So, do you remember the mantra of Governor Martinez and Secretary of State Duran that voter fraud was rampant in New Mexico? It was pretty much aimed at democrats and immigrants. Real hateful scapegoating there. But now after wasting untold funds and man hours on investigations they could only come up with 19 cases of possible fraud. Spread this over thousands of precincts, legislative districts, city council districts, county commission districts, etc. etc. And you can only surmise that the real idea behind all of these scare tactics were, well scare tactics. Especially against immigrants. All aided and abetted by bigoted media outlets.
The new republican Bernalillo County Commission has just given the christian fundamentalist backed sheriff fifteen new deputies. If they are needed I am not complaining. But the budget numbers for this that the republicans used are without a doubt bogus. It will cost at least 50% more than they say once you buy equipment, patrol cars, and overtime for these new officers. What a twist! The GOP growing government under false pretenses. Look for real tax increases soon from the County.
Here is a question for everyone. How many of Governor Martinez's exempt employees carry concealed weapons? We know she does. When I saw that the armed securities investigator that unjustly had NMFA employees arrested and cuffed for the cameras I began to wonder how many of these folks were allowed to carry weapons. Why the hell does a glorified accountant carry a badge and a gun. Does Darren White at NM Expo carry? How about other state employees hired by Martinez? Are they allowed to carry on to school grounds and into movie theaters?
The new republican Bernalillo County Commission has just given the christian fundamentalist backed sheriff fifteen new deputies. If they are needed I am not complaining. But the budget numbers for this that the republicans used are without a doubt bogus. It will cost at least 50% more than they say once you buy equipment, patrol cars, and overtime for these new officers. What a twist! The GOP growing government under false pretenses. Look for real tax increases soon from the County.
Here is a question for everyone. How many of Governor Martinez's exempt employees carry concealed weapons? We know she does. When I saw that the armed securities investigator that unjustly had NMFA employees arrested and cuffed for the cameras I began to wonder how many of these folks were allowed to carry weapons. Why the hell does a glorified accountant carry a badge and a gun. Does Darren White at NM Expo carry? How about other state employees hired by Martinez? Are they allowed to carry on to school grounds and into movie theaters?
5 comments:
The governor's attempt at voter suppression should be thoroughly revisited in light of what is now known about the Republican Party's strategy of trying to suppress the Democratic vote on a massive scale. Thirty three Republican controlled states have passed some type of voter ID law. These are aimed at suppressing the vote of populations that usually vote Democratic. (The laws are the product of the notorious ALEC, where Republicans sat down with lobbyists and wrote model legislation that could be introduced into state legislatures anywhere.)
Other techniques Republicans are using is to purge voter rolls using falsified data like they did in Florida, before the Justice Department intervened.
Some of what has come about about how Republicans communicated all this to each other is here:
http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/opinion/perspectives/masters-of-voter-suppression-republicans-employ-many-techniques-to-keep-low-income-voters-away-from-the-polls-648218/
Republicans know they face a huge demographic problem. The US white vote is shrinking and populations that vote Democratic, like Hispanics, are expanding. And now that Republicans are openly targeting programs like Medicare, seniors are voting Democratic in higher numbers. This explains Republican efforts to curtail early voting in many places, which is done by many seniors in general and is favored by older Blacks. It prevents having to stand in line for hours, for instance.
Simply Googling "republican voter suppression bills" and "republican voter suppression tactics" pulls up many stories about this.
BradBlog.com, hosted by Brad Friedman, specializes in this topic, that and electronic voter fraud, another Republican specialty.
Republicans claim they do all this to prevent voter fraud, as in someone voting under another person's name or an undocumented person voting. That kind of voter fraud happens so rarely that it's statistically insignificant, and when it does it usually turns out to be someone's mistake.
Voter fraud is what Republicans are doing and it's massive. Between it, and electronic voter fraud, the election could conceivably be stolen, but this election probably won't be close enough for that to be possible. Obama and Atty Genl. Holder have beat back the more egregious cases using law suits and the Voting Rights Act and the party has been out there making sure people get their voter ids in pivotal states where they will still be required, like PA. Still, hundreds of thousands of people will be disenfranchised in this election.
The mainstream media has been AWOL on this story and the Democrats have been typically inept in bringing it to light, but Obama has recently started making somewhat vague references to it in stump speeches. My guess is that this is in case something does happen and the Republicans steal the election, then no one can say that he's making things up. He warned us about it.
It could be that Martinez, knowing she could not get something like voter id through the legislature, tried another tactic. On the Brad Blog is a story about Republicans just wiping Democratic registered voters off the rolls in Colorado, a key swing state. Martinez and her people were going through our voter rolls in their offices. The media only talked about the undocumented thing. What did Martinez do to the voter rolls while she had them? Has anyone checked? She has proven that she will do what she can to implement the right wing agenda here, even if she has to do it by stealth. She almost got away with redefining rape in this state. That was only caught months after the fact. What else has she been up to?
Ah, but I remember well that a young man came around our neighborhood in the '04 election, knocking on doors and averring that he was sent out by the Democratic Party to collect and submit absentee ballots. It appeared (after we discussed it with neighbors) that he was selecting only houses where there were registered Democrats. A very kind, and illegal, service doubtless provided by the opposition...
And it should be investigated and prosecuted, Mr Anonymous commenter, as I assume you agree the massive cheating the Republicans are doing should be.
Or wait, I hope you're not using that argumentative technique Republicans use all the time, of finding one example of something Democrats do wrong and then pretending it excuses everything Republicans are doing wrong. The 'two wrongs make a right' way of thinking.
But I'll give you the benefit of the doubt, and take it that you're as disgusted as I am with the Republican Party for trying to steal the election.
By the way, just for the record, the kind of petty precinct level cheating you describe pales compared to what the Republican Party is doing on an organized, nationwide basis. This is coming from the leadership on down through the ranks, aided and abetted by the right wing media. It reveals a morally bankrupt political party that will do anything to gain power, even subvert democracy. Say what you will about Barak Obama but no one could picture him ordering massive cheating to steal an election.
Incidentally, as a footnote to my comment yesterday, in which I described one of the ways the party of family values is cheating by trying to curtail early voting, NBC radio, in a story this morning about early voting starting today, mentioned that early voters favor Obama two to one.
So in the twisted Republican logic, they pick up two votes for every one they lose if they take away the voting rights of all early voters.
The Democratic Party needs to be called out, too, for not making more of an issue of this.
It could be that they weren't listening when Deval Patrick told them at their convention a couple weeks ago that the party needs to grow a backbone.
Of course there could be some strategic reason they aren't saying anything. Maybe they think they'll gain more seats if they keep their mouths shut. Forget about it. Let it go. Campaign hard and overturn the Republican cheating laws.
That does a disservice to everyone, including the honest Republicans who weren't voting all those Republican legislators into office so they could start cheating like hell and and say the hell with morality, the hell with honesty, the hell with teaching young people something worthwhile, the hell with democracy.
I don't know if Mr Anonymous commenter is one of the honest ones or not. Let's hope so. Let's hope he wants to condemn cheating no matter who does it.
Nice to know the county sheriff is backed by self-righteous, fundamentalist nuts. We need more fanatics in law enforcement.
Nice to know our sheriff is backed by fundamentalist nuts. We need more fanatics in law enforcement.
Post a Comment