Document them here... and remember, there's no distinction between organized party efforts to suppress votes of minorities and teenagers stealing yard signs, so all atrocities are welcomed. Here's a start...
I just got back from a week of whitewater rafting and hiking in the Rockies around Colorado Springs (Pike's Peak). Although the Rockies are beautiful, that is one messed up state! Couldn't wait to get home
Here's a referendum on racist Republican Senator George Allen of Virginia -- the favorite son of many Southern Republicans: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/15/AR2006081501210_pf.html Allen on Damage Control After Remarks to Webb Aide By Michael D. Shear and Tim Craig Washington Post Staff Writers Wednesday, August 16, 2006; A01 RICHMOND, Aug. 15 -- Sen. George Allen on Tuesday sought to contain the political damage from remarks he made to a Fairfax County man that dredged up charges of racial insensitivity -- allegations that have dogged him for years as governor, senator and now presidential hopeful. Despite a quick apology Monday, criticism poured in about Allen's use of the word "Macaca" to address a volunteer for the campaign of his Democratic opponent, James Webb, and also about another Allen comment, "Welcome to America." Democrats, left-wing bloggers and civil rights groups called him "insensitive" and "racist," while some conservatives called him "foolish" and "mean." The question was fiercely debated all day: Was "Macaca," which literally means a genus of monkey, a deliberate racist epithet or a weird ad-libbed word with no meaning? And what was Allen trying to say by singling out the young man of Indian descent? Allen's defenders rushed to his side, saying the comments, though careless, do not reflect what is inside the senator's heart. Sudhakar Shenoy, an Indian business executive from Fairfax who has known Allen for years, said he "has been an incredible friend to Indians" and is not a racist. "I'd stake everything I have that George is not that kind of a guy," Shenoy said. In a statement released Tuesday afternoon, Allen (R-Va.) said his remarks Friday to S.R. Sidarth, who at the time was videotaping an Allen campaign event on Webb's behalf, "have been greatly misunderstood by members of the media." He said Monday that "Macaca" was a play on "Mohawk," a nickname given to Sidarth by the Allen campaign because of his hairstyle. In Tuesday's statement, Allen said he "made up a nickname for the cameraman, which was in no way intended to be racially derogatory. Any insinuations to the contrary are completely false." The comments were made at a campaign stop in the southwestern Virginia town of Breaks, where Allen spoke to about 100 supporters. Moments after greeting the crowd, Allen repeatedly pointed at Sidarth, called him "Macaca, or whatever his name is" and went on to say, "Welcome to America and the real world of Virginia," as the crowd laughed. With the video of Allen's remarks available around the globe via Youtube.com and other Web sites, the Virginia controversy became one of the most blogged-about topics on the Internet, according to the Technorati Web site, which tracks entries on 51.3 million blogs. That thrust Sidarth, 20, a volunteer working as the Democratic eyes and ears on Allen's campaign, into the national spotlight. He was interviewed Tuesday by several major newspapers and appeared on CNN and other television networks. Meanwhile, Allen's past -- which includes a youthful admiration of the Confederate flag and an office that once displayed a noose -- lurched back into the public spotlight during the Republican's senatorial battle against Webb, a Navy secretary during the Reagan administration. During the past two years, as Allen has flirted with the idea of running for president in 2008, he has introduced symbolic anti-lynching legislation in the Senate and promised to lead the charge for an official apology for slavery. Political pundits who follow Allen closely said the new comments threaten that well-planned effort. "There are very few issues in American politics that are more sensitive than race. Senator Allen has just plunked himself down in the middle of it," said Geoffrey D. Garin, a leading Democratic pollster. "Allen's comments take him back to a place he was trying to escape from." Avoiding the subjects of race and Allen's history was proving unlikely in the short term as the odd story of the senator's comments bounced around the nation's capital. Sanjay Puri, the leader of the nation's largest Indian political action committee and a longtime Allen supporter, said he will lead a delegation of Indian business executives and community leaders to meet with Allen on Wednesday to express dismay. "The comments are very insensitive. That's what we want to find out: How can we continue working with him?" Puri said. "The senator has had a very good relationship with our community. I was pretty surprised -- you can say shocked." Mark Potok, director of the intelligence project for the Southern Poverty Law Center, based in Montgomery, Ala., said it was "simply impossible to believe" that Allen did not intend the comments as a racial insult. "To me, it looks like yet another case of a politician pandering to the worst instincts in an all-white crowd," Potok said. Virginia Gov. Timothy M. Kaine (D), who during his campaign last year was dogged by young GOP operatives with video cameras -- usually called trackers -- chided Allen. "It's insensitive," Kaine said. "Campaigns are tough. But George has been in campaigns. He knows there's trackers. It's just a fact of life. You should just do your thing and not single them out." Big-time campaigns often assign trackers to shadow their opponents, hoping to catch the candidate making a gaffe or shifting the message to accommodate different audiences. Virginia Republicans have tracked Webb this year. Often, videos can end up in campaign commercials. That was the job of Sidarth, a University of Virginia senior who attended Thomas Jefferson High School in Fairfax County. His father, Shekar Narasimhan, is a mortgage banker who has contributed more than $35,000 to Democratic causes in the past decade, according to a review of state and federal campaign finance reports. Sidarth joined Webb's effort this summer, initially working as a field organizer. Last week, when Allen kicked off his statewide "listening tour," Sidarth was asked to trail Allen, he said. Driving his 1996 Volvo, he followed Allen from Charlottesville to Richmond to the Northern Neck. He said he was "shocked" when Allen began talking about him. "I didn't believe that he had gone to using race in the political arena," he said. Rich Lowry, editor of the conservative National Review, wrote on the magazine's Web site Tuesday that he did not think Allen was "trying to speak a coded racist language." But Lowry said Allen showed he "has a mean streak."
As long as Republican-designed, Republican-owned, Republican-operated Diebold machines count our votes, there's no chance for Democrats to regain pertinence. There's no chance for democracy to be transparent and representative of what citizens want government to be. In the same situation, Democrats would do the exact same thing. Both parties are corrupt and only seek more power. Republicans are bolder in their power grabs, but Dems would be just as bad if they had the chance. But only because we allow them to abuse the powers *we* give them. Only because we allow them to destroy *our* votes in *our* democracy. Only because we allow *our* government tell *us* what to do. Until we stand up and demand our constitutionally guaranteed power and freedoms, our government will only grab more and more power from us until they don't need us at all. Those bastards work for us, not the other way around.
the article fails to mention that macaca is a deragatory term used in north africa by european colonists towards africans and that allens mom is french-tunisian. he knew exactly what he was saying.
Sorry, GV, but I completely disagree. 50-60 years ago, in South Texas, boxes of votes were no doubt tinkered with by Democratic supporters of LBJ. That is not today's Democratic Party. To lump us with the crazy bastards running the GOP is something I find highly insulting. Not only that, but we are too incompetent to pull off such a thing. It is the GOP busy stealing elections, not the Democratic Party. Go have a double expresso and wake up! By making such erroneous statements, you are carrying the water of the Republican Party, the party actually pulling this stuff. Is that what you really want to be doing, GV? Keep D&D Civil.
C'mon Deck. Can't you see that South Texas ballot stuffing and the Chicago machine of decades ago are the equivalent to codifying in Federal law means for disenfranchisement today? Can't you see it's the same thing as corrupt voting machines? As purging people off of rolls because they have a name similar to that of a felon? Of coopting the offices of Secretaries of State to make sure your opponents voters face huge hurdles? Seriously, the systematic and national approach we're seeing by Repubs today is nothing short of spectacular and hasn't been seen since Jim Crow. (And I don't use that term lightly.) From the 1920's until the day before Bush v. Gore every major voting decision by the SC and every reform passed by Congress increased the number of people eligible to vote, made it easier for them to vote, or made it harder to corrupt the system. We are now going backwards fast. What scares the hell out of me is that there are literally 10's if not 100's of thousands of people out there willing to engage in voter suppression activities and to go to the voting booth and "challenge" votes just so their party can win, even when they know they are preventing real Americans from having their votes counted. It makes me sick... not necessarily that there are these types of people, as they have always been around... but that they seem to be increasing in number and suppressing the vote is now seen in some circles as a badge of honor. It's wrong and it is definitely unAmerican.
Couldn't agree more. Why intelligent people like GV can't see the difference is beyond me. Keep D&D Civil.
Republicans are destroying the Constitution, selling out American liberty for a naked power grab, and taking horrible, horrible advantage of scared Americans. They are completely and utterly without remorse in marching toward fascism while barking democratic platitudes. Republicans are using the so-called post-9/11 world to exploit any and every fissure in American and international politics for their own political gain. But, given the blank check Republicans have gotten, Democrats would try to do the exact same thing under the circumstances (the chance to govern by fear and justify anything by invoking the threat of "terror"). I'm not carrying water for Republicans. The only thing I carry for them is anger for their contempt of freedom and liberty. But I know that power is power, and there's not a politician alive who wouldn't rape the corpse of his dead grandmother to get more of it. Of course, just because Democrats would grab power doesn't justify the corruption and criminality of the Republican Congress, Republican Supreme Court and Republican White House. Because of this corruption, this may be the most dangerous moment in our country's history, and it has nothing to do with Al Queda. Republicans have fought to protect our rights by removing them, and Democrats have been complicit because they allow Republicans to frame the terror debate in terms of "with us or against us." Democracy *demands* our constant vigilance, regardless of who occupies the White House. We owe no allegiance to any government, politician or political party. These illusions should only be apparitions on the red, white and blue background of American history. But because we've traded vigilance for fear, these apparitions have become bloody stains. And stains are a mutha to get out.
Green, you are right about the fact that this goes on no matter which party is in power. My grandfather, who was from east Tennessee, had horror stories about the Democratic party there. He moved to Texas in the 50s, and the Democrats were bad here too. He said the early '80s were bad as far as redistricting (sound familiar?) and the leaders of the Democratic party didn't even care. Now of course, it's even worse with the Republicans. Of course, neither party would ever want a third party on the national scene. Absolute power corrupts absolutely. Our political arena is corrupted.
No one today would deny that Democrats 50-60 years ago pulled all sorts of shenanigans. This is the same political party, the one you are so willing to lump together with the corrupt GOP, a Republican Party stealing elections, and getting ready to attempt to steal more, in my opinion, that "gave away" a large chunk of their power base, so that Blacks could begin to get equal rights. They knew the consequences, and did it anyway. Give me an example of the Republican Party doing something as unselfish as that during the last few decades. Honestly, I think some of you are either being deliberately obtuse, suffering from selective memory lapse, or just don't give a damn about the Republican Party crapping all over our Constitution, because it interferes with your fantasy of having a third party. No doubt you think that Ralph Nadir insuring the election of Bush in 2000, when Nadir could have picked his cabinet post, in my opinion, had he chosen to back Gore in the month before the election, when Nadir would have had a seat at the table to advance the agenda he claims to care about, and when Nadir could have helped produce a Democratic victory the Republicans would have been unable to steal was somehow worth it. Christ, what delusion. With all due respect. Keep D&D Civil.
Not only that, but let's face it... the most odious of the one-party Dem South became Republicans after the Civil Rights Act. When Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act, the Republicans had very little power in the South, but Johnson correctly observed, "We just lost the South for a generation." Prescient guy, that LBJ.
Mean Jean busted! Rep. Schmidt's marathon ad questioned COLUMBUS, Ohio - Republican Rep. Jean Schmidt is fast, capable of running a marathon in 3 hours, 19 minutes, 6 seconds. At least that's what a photo on the Ohio congresswoman's Web site shows. No way, says a rival who contends that the picture from the 1993 Columbus Marathon is doctored and complained to state election officials. A four-member commission panel ruled Thursday that there was enough evidence to look into the complaint. State law prohibits candidates from publishing false statements designed to promote their election. The photo shows Schmidt near the finish line at the marathon with a time clock showing 3:19:06, which would have made her one of the top finishers. But a newspaper list of the top runners does not include Schmidt, said Nathan Noy, who is seeking to run as a write-in candidate against Schmidt. Noy said he believes the photo may be fake and suggested that Schmidt never even participated in the event. In the photo, Schmidt doesn't cast a shadow while other runners do. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060824/ap_on_el_ho/candidate_marathon_photo
Yep, it's come to this: If you don't vote for the pro-war candidate in your district, you will die. That's literally the message in a new ad that a conservative think tank, The Center For Security Policy, has now released in time for the fifth anniversary of Sept. 11. The ad shows images of the burning Twin Towers and Americans held hostage and concludes by flashing on the screen: "Vote as if your life depends on it. Because it does." While the ad mentions no candidates or parties, it's clearly meant to tell you that you should be very, very afraid of, well, dying should Dems -- OK, unnamed antiwar pols -- win their races. View the ad here... http://electioncentral.tpmcafe.com/...hough_your_life_depends_on_it_because_it_does
