Election Protection News, October 28, 2008

The New York Times reports on the army of lawyers being deployed to protect the vote. Most numbers, quotes and anecdotes are from the Obama campaign; the McCain campaign and the RNC refuse to give any numbers, probably because they pale in comparison to the Obama juggernaut. Obama as usual has a better strategy than McCain, which is why the Democrats have won so many of the electoral challenges in court so far.

Georgia: A three-judge federal panel ruled that Georgia violated federal law by flagging voters ineligible, using a system that had not been approved by the Justice Department beforehand. This could affect as many as 55,000 voters statewide.

Virginia: A phony flier is circulating telling voters the election has been postponed to November 5th. It hasn't been postponed, and all voting takes place on Tuesday, November 4th. From the Virginia Pilot:



Virginia: The NAACP sued Virginia Governor Tim Kaine for not being adequately prepared for election, and asked the court to (a) reallocate voting machines to precincts likely to have the longest lines, and (b) order the polls to remain open an additional two hours.

New Mexico: The Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund and the ACLU have filed suit to stop the Republican Party from harassing and intimidating voters. This all stems from the Republicans hiring private investigator Al Romero who went to the homes of two newly registered voters last week.

Sarah Palin: "Cocky Whacko"

Dependable Renegade

That's what former Republican Senator from Rhode Island Lincoln Chafee called Sarah Palin yesterday. He also called her dangerous. He's right on both counts.

She holds whacky and dangerous views. In saying goodbye to her son who was deploying to Iraq, she said Iraq had caused 9/11 -- a view so extreme that even George W. Clusterfuck doesn't say that any more.

In her series of interviews with Charlie Gibson, she said that if Russia invaded Georgia, we would go to war (bottom of page, continues on to page 3). And starting World War III didn't phase her one bit. She delivered her answers in her bizarrely chirpy cheerleader voice as though it were perfectly normal to contemplate World War III. She'd be a war president.

Sarah Palin isn't lipstick on a pig. She's George W. Bush in lipstick, ready to be a war president but having no idea or concern about what that would mean for the country and for the world. A dangerous cocky whacko.

Read Liberally

What the heck happened in Georgia? Tristero at Hullabaloo points to an article in the NYTimes Review of Books explaining how the US helped Georgia rise to Russia's bait, with predictably disastrous consequences. (No one could have anticipated that Russia would fight back. Where have we heard that before?)

Voter caging is coming to a state near you. Mebe at dailykos points out that voter lists are being purged right now in Ohio, Louisiana, Michigan, Kansas, Florida, New Mexico, Colorado, and Nevada. And this year they're going after absentee ballots. Christy at firedoglake has a new "scholarly" article by Hans Von Vote Suppressor, and predicts that he is setting the stage for this year's election mau-mau by the Republicans, just as his previous articles set the stage for their voter fraud and voter caging shenanigans. Check that you are properly registered TODAY.

dengre at dailykos points out that Sarah Palin's $40 billion dollar natural gas pipeline will be both an environmental disaster and a boondoggle that will cost US taxpayers billions. And like all these hairbrained drilling proposals, there's no guarantee that the giant energy companies won't just sell all the gas to China anyway.

Josh Marshall outlines why the Charles Gibson interview of Sarah Palin will be unwatchable: Gibson has agreed to interview her over several days. He won't ask tough questions, because he won't want his access cut off. Journalism is dead, long live the bought and paid for corporate media.

Jill of Brilliant at Breakfast rips into NBC for dropping Olbermann/Matthews from their debate and election night coverage. Because the Republicans complained. No liberals on TeeVee! They're giving us David Gregory, the man who demonstrated his lack of journalistic integrity by dancing backup to Karl Rove at a White House press dinner. Lackey, anyone? Booman Tribune calls this the first GOP scalp in the war on the media.

Alaska blogger Mudflats (Palin: Republican Party Infiltrator?)has a video of the Vice Chairman of the Alaska Independence Party (the secessionists) claiming that Sarah Palin was indeed a member, and that she is only now a Republican to carry out their mission. Their founder Joe Voegler famously said:

“The fires of Hell are frozen glaciers compared to my hatred for the American government, and I won’t be buried under their damn flag!”

Deep Thought

Not that Georgia!

So, if McCain becomes President, and he has to drop a bomb on Russian troops in Georgia -- what if his lackey googles the wrong Georgia, and we drop a bomb on Atlanta?

It could happen. You know it could.

McCain and Walter Reed Middle School?

Obama/Biden '08.