigotry in Solidarity.” Expect to see more of it, too, so it does need a label.
kay
@Nina:
Thanks for that Nina. That issue is apart from this one, where O is suing for the three lost days, but it’s a new wrinkle.
Yutsano
@Kay: There’s no point in lying to them. They KNOW when you’ve overdone it. I just had my back manipulated, which involved bending me into knots even Gabby Douglas would have trouble getting out of. Then I got treated like a vegetable with an ice pack. I’d skip work but I don’t wanna use the leave. :)
Nina
Here’s the post from kos:
dailykos.com/story/2012/08/03/1116276/-Meanwhile-in-Ohio-tilting-the-table
“Cuyahoga County (Cleveland) and Summit County (Akron) have been limited to “normal business hours” while at the same time big Republican suburban ring counties are voting to be open evenings and weekends. The implications are obvious. If you are a working stiff in those counties there is no need for extra hours to accommodate you. But if you are working stiff in Butler County or Warren County, reliably Republican counties then by all means your convenience must be accommodated. Same is true in Medina and Portage Counties near Cleveland.
We in Cincinnati have not yet voted on this issue but our Republican colleagues are indicating they intend to do the same as happened in Cleveland. It remains to be seen what will happen in Columbus.”
kay
@RaflW:
I have an inspiring story. We just got a local organizer for Sherrod Brown. He’s a NYC native. The reason he is active in politics is he was one of the college kids at Kenyon College in OH in 2004 who waited hours and hours to vote.
He said he was thinking “Oh. So THIS is how it’s going to be, now? They’re not going to let us VOTE?”
The GOP made a life-long adversary.
Patricia Kayden
Hope this lie is being widely exposed in Ohio.
I have to say that under no circumstances can I see myself voting for a party which lies, lies and lies again. Not my style.
Mnemosyne
@jwest:
If only there was something Romney could do to stop these unfair and unwarranted attacks, like release his tax forms for the past 12 years to match what Obama has done.
Yutsano
@Mnemosyne: But that’s just so UNFAIR!! You people already know all your need to know so just coronate the White Horse and be done with it!
kay
@Yutsano:
I dumped the kayak, which I have never done before, because I was avoiding paddling, so crashed into branches. I then did not have the strength to tip out the water and right the boat. This is not wild water, this is like placid broad river. Freezing cold, but just slight current on expanse of water out to Lake Michigan.
I’m lucky I wasn’t alone or I would be standing in the river still, trying to flip a boat with one arm, which is impossible.
sharl
@kay:
I love this story very, very much.
pseudonymous in nc
@jwest:
Mr “play-doh and bacon” is asking about pederasty? Hmmm.
ruemara
@TK421: You are a fucking idiot. No American citizen has a right to sign up with a terror organization, be their mouthpiece/recruiter or help them plan terror attacks. So fuck you. I’m tired of the BS that your trip to Kathmandu puts you at risk because you attended an Occupy chakra raising group. Every punk ass American that was a target, made a fucking choice to side with a group that declared war on their birth country. They denied their own citizenship and culture to be apart of it. So fuck you, fuck them.
HyperIon
@advice for Kay: REST