Just watch.

Dare I say it? Reaganesque.

Kind of sad to think that the current President of The United States would and could never give this speech.

Just a reminder...he's only 35 39.

(I was told there would be no math. Thanks to Mephistefales for the correction)

Posted by: DrewM at 10:37 AM | Comments (192)
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Technically, the Times is worried about voters being intimidated by mean Republicans. Of course, if you are eligible to vote, you aren't stopped by anyone from doing it.

How do they explain that small problem in their theory?

Shut up. that's how.

Tea Party members have started challenging voter registration applications and have announced plans to question any individual voters at the polls whom they suspect of being ineligible.

In response, liberal groups and voting rights advocates are sounding the alarm, claiming that such strategies are scare tactics intended to suppress minority and poor voters.

...Voting rights advocates say they are worried.

“Private efforts to police the polls create a real risk of vote suppression, regardless of their intent,” said Wendy R. Weiser, director of the Voting Rights and Elections Project at the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University. “People need to know that any form of discrimination, intimidation, or challenge to voters without adequate basis is illegal or improper.”

...Still, independent voter registration groups say they still play an important role, and that scare tactics are making their work harder.

“There is an intentional effort here to suppress participation,” said Jim George, a lawyer for Texans Together Education Fund, the parent organization of Houston Votes.

Houston Votes, whose registration drive has mostly focused on Latino neighborhoods, did find at least one paid canvasser submitting fraudulent applications, Mr. George said, and that person was immediately fired.

He added that the groupsÂ’ financing for voter registration work has dried up because of the accusations by the King Street Patriots that Houston Votes is tied to the New Black Panther Party.

“Houston Votes has nothing whatsoever to do with the Black Panthers,” Mr. George said. “But you make a claim like that, and funding dries up even if the claim isn’t true.”

A request for comment from the King Street Patriots was not returned.

Leo Vasquez, the tax assessor-collector and voter registrar in Harris County, said that of about 25,640 registration applications submitted by Houston Votes, about 5,500 had problems.

So much stupidity, so little time.

To start at the end of that quote, 20% of the people registered by one group 'had problems' (they were mostly fictional people) and that's not a big deal? Sure, these groups will say, 'no one voted, the system worked!'. But what they are doing is clogging up the system with false applications. In addition to wasting limited resources, how many got through because voter registration officials were overwhelmed? How many ineligible voters never got purged from the rolls because officials were dealing with this crap?

As for the idea that private groups shouldn't be involved in monitoring voter eligibility, here's my proposal....ok but private groups can't be involved in registering voters. I'm guessing they'll pass on that.

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Posted by: DrewM at 09:54 AM | Comments (86)
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Okay, this is getting bad.

Video Tape Your Voting: Let's get some people fired and perhaps some malfeasance punished with jail, if it turns out to be intentional.

Use your cell-phone videocamera to record your finger movements and the resulting screen when you vote.

Let's get this information out there.

Posted by: Ace at 09:36 AM | Comments (130)
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And also -- the Treasury used a Democratic-donating firm to recruit the new MinTruth officers.

This is what Obama's all about.

We also the extreme likelihood that this will not be the first time for this -- Obama is preparing for investigations, and that preparation consists of nothing but cover-ups and illegal refusals to comply with lawful requests for information.

Officials at the Treasury Department’s Office of Financial Stability contracted with a small consulting firm that has given nearly $25,000 to Democratic candidates since 2005 (and no money to Republicans) to hire “Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) Analysts to support the Disclosure Services, Privacy and Treasury Records.” The firm is currently advertising a job opening for a FOIA analyst with experience in the “Use of FOIA/PA exemptions to withhold information from release to the public” (emphasis mine, and if that link goes down, The Examiner has kept a copy for its records).

There are updates -- the firm has since changed the language of that ad, but they still have another ad running with the same language. The Washington Examiner screencapped it all.

Posted by: Ace at 09:28 AM | Comments (41)
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It takes a lot of discipline and focus to miss as many stories as Howard Kurtz and his pink fellow-travelers do.

That’s why Couric has spent recent weeks in Chicago, Philadelphia, Boston and New Brunswick, New Jersey. She is touring what she calls “this great unwashed middle of the country” in an effort to divine the mood of the midterms.

Therein lies a key reason why Couric has sometimes struggled in her current job. She’s always seemed constrained by the rigid, 22-minute format, a far cry from her freewheeling Today performances over a decade and a half. So she has devised ways to slip out of her $15 million-a-year prison—launching a Web show, engaging on Twitter, and getting out in the field.

OMG. Where to begin?

Perhaps Katie Couric is struggling because she holds 90% of her potential audience in disdain, calling them "the great unwashed middle of the country."

And her idea of "the great unwashed middle of the country" consists of: liberal blue city metropolis Chicago, liberal blue city Philadelphia, liberal blue city Boston and very liberal blue college town New Brunswick, New Jersey.

Now, in fairness, I think she means "middle of the country" to mean maybe moderate voters. Strange, though, she seeks such voters only in bright blue Democratic bastions.

Still -- "unwashed"? Liberal voters who vote straight-ticket Democrat are, what? Washed and elegant?

Finally, Katie Couric is being booted out of a $15 million a year gig to work on the internet. Or they'll sign her to continue on at a much-reduced rate of pay (as the article speculates later).

Look how Kurtz spins that:

she has devised ways to slip out of her $15 million-a-year prison—launching a Web show, engaging on Twitter, and getting out in the field.

Yeah, I too devised a way to slip out of a high-paid, regular-gig prison. Look upon me and envy, bitches.

She's being promoted, Yo! To Twitter.

Thanks to Slublog.

Posted by: Ace at 08:45 AM | Comments (128)
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The claim is that this is because the touch-screen is sensitive. I think the idea is that when you push the button on the last page, if you leave your finger there too long, it registers as a vote on the next page -- which just happens to be Harry Reid's box.

Scandalous. It's the sort of "error" that could throw an election, and it's the sort of error one can't help wondering if some people weren't too happy to allow to go unfixed.

Clark County Registrar of Voters Larry Lomax said there is no voter fraud, although the issues do come up because the touch-screens are sensitive. For that reason, a person may not want to have their fingers linger too long on the screen after they make a selection at any time.

"Especially in a community with elderly citizens (they have) difficulty in (casting their) ballot," Lomax said. "Team leaders said there were complaints (and the) race filled in."

At any time, voters can go back on the screen and review their selections. They are also allowed to make changes and encouraged to double-check their ballot on screen and on paper before it is cast.

Lomax said voters need to have faith in the system.

Yeah, no.

More Uh-Oh: Lefty blogger solicits people's absentee ballots, with signature -- so he can fill them out for voters "completely and correctly."

This appears to be illegal.

Thanks to Annabelle.

Posted by: Ace at 08:34 AM | Comments (78)
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The Winston Wolf Rule is in effect but oh yeah, this is the good stuff.

With one week until election day, Chris Gibson has surged to a nine-point lead over Rep. Scott Murphy, D-Glens Falls, in their race to represent the 10-county 20th Congressional District. Gibson currently leads 51 percent to 42 percent, the survey finds.

A poll released by Siena College showed Gibson, the Republican candidate and a retired Army colonel from Kinderhook, advancing from being unknown and trailing Murphy in previous polls to sliding ahead. This rise has been especially pronounced among Republicans and independents since Siena's previous survey of likely voters in the district, in September.

We're going to see a lot of good polls in the next few days but that doesn't mean we let up. It means we push down harder. Nails+Coffins-Some Assembly Required.

We're doing a Be The Wave event in the district from Noon to around 4 (I guess, not really sure) and then drinks or something afterward. If you are going to be in the Clifton Park area on Saturday, sign up! We have 10 people so far, which is way more than I expected to get for such a blue district.

Here's the list of candidates.

Be the Wave!

Posted by: DrewM at 08:00 AM | Comments (59)
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Posted by: Ace at 07:42 AM | Comments (92)
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In Connecticut you can still register to vote.

This morning I influenced two more people into voting this election, and why.

Make your emails and calls, people. Making a difference is as simple as calling an ordinarily apolitical friend or family member who is out of work, and asking them if they are registered.

The line that worked for me in that situation:

"We have to stop this commie job-killing shit in its tracks."

I know, I know. But it works.

And then I email them a link to their local Registrar of Voters or get them the phone number.
This isn't rocket surgery.

UPDATE [DiT]: good point from commenter laceyunderalls, last minute registrants in CT (and elsewhere), if your name doesn't appear on the roll, ask for a Provisional Ballot. You can usually find instructions on your Sec State's website.

Posted by: LauraW at 05:48 AM | Comments (132)
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The GOProud ad targets Barney Frank, Nancy Pelosi, Barbara Boxer, and Democrats in general.

Apparently some folks are pissy that they called Frank "catty", as if suddenly that's a gay slur or something.

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 04:05 AM | Comments (44)
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