GOP thuggery

Dirty Tricks and Thuggery Watch

Because it is not in the GOP's best interest to have everyone vote, there is of course a nationwide GOP effort to suppress Democratic turnout. This is especially the case in Ohio (thanks RS!), where they will be allowing thousands of gorillas to "challenge" voters, and Florida. But, note that this is happening everywhere. Here is an eyewitness report from Marti:

As I was waiting in the 35-minute line at my polling place, there were two women who were voting at that polling place for the first time, one caucasian, one hispanic. Which one do you think had their vote challenged? Yes, the Republican party is running scared even in the 'burbs in Pennsylvania.

The woman in question had a driver's license, a voter registration card, and her name was listed in the big white book. There are post-it notes over some of the names, and her name was one of those. When the woman at the desk comes across a name with a post-it, she calls for the "manager", a very tall (well over 6 ft) man affiliated with the Republicans. As I was leaving he was finally allowing her to cast a provisional vote (which is her legal right, whether he "lets" her or not) and chastising her for daring to register to vote at the post office.

As I left, I alerted the two guys at the Kerry/Edwards desk, and then once I got to work I called the committee chair of the Tredyfferin Township Democrats and reported the situation (and she was calling their lawyers).

I didn't see anything like this at my polling place, but it was early. What makes it even worse is that you know that the challenges must be visually based. Whether it is black voters in Florida or native americans in South Dakota, or young voters, the challenges are being issued because some goon looked at another person, decided they would most likely vote Democratic BASED ON THEIR APPEARANCE, and therefore challenged their vote. Words cannot describe how wrong that is.

This website is collecting incidents of voting fraud and suppression. David Neiwert is collecting incidents of GOP intimidation and thuggery. Abnormalities with electronic voting machines (which do not leave a paper trail) are being collected.

Pardons Watch

Can you imagine the frenzy of activity which is going to be going on at the White House and in the Pentagon if Kerry wins? All the shredding, all the intimidation of witnesses, burying of bodies. They'd better be quick! They'll have less than three months to cover their dirty tracks. And expect a boatload of outrageous pardons (many of the pre-emptive, since no one has been charged with anything yet) in an attempt to protect their criminal asses. The media won't make much of a noise about that, though.

Job One If We Win Watch

Go here to sign a petition demanding that the Fairness Doctrine be restored. This directive for the FCC, together with some strong media de-consolidation legislation, will begin us on the path to healing our diseased media.

Hard To Beat Because He's So Bad Watch

I have long thought that if the Chimpleton and his crew were more competant, maybe even slightly decent people, we would have a really hard time beating them in this election. I mean, if they were a little more circumspect, a little more principled, a little less thoroughly awful, then it would be harder for the American people to make a choice tomorrow.

Yet . . . it also seems that, because Bushco is SO bad, so clearly and thoroughly terrible at policy, planning, governance in general, that if you support them you have to go into a kind of state of doublethink; to ignore facts, to not use logic, to simply let the projected images hit your mind and respond in the most basic, reptilian manner.

Is it the complete failure of this administration that actually makes them HARDER to beat? Because a thoughtful analysis of their actions is antithetical to them, because a real discussion on the merits of their term would destroy them, they are insulated from such a discussion?

It is a strange phenomenon, but I actually think if this were a _principled_ GOP administration, that governed in the land of reality instead of Fantasyland, they would be easier to beat. But because they have left the realm of reality altogether, that their devotees are guided only by "faith", and are therefore much harder to dissuade.

Dan Rather would say I'm more nervous than a long-tailed polecat in a room full of rocking chairs.