That they made up in their delusional minds and passed onto delusional followers.

The only delusional person here is a foreigner (you) that thinks his opinion counts in any American political blog.

Suppress the Vote?

By BOB HERBERT

Published: August 16, 2004

The big story out of Florida over the weekend was the tragic devastation caused by Hurricane Charley. But there's another story from Florida that deserves our attention.

State police officers have gone into the homes of elderly black voters in Orlando and interrogated them as part of an odd "investigation" that has frightened many voters, intimidated elderly volunteers and thrown a chill over efforts to get out the black vote in November.

The officers, from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, which reports to Gov. Jeb Bush, say they are investigating allegations of voter fraud that came up during the Orlando mayoral election in March.

Officials refused to discuss details of the investigation, other than to say that absentee ballots are involved. They said they had no idea when the investigation might end, and acknowledged that it may continue right through the presidential election.

The state police officers, armed and in plain clothes, have questioned dozens of voters in their homes. Some of those questioned have been volunteers in get-out-the-vote campaigns.

I asked Mr. Morales in a telephone conversation to tell me what criminal activity had taken place.

"I can't talk about that," he said.

I asked if all the people interrogated were black.

"Well, mainly it was a black neighborhood we were looking at - yes,'' he said.

He also said, "Most of them were elderly."

When I asked why, he said, "That's just the people we selected out of a random sample to interview."

Back in the bad old days, some decades ago, when Southern whites used every imaginable form of chicanery to prevent blacks from voting, blacks often fought back by creating voters leagues, which were organizations that helped to register, educate and encourage black voters. It became a tradition that continues in many places, including Florida, today.

Not surprisingly, many of the elderly black voters who found themselves face to face with state police officers in Orlando are members of the Orlando League of Voters, which has been very successful in mobilizing the city's black vote.

The vile smell of voter suppression is all over this so-called investigation by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.

Joseph Egan, an Orlando lawyer who represents Mr. Thomas, said: "The Voters League has workers who go into the community to do voter registration, drive people to the polls and help with absentee ballots. They are elderly women mostly. They get paid like $100 for four or five months' work, just to offset things like the cost of their gas. They see this political activity as an important contribution to their community. Some of the people in the community had never cast a ballot until the league came to their door and encouraged them to vote."

Now, said Mr. Egan, the fear generated by state police officers going into people's homes as part of an ongoing criminal investigation related to voting is threatening to undo much of the good work of the league. He said, "One woman asked me, 'Am I going to go to jail now because I voted by absentee ballot?' "

According to Mr. Egan, "People who have voted by absentee ballot for years are refusing to allow campaign workers to come to their homes. And volunteers who have participated for years in assisting people, particularly the elderly or handicapped, are scared and don't want to risk a criminal investigation."

The long and ugly tradition of suppressing the black vote is alive and thriving in the Sunshine State.

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/16/opinion/16herbert.html

REPORT: From Poll Taxes To Voter ID Laws: A Short History of Conservative Voter Suppression

By Guest Blogger on Mar 27, 2011 at 6:00 pm

Thursday, ThinkProgress reported that the Ohio House had approved the most restrictive voter id law in the nation — a bill that would exclude 890,000 Ohioans from voting. Earlier this week Texas lawmakers passed a similar bill, and voter id legislation — which would make it significantly more difficult for seniors, students and minorities to vote — is now under consideration in more than 22 states across the country

Conservatives have said voter id laws are necessary to combat mass voter fraud. Yet according to the Brennan Center for Justice, Americans are more likely to be killed by a bolt of lightning than commit voter fraud. And the Bush administration’s five-year national “war on voter fraud” resulted in only 86 convictions of illegal voting out of more than 196 million votes cast. Instead conservatives are employing an old tactic: using the specter of false voting to restrict the voting rights of minorities and the poor.

Below, ThinkProgress examines the history of conservatives anti-voter agenda:

– JIM CROW SOUTH: In the Jim Crow South, historian Leon Litwack writes, “respectable” Southern whites justified their support for measures to disenfranchise African-Americans “as a way to reform and purify the electoral process, to root out fraud and bribery.” In North Carolina for example, conservatives insisted that literacy tests and poll taxes — which disenfranchised tens of thousands of African-Americans — were necessary to prevent “voter fraud.”

– 1981 RNC VOTER CAGING SCANDAL: According to Project Vote, in 1981 the Republican National Committee mailed non-forwardable postcards to majority Hispanic and African-American districts in New Jersey in an effort to accuse those voters of false voting. The 45,000 returned cards were then used to create a list of voters whose residency the GOP could challenge at the polls. The Democratic National Committee sued, winning a consent decree in which the RNC agreed not to engage in practices “where the purpose or significant effect of such activities is to deter qualified voters from voting.” Similar initiatives were undertaken by the Arizona GOP in 1958, the RNC in 1962 and again, despite the decree, in Louisiana in 1986.

–RECENT VOTER CAGING EFFORTS: During the 2004 election GOP state parties, along with dozens of unidentified groups, launched similar “voter caging” efforts designed to challenge the eligibility of thousands of minority voters by accusing them of voter fraud. And in 2008, the Obama campaign sued the Michigan Republican Committee for collecting a list of foreclosures in an effort to challenge the residency, and eligibility, of voters who had lost their home in the housing crisis.

– US ATTORNEY DAVID IGLESIAS FIRING SCANDAL: In an unprecedented politicization of the Justice Department, in 2006 the Bush White Housefired US Attorney David Iglesias for refusing to prosecute voting fraud cases where little evidence existed. The New Mexico political establishment asked for Iglesias’ dismissal after he refused to cooperate with the party’s efforts to make voter id laws “the single greatest wedge issue ever.”

– US ATTORNEY TOM HEFFELFINGER DISMISSAL: In Minnesota, US Attorney Tom Heffelfinger lost his position when he ran afoul of GOP activists for “expressing deep concern about the effect of a state directive that could have the effect of discouraging Indians in Minnesotafrom casting ballots.”

– WISCONSIN, THE KOCHS AND THE 2010 ELECTION: Last fall ThinkProgress reported that a coalition of Wisconsin Tea Party and Koch-funded groups, in an effort to stop “voter fraud” and prevent “stolen elections,” was planning a sophisticated voter caging effort that would use GOP lawyers and Tea Party volunteers to challenge the eligibility of voters at polls in the state. Earlier that year, the same groups were instrumental in defeating a voter protection law that would have criminalized any attempt to use force or coercion to “compel any person to refrain from voting.” One prominent Tea Party member behind the voter caging effort that “since the voter law did not get passed this year… we can still do this.”

As statehouses across the country move forward on voter identification bills, ThinkProgress will continue to track conservatives latest efforts to advance their century-old anti-voter agenda.

http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2011/03/27/153179/report-from-poll-taxes-to-voter-id-laws-a-short-history-of-conservative-voter-suppression/

The New York Times. :-) the same liberal rag that brought us numerous leaked American secrets and intelligence that damaged national security. I put copies of the New York Times to good use when I go camping.....toilet paper. Congressmen - Democrats & Republicans - are requesting an Independent Prosecutor to investigate. I can only hope you all keep using it, the Daily KOS and Huffington Post for your info as we approach the November election. :-) more White House leaks!

Perhaps they should be investigating you.

How's it going, Lance?

How long till you're banned this time? Think Rove will pay you for your paltry posts? You'll be living with your mother forever. Keep delivering those pizzas for cigarette and beer money.

There you go agin Vatican. Spouting off your wisdom without thinking. Facts proves that voter fraud could be counted on one hand in any State and not one case was ever proscuted because of proof. Also it just proves that you are a non-thinker if you don't see an effort to surpress the vote. 83% of the listed voters in Florida was black or hispanic. That sure smells roten to me.

There you go agin Vatican. Spouting off your wisdom without thinking. Facts proves that voter fraud could be counted on one hand in any State and not one case was ever proscuted because of proof.

Hmm so let me get this straight republican voter suppression efforts don't exist because there are no prosecutable cases(not that anyone has ever alleged it's illegal just dirty political tactics) but voter fraud is real with virtually no prosecutable cases......that makes sense

Clearly there are many in our nation such as the tea party and the left wing bobbly head community who do not have access to reality and the conventional understanding of facts. There reality adjacent communities which clearly have now begun to invade the land of facts where must of us live. This is clearly why some on the right can't understand the concept if you want to do a voter purge there's something called a deadline. That means not 90 days before a federal election. Guess what florida.....florida is having a federal election in less than 90 days and has been so since the process began thus it's too late.

So when you have the definition of incompetence on an issue as Rick Scott represents not getting his homework turned in on time you have to stall and make things up. So all illegal voting in Florida is on Scott's hand for being to done to get the paper work done on time.

It is a primary, the democrats don't even have to require registering to vote.

That they require it in their rules can't be blamed on the gov. He doesn't get to decide what they do to pick who they want to run. They could hand out ballots to everyone in the state, and count them all. I don't even know if it would be illegal for illegals to vote in a parties primary. They just can't vote in an election.

It is a primary, the democrats don't even have to require registering to vote.

WTF?? It's a federal election the rule is clear. Doesn't matter it's still a federal election. Don't think it should be considered a federal election? Fine go change the law but until such time it is one.

I don't even know if it would be illegal for illegals to vote in a parties primary. They just can't vote in an election.

Then why are they trying to do the purge now? It's a little late to say they should wait, they chose to start it here so this one is not legal.

so true......how sad the our country......

75 votes in the senate

huge bipartisan support

yep never gonna happen

and why it would fix too many problems and the house is too drunk on the "tea" to have it

Like when Romney says the president has never had a jobs plan....even though he did because I specifically remember not that long ago and the GOP should too since they lobbied to defeat it. Personally I think it's not the executive's job to write any budget or legislation because of this think called the constitution....that thing the GOP is always claiming they've read......but it happend. Why do the republicans get away with this blatant lying?

But maybe they don't since half the country has an unfavorable view of the GOP on the economy

It takes six years to get rid of a bad rino. So what if they want to spend money they don't have. They don't have the final word. There is still one branch that has common sense. Reid could cut spending elsewhere to fund the bill and it would sail through the house. I don't think they repealed pelosi's pay as you go rules. So the house would have no choice but to fund it.

There is gas tax money that is supposed to be used for transportation funding. What did obama do with it? He takes 40 times more than the evil gas companies do.

It takes six years to get rid of a bad rino. So what if they want to spend money they don't have. They don't have the final word. There is still one branch that has common sense. Reid could cut spending elsewhere to fund the bill and it would sail through the house.

The house doesn't give a damn about funding you know that. American jobs aact that was funded, they did not want it. Bush tax structure not funded, they wanted to make it permanate. If so many republicans in the senate thought it's version was okay I'm curious what genuine disagreements the house has. The senate version would likely help empolyment, the house vrsion analysts say would cut employment.

There is gas tax money that is supposed to be used for transportation funding. What did obama do with it?

read the constitution congress controls the purse strings.....but more importantly it's not that much money

the GOP has been hijacked by norquest and the tea party.......how sad that our country can be held hostage a group of people.....but it really is our constitution that actually allows this to happen.....unless a party has the majority it is the perfect recipe for gridlock.......in the past they made deals in those situations.... for the good of the country......not anymore.......it's become like a sleazy reality show......we all need to contact our legislator's.........mine i'm sure .....think oh no not her again......but i don't care that's what they're there for....... we must also get rid of k street and have meaningful campaign finance reform

We tried making deals for 35 years and look at the mess it has made, I don't mind making deals now, you put up your list of cuts, we will put up ours, and pass them both. Just like all the deals that went on before, both sides win.

You could get obama to fire all the people he hired from k street, That would help a lot Then cut funding to companies that hire them. If you get government funding / bailouts you can't hire lobbyists.

.... forward over a financial cliff of crushing national debt.

.... forward to more sustained high unemployment.

.... forward to more government fraud, waste and abuse.

.... forward to a continued recession and weak recovery.

.... forward to more public government over private sector jobs.

.... forward to more failed foreign policies as we see the Middle East on fire.

.... forward to a secret missile defense reduction deal with the Russians.

.... forward to more Liberal 'blame games' as Americans look for real solutions.

Vatican12442 is a rereg of Lance.

Lance? What are you smoking?

You've committed the "cardinal" sin of a right-wing spammer. You're no good at it. Rove will never pay you.

We must have health care reform.......most people now have plans that cover hardly anything.........the future is HSA's.......basically great if you're young and never go to the doctor.....they have huge deductibles and co-pays.......it boils down to just having catastrophic coverage.......we are the only country that is not a third world country that has no national health care.....it is ruining our economy.......i can't believe the GOP is against people having some personal responsibility....amazing.......As far as the jobs you need both private and public.....even with a majority in congress this economy could not be turned around without the public sector jobs......after the s&l scandal in the eighties... took five years for the economy to turn around........anyone who thought it was going to turn around quickly was a fool given the fact of this was almost as bad as the great depression...

This was a response to the woman who said that 2/3 of Americans don't want the healthcare , but it hasn't been put as a response to any statement, so makes much less sense, without her letter there.

####################

Because 2/3 of Americans have repeatedly been TOLD "by Republicans" that they "do not want it"! It is a PLANTED "opinion", for the benefit of Republicans, who do not want the health care changes because most of the beneficiaries of the health care money are "Republican corporations"! The REASON they want to convince everyone they they "don't WANT the health care" is because THEN those corporations won't be able to RIP-OFF so easily or so much, as they currently do! Figure it out! THAT's why it will be a better bargain. "Because" the siphoning off of billions by those fraud artists will no longer be possible! And you see? They DID already convince YOU! Clever game, isn't it?

The little fact that they can't run a small cemetery without loosing the bodies doesn't exactly make me eager for them to mess up the entire healthcare system and cause people to die. They have done it before. Remember when they forced people to buy airbags that would rip your head off?

When they prove by running the VA without the rats running around the hospitals, then they can argue to make the rest of the country as good.

Why is it so bad, 100% are covered and the government runs it. Why is it not working fopr the vets, yet will for the rest of us.

His Job Plan is nothing but a back door funding for State and county employment support. It Will not create NO JOBS. Just like the last phony stimulus he had.

What is the Romney job plan?

funny didn't think teachers, police, firefighters worked for free.....guess they do because those people working isn't jobs now apparently

So that's the GOP plan fix unemployment by making teachers and police unemployed. Well guess what we've already tried that the public sector has been shedding jobs and the unemployment is well I think you can see where that's going...........it's just like we've tried the lower taxes for ver a decade(the GOP plan) now if you are not living in reality you'll rant and lie about non-existent tax increases I welcome the lunacy, we all need a good laugh. But taxes haven't gone up and employment hasn't really either. We've tried putting off infrastructure and we've haven't benefitted. We've tried stepping over the constitution in the name of defense we aren't and will never benefit from that either yet the GOP seems to want more.....the dems tolerate it foolishly but the right wants it.........

Mitt Romney will create jobs by doing what? It's fine and dandy to say the President haven't done this or that, but when will Mitt Romney say this is what I will do to create jobs? His plan to create jobs can't be to fire more teachers, policemen, and fire fighters. Can it? When he was Governor of Mass. they were 47th out of 50 states in job creation. So Mitt knows how to create jobs, then isn't it about time he tell us.

CynicalCitizen do you really want to go there with me on Romney Plan. Obama supporters are now admitting he sounds like a fool. Watch your MSNBC

Mitt Romney will create jobs by doing what? It's fine and dandy to say the President haven't done this or that, but when will Mitt Romney say this is what I will do to create jobs?

Wow Darton i'd ask you not say something like this in the future....you're making far too much sense and logic. If Romney had a serious position on the economy we'd actually be able to fix alot of things and work on many problems in country so naturally Romney won't release try to release anything. Roulette Romney can only run on Obama not his own success. Romney has no success in public policy, look at Mass. they hate him because he straddoed them with tons of unnecessary projects they can't afford for or benefit from. Even so if you disregard that fact we still have a man with no core.

To be fair Romney did release a tax plan in the primaries and has never mentioned it since.........so there's that....problem for Romney is he says so many things especially on the economy which puts him on both sides of the argument, he's always changing sides to tell people what they want to hear.

Romney in my opinion does know how to create jobs and tackle the debt(he is a moderate not conservative) yet the GOP and Romney do otherwise. They know what they should do and consciously don't try to do it. Mitt is a coward and a clown just look at the auto bailout: first it was "let detroit go bankrupt", then he went to say it was his idea and that he supported it which is why he was taking so much credit for it a couple weeks ago, and then Romney attacked Obama claiming the bailout lost jobs and did not save any so Barack Obama is the only person responsible

Now course none of that is true the bailout did lose some jobs to keep the company afloat but most of the jobs were able to be saved by the bailout which had it not happend would have lost 100% of the jobs. So contrary to Mitt's claim the companies did save jobs.

Really it's like...if Obama and the bailout lost jobs then it was Obama's fault even though as governor romney informed us it was his idea from the beginning and Obama just copied him.........RFLMAO.........lol......

Why can't this man just pick one side's narratives to be uninformed about? Why doesn't he stop lying about his past beliefs? What the hell does he even really believe? Who knows?

Personally I think he should sit down for a legitimate state issued polygraph test so we can know what some of his real beliefs are.

The failed GOP policies have done just that, failed. Firing teachers because of budgets is something we should strive to not have anywhere for any reason in our nation. It's inexcusable this war on education the GOP has.

Less police and fire.....really righties? So you guys want everyone to be able to have an assault rifle but less medics...........this is just another example of the republican party trying to have it both ways.

Remember they want to cut spending yet give the pentagon more money to play around with

they want solid metal, tall, barbed wire attached with drones constantly flying over head, auto defense guns, and terminators....wu tang clan.........the dementors from harry potter flying around...........and they plan to pay for what would be a historic and gargantuan project by cutting spending and cutting revenue

they want to claim to support all faith, christian only which in my opinion is offensive in its own right, then they spit on muslims. They called the ground zero mosque which wasn't at ground zero and wasn't a mosque a command center of terror. I thought they were the saviors of all faith like they always claim. Guess muslims must not be people who deserve equal rights in their minds.

they say if you don't ahve a job it's your fault alone which is why you should blame obama because it's all his fault...???....what happend to blaming yourself

Obama is a muslim which is why he went to jeremiah wright's church 'cuz muslims totally to churches...for xtians...

they say no president can control oil prices and then when obama's president he has a war on oil and is driving the price up since the president totally has a little price nob on the oval office desk they president's can just do whatever with......and then when it goes down the government has nothing to do with it

The GOP wants to destroy the middle class with vaccuum up economics to redistribute the wealth of the common man into the hands of those who do not need it. They believe you help the rich by giving them more money and you help the poor by taking money away from them. They keep trying to stop the debt ceiling to be raised so we will default.

CynicalCitizen do you really want to go there with me on Romney Plan. Obama supporters are now admitting he sounds like a fool. Watch your MSNBC

Gave you one question to answer and you couldn't even do that. I'm still waitng to hear the Romney plan. You can say what you will about Obama's plan but Romney isn't the same case....because he doesn't have a plan to rate in the first place. If you think the american independent voters are going to expect nothing unique from him? I'd rather have a flawed plan over no plan. The people will agree if Romney can't prove he can do better why should he win? That's a waste of time since it's not an improvement

Flame bait.

You know if the states had the revenue they needed they wouldn't need anyone to adopt a street or a highway......build baby build

I think it is a great idea, they can hide a camera and hand out tickets to all the racists in atlanta who throw trash on that section of highway. Then the state has money. At worst holders people all end up in jail for littering and miss the election.

Or black people could end up hung by the road side.

whomitmay Did that come from MSNBC Propaganda. Oh by the way, what is your profession.?

Well if that the punishment for littering, I would suggest not littering.

What is Fox News other than a PR Firm for Republican Party.

All that is a bunch of smoking BS. Quit wasting time!