No one on this board should take Fox News or MSNBC at face value. We are not rookies. (other than that "Does it bother you..." thread guy.)
Fox Desperately Stokes Fears of Flawed Election By Zachary Roth - November 4, 2008, 2:22PM Check out FoxNews.com's frantic effort to lay the groundwork for the claim that Obama's expected win is illegitimate, the product of a chaotic and fraud-prone election system and voter intimidation carried out by violent African-Americans. At one polling site in Vermont, voters could maybe even look over and see each other's ballots! The election is ruined! Not to pooh-pooh the importance of a secret ballot, but this is really grasping at straws. In a way, you can't blame Fox. In stoking fears of an illegitimate election, it's only following John McCain's lead. http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/11/fox_desperately_stokes_fears_o.php
Turnout in PA overall is through the roof, although not only in Philadelphia. Western PA and "The T" are overwhelming polling stations with turnout. It will be interesting to see how these 'racists and rednecks' (thanks Murtha) vote.
I suspect with your vast knowledge of election politics you know that a big turnout favors Democrats.
I can't hear audio, is anything being said? Otherwise, yeah, that looks intimidating. Put the stick away (where's the "knife"?).. is it still intimidation then? If you're still scared at that point, then well, I'm guessing that the threshold for a black person scaring a white person might not be very high with some people. I still have my doubts that people are stupid enough to say something like the quotes in that interview though. But then again we're talking about human beings here.
From the interview I watched on TV, the guy without the night stick is actually a registered polling officer there. Awesome.
Just digusting. That, my friends, is anti-American. Falsely creating fears of an altered election. Undermining whoever wins the election. Creating fear in the populace, 24/7. Fox Qaeda? On a less melodramatic note, like I'd said earlier, the media has nothing to do all day, so we're going to get heaping helpings of this. Even NPR this morning was touting a hotline to call for "voting problems." It's like, please please have voting problems! We are bored! Did someone fart in your precinct? Did it affect your vote?!?! For Fox, you can tell they've been working these pieces for weeks, no matter what happens at the polls. Blech.
Obama Volunteer On Scene Disputes Fox News' Suggestions That Black Panthers Are Intimidating Voters By Greg Sargent - November 4, 2008, 3:04PM Fox News and other conservatives are pushing hard on the story that two black panthers may be intimidating voters at a polling place in north Philadelphia. But an Obama campaign volunteer who's been on the scene since 6:30 AM this morning tells me in a phone interview that there's been absolutely no intimidation of voters at all today. And a Pennsylvania spokesperson for Obama said the two men aren't in any way affiliated with the campaign. Fox News' story is right here. It says one of two black panthers on the scene was "allegedly blocking the door," says another was "holding a nightstick." and adds that "the concern was that they were intimidating people who were trying to go inside to vote." But Jacqueline Dischell, the Obama volunteer, tells me by phone that that's false. Dischell confirms that there were in fact two black panthers guarding the polling place, a nursing home on Fairmont Avenue in north Philadelphia, earlier this morning. But she says one was an officially designated poll watcher (it was not immediately clear which municipal office had designated him in that role), and the second was his friend. The second panther, who left two or three hours ago, was the one with the nightstick, she says. Dischell says that earlier this morning a few men who identified themselves as being from the McCain campaign came and started taking pictures of the two panthers on their cell phones. She suggested that they seemed to be baiting the panthers, and that the designated watcher may have given one of them the finger in response to the picture taking. The police came roughly an hour and a half later. She says she talked to the cops and told them there had been no incident. The police drove away without getting out of the car, she adds. Some time later, a second, larger group of men whose affiliation couldn't be determined came with real cameras and started taking more pictures. Maybe 15 minutes later the cops returned. This time, they spoke to people on both sides, and told the panther not designated to watch the polls to leave, which he did without an argument. "There was no fight, nothing," she says. Fox News arrived on the scene at around that time and started interviewing people near the entrance. The building manager asked the Fox reporter to leave, she says, and he moved further from the entrance. That's where things now stand. "There has been no fighting, no voter intimidation at all," she said http://tpmelectioncentral.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/11/obama_volunteer_on_scene_dispu.php
If "the guy without the night stick is actually a registered polling officer there." then yes, yes they are. Everyone knows the only way to win a true revolution is to abide by the rules, follow said rules, and take over from the inside. Oh, and billy clubs I keed. ("Don't you know that you can count me out, in.")
I know it's an isolated incident and the media's going to make more out of it than they should, but come on...did you watch the video? Don't know how anyone could say there was nothing wrong with that.
Simple as this. If you saw two white guys standing there, one holding a stick, would it be considered "intimidation" by anyone?
Yeah, Fox is playing this as their number one story right now, implicitly to all remaining (Nevada/Colorado/Montana) voters: a vote for Obama is a vote for Black Panther mob rule. After 2000, absent independent confirmation, I hesitate to trust the Brooks Brothers interviewee. What's most frightening about that picture: the thought of E.D. Hill hosting a "Strategy Room."
I would like to hear from someone in that neighborhood. The woman in the background is obviously not bothered. Honestly, if you're a person of color who's been turned away from your legal right to vote before, it might be good to see those guys as your local poll workers. Far be it from me to get in those shoes. Let's stick to what is legal and go after what is illegal. And everyone should avoid Fox and MSNBC, as cson said.
Well for an equivalent comparison they wouldn't be just "two white guys." They would be two white guys dressed in a uniform belonging to an organization with a history of violence who preach "white power." Then yes, I would guess some black people would be intimidated.
