Making Change Happen

No posts today, I'm stationed in exurban Virginia guarding a polling place for Obama.

Get out there and

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Election Protection News, October 30, 2008

Colorado: Voting rights activists and the Colorado Secretary of State reached an agreement that will allow an estimated 20,000 voters removed from the election rolls in the 90 days prior to election day to vote. They will have to vote by provisional ballot, but those ballots will be given priority and counted ahead of other provisional ballots. Not much of a deal in my estimation.

Florida: Election officials are in full revolt over terrible new voting laws, and many are allowing voters to cast full ballots after signing affidavits of residence, rather than forcing voters to vote by provisional ballot.

Ohio: The Justice Department will not intervene in the Ohio registration dispute, despite a request from George W. Bush to do so.

Virginia: There will be a hearing today in the NAACP's suit against the Commonwealth of Virginia asking for more voting machines and longer poll hours in minority precincts on Election Day. Virginia has also decided to count military ballots that don't contain a line for witness signature, a technicality required under a 2002 Virginia law that is not required under federal law.

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.

More Poll Candy

Obama up over McCain by 8 points in Virginia, mostly because he leads in Northern Virgina by a 2-1 margin. (Unreal Virginia).

Obama Inspires

Richmond Times-Dispatch, Slideshow, Barack Obama at "Change We Need" Rally in Richmond, Virginia, October 22, 2008

Racist McCain Backer Is Out

On Sunday we wrote about a racist newspaper column by McCain County Chair Bobby May of Buchanan County, Virginia. We predicted he's be out of the campaign by Monday night; it took a little longer than that, but he's been dropped like a hot potato.

LATimes: John McCain backer dropped from Virginia campaign team due to racially tinged column

John McCain's campaign has denounced and rejected a racially charged, anti-Barack Obama newspaper column written by one of the Republican campaign's organizers in Virginia,and has removed the author-activist from his post as a member of the candidate's statewide leadership team.

The column by Bobby May appeared in a southwestern Virginia newspaper,The Voice, and drew attention after it was cited in a Sunday Los Angeles Times report about how voters in that mostly white region were reacting to potentially electing the country's first black president.

May, who in July was named his county's Republican representative on the McCain statewide campaign team, offered a spoof of Obama's platform and plans in his recent column.

[]

McCain spokeswoman Gail Gitcho, in a written statement announcing that May was being dropped from the campaign team, said the attempts at humor "are offensive, insulting and have no place in political discourse. Mr. May's comments in no way reflect the views or opinions held by John McCain or his campaign. The McCain campaign wholeheartedly disavows Mr. May's column."

McCain would prefer to attack Obama indirectly; "Who is Barack Obama" is coded racism.

Racist Moron Reveals Self In Print

Republican Party of Buchanan County, Virginia: The one and only. . .Bobby May [right] with [Virginia Attorney General, current candidate for Virginia Governor] Bob McDonnell [left].

Bobby May, your white sheet is showing.

The chair of the McCain campaign in Buchanan County, Virginia has written a racist, reprehensible column in the Buchanan County Voice claiming that these are the "positions" of Barack Obama:

REPARATIONS TO BLACK COMMUNITY: Opposes before Election Day and supports after Election Day.

FREEDOM OF RELIGION: Mandatory Black Liberation Theology classes taught in all churches - raise taxes to pay for this mandate. Put Rev. Jeremiah Wright in charge. Condemnation of homosexuality from the pulpit will become a Class 1 Felony.

HOMOSEXUAL MARRIAGE: Raise taxes. And coddle sexual perverts. Give tax breaks for NAMBLA membership fees.

DRUG CRISIS: Raise taxes to pay for free drugs for Obama’s inner-city political base.

ABORTION: Anywhere, anytime, for anyone for any reason up to 9 months and send taxpayers the bill. Encourage Partial Birth Abortion.

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT: Keep buying foreign oil and sending billions to Muslim countries that hate us and want to destroy us. [Wait, isn't that the Republican platform?]

2ND AMENDMENT: Under Obama will only apply to gang-bangers, illegal aliens, Islamo-Fascist terrorists, and Senator Jim Webb’s aide.

THE WHITE HOUSE: Hire rapper Ludacris to “paint it black.” Taxes to be increased to buy enough paint for the job plus spray-paint for graffiti.

THIRD WORLD COUNTRIES: Raise taxes to send $845 billion, most of it to Africa so the Obama family there can skim off enough for them to free their goats and live the American Dream.

NATIONAL ANTHEM: Change to the “Black National Anthem” by James Weldon Johnson. And raise taxes.

U.S. FLAG: Replace 50 stars with a star and crescent logo; red stripes changed to green to represent Obama’s tree-hugging radical environmentalism and his lack of experience. Flag lapel pins, having become a substitute for “real patriotism,” will henceforth be banned. And raise taxes.

U.S. MILITARY: Confiscate all weapons, substitute water pistols, pea shooters and bows with suction cup arrows. Replace U.S. flags on uniforms with peace symbols changing uniform color from green to pink and abolishing the “Don’t ask, don’t tell” policy, replacing it with “A queer in every foxhole and a camouflage sex toy in every backpack” requirement. Condoms will be issues instead of bullets and brotherly love will be encouraged. Barney Frank will be the new Secretary of Defense (renamed Secretary of Peace and Love) and Rosie O’Donnell, Ellen DeGeneres, Lindsay Lohan, and Rick Boucher will all be made 5-star generals. And raise taxes.

He claims in the LATimes that this is not racist. Claiming Obama will paint the White House black is not racist? He thinks we're stupid. But we're not, and we see Bobby May's KKKolumn for what it is.

Bobby May will be out of the campaign by tomorrow night, but this is a window into the racism that permeates opposition to Obama. They don't see Obama. They see the scary black man.

Bobby May, Buchanan Courier: The (clarified) platform of Barack Hussein Obama (pdf)

LATimes: Frank talk of Obama and race in Virginia

dailykos: McCain Spokesman Writes Racist Column

firedoglake: Macaca Squared