DOWNLOADS: (426)

PLAYS: (2923)

Embed

I'm sure Florida's Gov. Rick Scott will come around on some reasonable gun control laws about the same time he decides to actually do something for the voters of his state other than disenfranchise them with long lines at the polls -- which is never. He did his best to feign concern for both issues on Soledad O'Brien's show this Wednesday morning: CNN Anchor Blasts Florida Governor For Ducking Gun Control, Demands Action Before ‘I Cover Another Tragedy’:

Florida Gov. Rick Scott (R), who has an A rating from the National Rifle Association, refused to say if he would support stronger gun safety measures in the aftermath of the shooting in Newtown, Connecticut.

Appearing on CNN’s Starting Point on Wednesday, Scott repeatedly dodged host Soledad O’Brien’s specific questions about which reforms, if any, he would support, at one point responding to a query about limiting assault rifles with a trite, “I support the Second Amendment.” O’Brien repeatedly pressed Scott for a more detailed reply, but the Florida governor claimed that the nation must “respect the families, mourn their losses” but avoid a detailed conversation about what can be done to prevent such tragedies in the future:[...]

During the GOP convention in Florida, Scott made headlines when he rejected a request by Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn (D) to temporarily ban guns in the downtown area.

I'd like to see someone ask this guy how in the hell it is that a crook like himself ever managed to get elected as the governor of Florida in the first place. I'm not holding my breath for that to ever happen though.

Full transcript below the fold.

Continue reading »

DOWNLOADS: (357)

PLAYS: (2919)

Embed

MSNBC's Lawrence O'Donnell reminded viewers why, even though millions of voters are apathetic as to whether making their voices heard on election day matters or not, if the Supreme Court and its impact for generations to come isn't enough to make people realize that it does make a difference -- maybe seeing what happened in Washington State will.

Marijuana possession cases in Washington state going up in smoke:

Prosecutors in Washington state's two most populous counties plan to dismiss scores of misdemeanor marijuana possession cases following passage of a landmark voter initiative earlier this week to legalize pot for adult recreational use.

Washington and Colorado became the first U.S. states to remove criminal sanctions for personal possession of an ounce (28.5 grams) or less of marijuana as voters approved ballot measures on Tuesday to legalize recreational use of the drug, setting up a possible showdown with the federal government.

Washington state's legalization measure passed with more than 55 percent of voters supporting it and fewer than 45 percent opposed, and will take effect next month.

But prosecutors in Washington's King and Pierce counties - which contain the cities of Seattle and Tacoma - moved swiftly to announce they were dropping 225 pending possession cases currently in the pipeline.

"The people have spoken loudly in Initiative 502, and there seems to be no point in continuing to prosecute cases for conduct that's going to be legal in a couple of weeks," King County Prosecuting Attorney Dan Satterberg told Reuters.

Pierce County Prosecutor Mark Lindquist said, "I don't believe any jury is going to convict on a simple marijuana case after this initiative has passed."

Now if we could see something done on the federal level on this issue, we'd be getting somewhere. As more and more states continue to legalize, I think we're going to see that happen sooner and not later.

DOWNLOADS: (326)

PLAYS: (3613)

Embed

Lawrence O'Donnell had some fun with the "can't take a joke crowd" such as the prudes over at Fox GOPTV and Rush Limbaugh and their collective freak out over the new Obama for America ad featuring Lena Dunham. As O'Donnell noted, everyone carping about the sexual overtones of the ad which he showed in his video montage thinks that their idol, Ronald Reagan is a saint. But as O'Donnell noted, they seem to be completely oblivious to the fact that it was their precious St. Ronnie that made his own "first time" joke way before Dunham did.

Ronald Reagan Made A ‘First Time’ Voting Joke 32 Years Before Lena Dunham Did:

Some conservative were outraged Thursday, when the Obama campaign posted a Web ad starring Lena Dunham, creator of the TV show “Girls,” in which she speaks about her “first time” voting, using innuendo to compare it to a girl losing her virginity.

“Your first time shouldn’t be with just anybody. You want to do it with a great guy…someone who really cares about and understands women,” Dunham said in the video, discussing such issues as health insurance, birth control, ending the war in Iraq, equal pay for women, gay marriage, and other big issues.

She then recalled her own “first time” voting four years ago: “It was this line in the sand — before, I was a girl; now I was a woman. I went to the polling station, I pulled back the curtain, I voted for Barack Obama.”

But just as every generation thinks it invented sex, a “first time” joke about voting goes way back to another presidential candidate: Ronald Reagan, less than a week before he ushered in the Republican landslide of 1980.

You've got to just love these Republicans. You can make all the misogynistic jokes you want if you're Rush Limbaugh and now suddenly, as O'Donnell pointed out, he's trying to paint himself as some defender of women's sensibilities. I've got news for you Rushbo. You don't speak for women and most of us would prefer if you kept your yap shut when it came to speaking about us and our issues at all... ever.

Sadly, I don't expect he's going away any time soon as much as it would benefit the honesty in the public discourse to have him gone forever and par for the course, here's just another example in right wing world of IOKIYAR and don't dare mention to us our selective amnesia if it conflicts with our talking points for the day.

I don't usually put up campaign ads, but this one is particularly effective not only as a reminder, but as a motivator.

Republicans are doing everything they possibly can to discourage voting. From making registration more difficult to "accidentally" printing the wrong election date on ballots mailed to Latinos to limiting early voting hours on the weekend before the election, they have decided that if they can't win it straight up, they'll put as many barriers in our way as possible.

537 votes. That's all that stood between Bush and Gore. It came down to 537 votes. That's too close. Way too close.

The past is the past. But the only way to overcome all of the roadblocks is to step up and cast a vote in overwhelming numbers. Even if you think they're jacking with voting machines or there's something hinky with Tagg Romney's ownership percentage in Hart Intercivic, it can only be overcome by voting in huge numbers. They can't jack everything no matter how hard they try, but it means getting out and voting.

So far, that's happening. The early voting is overwhelmingly going in favor of Democrats, particularly in swing states. OFA director Jeremy Bird sent out a memo earlier today with some early numbers:

Non-Midterm Voters: Across nine battleground states, Democrats have a 19.7 point advantage in ballots cast among non-midterm voters. More than half (51.5 percent) of non-midterm voters who have voted already are Democrats, while fewer than a third (just 31.8 percent) are Republicans.

For example, in North Carolina, 51.5 percent of those who have already voted are Democrats, compared with just 25.1 percent who are Republicans. That’s a major advantage. And among these non-midterm voters who have voted in North Carolina so far, 87 percent of them are youth (under 35), African-American, Latino or new registrants (registered after the 2008 election).

All Voters: Among all voters, Democrats have a 10.7 point advantage over Republicans. Just under half (49.6 percent) of voters who have cast ballots are Democrats, while just 38.9 percent are Republicans. In the only two states--Colorado and Florida--where Republicans lead right now in total ballots cast, Democrats are cutting into traditional Republican leads there; we’re doing better today than at this point in 2008. And once in-person early voting is included (it just started in Colorado on Monday and starts in Florida this weekend), Democrats will take the lead.

The numbers are there. My worst nightmare is having Hans Von Spakovsky out there challenging voters in the swing states to try and hand an election that shouldn't even be close over to Mitt Romney.

Everyone in our household voted by absentee ballot last week. We're going to be spending Election Day and the time leading up to it getting out the vote, phone banking and doing whatever else is necessary to make sure there are no Republican challenges to this election that land in the Supreme Court.

I hope you're doing the same.

DOWNLOADS: (194)

PLAYS: (1342)

Embed

Here we go again with more dirty tricks from Republicans trying to steal another presidential election -- Tea party groups work to remove names from Ohio voter rolls:

Lori Monroe, a 40-year-old Democrat who lives in central Ohio, was startled a few weeks ago to open a letter that said a stranger was challenging her right to vote in the presidential election.

Monroe, who was recovering from cancer surgery, called the local election board to protest. A local tea party leader was trying to strike Monroe from the voter rolls for a reason that made no sense: Her apartment building in Lancaster was listed as a commercial property.

"I'm like, really? Seriously?" Monroe said. "I've lived here seven years, and now I'm getting challenged?"

Monroe's is one of at least 2,100 names that tea party groups have sought to remove from Ohio's voter rosters.

The groups and their allies describe it as a citizen movement to prevent ballot fraud, although the Republican secretary of state said in an interview that he knew of no evidence that any more than a handful of illegal votes had been cast in Ohio in the last few presidential elections.

"We're all about election integrity — making sure everyone who votes is registered and qualified voters," said Mary Siegel, one of the leaders of the Ohio effort.

Some Democrats see it as a targeted vote-suppression drive. The names selected for purging include hundreds of college students, trailer park residents, homeless people and African Americans in counties President Obama won in 2008. [...]

The tea party groups, scattered around the state, have joined forces under the banner of the Ohio Voter Integrity Project. It is an offshoot of True the Vote, a Texas organization that has recruited volunteers nationwide to challenge voter rosters and work as poll watchers.

True the Vote was founded by Catherine and Bryan Engelbrecht, a couple who run an oil field equipment manufacturing firm in Rosenberg, Texas.

In Ohio, election records show, one of the project's top priorities has been to remove college students from the voter rolls for failure to specify dorm room numbers. (As a group, college students are strongly in Obama's camp.)

Voters challenged include 284 students at the Ohio State University campus in Columbus, 110 at Oberlin College, 88 at College of Wooster, 38 at Kent State — and dozens more from the University of Cincinnati, Miami University, Lake Erie College, Walsh University, Hiram College, John Carroll University and Telshe Yeshiva, a rabbinical college near Cleveland.

So far, every county election board that has reviewed the dorm challenges found them invalid.

Here's more from ProPublica on True the Vote -- A Reading Guide to True the Vote, the Controversial Voter Fraud Watchdog.

DOWNLOADS: (260)

PLAYS: (1294)

Embed

From this Monday evening's The O'Reilly Factor, flame thrower Bernard Goldberg apparently isn't the only one wanting to discourage people from voting: Fox's Bernard Goldberg: "If You Don't Know How Many States There Are" Or "What The Capital Of The" U.S. Is, "Don't Vote".

Goldberg was spouting similar nonsense in a column he wrote back in May: Going After the Stupid Vote:

According to a recent poll by the Gallup organization, more than six in 10 Americans (63 percent) think the United States benefits from having a class of rich people.

There may be something in this for President Obama to consider since his campaign for re-election is be based on dividing Americans based on how much money they make.

Despite all the shots he's taken at the so-called rich, despite all the times he's told us they're not paying "their fair share," most Americans not only think the country benefits from having rich people around, but a majority of Americans (another 63 percent) — who do not consider themselves rich now — would like to be rich if they had their choice. None of this should surprise anybody. Of course most people would like to be rich. Why wouldn't they? And what kind of dolt would think the United States does not benefit from having rich people around.

Continue reading »

From Benen's place.

From The Cafferty File:

The prescription for tomorrow is comfortable shoes and patience. It’s going to be awesome.

Never in recent memory has there been so much interest in a presidential election. More than one-third of Americans are expected to have already voted by the time the polls open tomorrow, a 50 percent increase from 2004. But that doesn’t mean there won’t be a lot of people in front of you in front of you in line when you get to the polls.

Young people have signed up in unprecedented numbers. New voter registrations have broken records in almost every state. Turnout in many of the primaries was staggering. So be prepared.

Be aware also that tomorrow is a chance for all of us to strike a blow for democracy, and God knows she could use a shot in the arm. We’re at our best as a nation when we’re all involved. But that involvement tomorrow will come with a price. You’re probably going to have to wait. Maybe for a long time.

While you’re standing there grumbling that the line isn’t moving, or the machine is broken, remember what it was that got you into that line in the first place. This may well be the most important election we’ve ever had.

Here’s my question to you: How long are you willing to wait in line to vote?

Continue reading »

October 21, 2008 CNN