Showing posts with label voter suppression. Show all posts
Showing posts with label voter suppression. Show all posts

Thursday, April 21, 2016

Bernie the Sore Loser

photo Bernie.jpg

Previous Related Posts:
Bernie Brats Need to Stop Dissing South
Desperation in Bernie Land
Susan Sarandon Likes Trump Over Hillary
 Bernie Camp Blames Hillary for AZ Loss
Bernie Gives Hillary the Hand of Silence
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The night of the New York Primary, Bernie Sanders was at Penn State giving a speech. When the event ended and he found out he had been trounced by Hillary Clinton, his reaction spoke volumes. He didn't go back to a microphone and give a concession speech. He didn't ask his entourage of reporters to send out a message of good will to other Democrats. Instead, he left his press corps stranded in a Pennsylvania airport at 10 pm at night and flew back home to Vermont where he only spoke to local reporters, still not giving a message of any sort that would prove him to be a gracious loser.

Nope. He's just a loser. A sore loser.





And then the conspiracy theories began, but they've been there all along. The election was "rigged" by Hillary and the "establishment." The election was stolen. Something was wrong. How could Bernie have huge crowds at his speeches, but so few votes? Don't crowds of unregistered voters always equal votes? And isn't it unfair that Independents needed to register, like, last October or something? Rigged! Disenfranchised! Voter Suppression!!!

As if that wasn't bad enough, Bernie's manager, Jeff Weaver, immediately went on MSNBC and made an arse of himself trying to explain some vague way for Bernie to win in spite of logic and math. It was quite a spectacle.

There's a Path!!!



















~~~~~~~~~~~~

Anger and Denial















~~~~~~~~~~~

Rigged!











~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Still Bernie or Bust!








~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Democrats React




















Posted by at No comments:
Labels: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Wednesday, March 23, 2016

Bernie Camp Blames Hillary for AZ Voting Problems

photo conspiracy.gif

Previous Related Posts:

Bernie Gives Hillary the Hand of Silence
Polls and Predictions for Hillary and Bernie on Super Tuesday
Hillary Landslide in South Carolina
With #CoinTossGate Bernie Bros Call Hillary Fraud
Clinton and Cruz win Iowa Caucus 2016

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Voters for Bernie Sanders can't believe that their candidate doesn't win every state, so they rationalize. They say Bernie gets the "real" states, while Hillary only wins "Southern" or "Confederate" states in the south, totally dismissing her wins in Massachusetts, Iowa (which they still consider a tie), and Illinois.

There seems to be a basic lack of civics knowledge, as well as a sense of what the Primary is supposed to achieve, which is a chance for Democrats in blue, red, or purple states to pick a general election candidate. Bernie simply does better in party-run caucuses in smaller states, while Hillary is picking up loads of delegates in straightforward primaries run by state and local governments. In fact, her lead in both popular votes and delegates is getting to the point that some Democrats are suggesting that Bernie should drop out of the race for the good of the party.





But Bernie and his gang are not going to go quietly into that good night, and the first stage of campaign loss is denial.

Last night during the Western Tuesday primary, Bernie handily won the Idaho and Utah caucuses, but Hillary got basically a landslide in Arizona so the denial reached new heights, with the Bernies blaming Hillary and the Democrats for somehow "making sure" there were going to be long lines in Maricopa County, and even blaming them for paperwork problems involving Independents trying to vote in a closed Primary open only to Dems. Trolls jumped onto Twitter last night to insist that the Democrats were running the AZ primary (see below) and would not listen to reason.






First of all, Arizona is a red state with a state-run primary for both parties. Number two, voters for every candidate, including GOP and Hillary voters, were standing in the same long lines. And thirdly, the County Vote Recorder admitted to a reporter on video that local election officials decided to have half the number of usual voting places and count on early voting by mail to pick up the slack - big mistake during such a major election year with so many candidates. So none of it has anything to do with Hillary, but the Republican bureaucracy and penny-pinching of the state of Arizona and Maricopa County in particular. Most other counties did not have the same problems.



But don't let the facts bother you, Bernie bros!

Bernie's long-time Campaign Manager Jeff Weaver (cousin of Karl Rove of "skewed polls" fame on Fox News), said he was concerned that "something happened" in Arizona to help Hillary get more votes. He was also asked about why Bernie voters nearly always "boo" for Hillary when Bernie mentions her name.



































Posted by at No comments:
Labels: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Saturday, June 28, 2014

Mississippi Chaos: McDaniel Charges Voter Fraud ~ Tea Party Leader Commits Suicide

photo imagesqtbnANd9GcRKwtela3BQHt_LSzCHy.jpg

Previously Related Posts
Poutrageous: McDaniel Loses to Thad Cochran
Mississippi Courthouse Shenanigans

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The chaos over the Republican Senate Run-Off Race in Mississippi continues. Seasoned politician Sen. Thad Cochran was declared the winner last Tuesday, but Tea Party challenger Chris McDaniel refuses to concede amidst allegations of some type of voter fraud particularly aimed at Democratic black voters who crossed over for Cochran, although that is legal in Mississippi and this was an open election. In the midst of the election angst, a prominent Tea Party leader who was arrested for spying on Cochran's wife in a nursing home has committed suicide. He had been indicted by a grand jury and was facing a court date later in the summer. Many say he was devastated by the arrest and the effect on his legal career, but it's possible he somehow blamed himself for the loss of the election.

The outrage of the Tea Party in Mississippi isn't going away any time soon. They are going hyperbolic and nearly apoplectic over McDaniel's loss:

This is a win for the establishment, but it’s a win with an asterisk, because it’s so tainted that it might be one of those things where they’re going to be sorry they ever won the runoff in Mississippi.
~ Craig Shirley, a political consultant and the author of two respected biographies of Ronald Reagan, via National Review

This just threw gasoline onto the flames of the civil war. What happened yesterday in Mississippi will resonate for years to come. It will become the battle cry, just like the Alamo. We will remember Mississippi.
~ Richard Viguerie, the author of Takeover: The 100 Year War for the GOP’s Soul

And the McDaniel campaign is looking to find more votes, but local election officials in Mississippi say there is no proven voter fraud, which is refreshing to hear from a mostly Republican state.

From New York Times
The McDaniel camp charged that a partial review of the tallies in Hinds County had turned up nearly 1,000 ballots that were cast by voters who participated in the Democratic primary on June 3 and were ineligible under state law to vote in the Republican runoff. McDaniel aides said supporters were reviewing ballots across the state, although they have met resistance in about half of the counties they have approached.

Pete Perry, the Hinds County Republican Party chairman, said the McDaniel campaign’s claims were “wildly exaggerated.” In the Jackson precinct at Fondren Presbyterian Church, he said, the McDaniel campaign charged that 192 illegal votes had been cast by people who voted in the Democratic primary. But, he said, only 37 Democrats voted there on June 3.

“Instead of making wild accusations which stir up social media with cries of fraud and corruption, it would be much better for all involved — the voters, the candidates, the 500 poll workers in Hinds County — if we let facts enter into the conversation,” Mr. Perry said.


















On Death of Tea Party Leader Mark Mayfield:









A prominent lawyer and leader of the Mississippi Tea Party, who was arrested in connection with photos posted online of U.S. Senator Thad Cochran's bedridden wife, died on Friday of an apparent suicide, the man’s attorney said.
Mark Mayfield, 57, was a founding member of the state's Tea Party and had served as its vice chairman, the organization said.
. . . Police received an emergency call on Friday morning from his wife, saying her husband had just shot himself. Mayfield was found lying on the floor of a garage storage room with a single gunshot wound to his head, according to the police department in Ridgeland, Mississippi.
~ Reuters

Mayfield was one of three men charged with conspiring to photograph U.S. Sen. Thad Cochran's bedridden wife in her nursing home and create a political video against Cochran.
That incident was one of the most explosive events in the Mississippi Senate primary, which Cochran won in a runoff over Tea Party-backed Chris McDaniel on Tuesday. McDaniel has refused to concede the race and suggests that voting irregularities may have helped Cochran win.
Mayfield, 57, an attorney and state and local Tea Party leader, was arrested last month along with Richard Sager, an elementary school P.E. teacher and high school soccer coach. Police said they also charged John Beachman Mary of Hattiesburg, but he was not taken into custody because of "extensive medical conditions." All face felony conspiracy charges. Sager also was charged with felony tampering with evidence, and Mary faces two conspiracy counts.
~ USA Today

Regardless of recent allegations made against his character, Mark Mayfield was a fine Christian man who was always respectful and kind. He was one of the most polite and humble men I’ve ever met in politics. He was a loving husband, father, a pillar of his community, and he will be missed. We are saddened by his loss, and we send our thoughts and prayers to his wife, his family and friends.
~ Candidate Chris McDaniel on his friend Mayfield

They killed him. They sent a SWAT team to his office, six officers, just to arrest him.
. . . I'm just crushed. Mark's death just kind of puts an exclamation point on how out of control this has all gotten."
~ Pat Bruce, president of the Madison (MS) County Conservative Coalition, Via Jackson Clarion-Ledger:





“A good man is gone today [because] of a campaign to destroy lives,” Keith Plunkett, a Mississippi GOP operative, tweeted. “To all ‘so called’ Republican leaders who joined lockstep: I WILL NOT REST!”
Plunkett deleted the post after others on Twitter responded negatively and accused him of using a tragedy for political gain.
. . . McDaniel allies have argued that the whole nursing home incident was politicized to get sympathy for Cochran in what became one of the nastiest races in memory.
“The politicization of the incident was beyond the pale,” Plunkett said. “It was an attack on a good man that is well respected. I’ve never met a person that had a bad word to say about him. It’s shocking to those in the state who knew the demeanor and quiet dedication of the real Mark Mayfield. He wasn’t the character he was being cast, and he didn’t deserve that kind of treatment.”
~ Politico





Posted by at No comments:
Labels: , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Thursday, June 26, 2014

Poutrageous - McDaniel Loses to Thad Cochran in Mississipi Run-Off

photo imagesqtbnANd9GcQjst0fdXbdLqkTLgX1R.jpg

Previous Related Post:
Locked-Up - Mississippi Courthouse Shenanigans

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The Republican Senate Run-Off Election in Mississippi has turned into a big deal. Tea Party candidate Chris McDaniel had been favored to win, but at the last minute Thad Cochran appealed to black Democratic voters who turned out in record numbers to vote AGAINST McDaniel. And thus began another strange night in American politics.

Cochran won the election, but McDaniel has so far refused to concede the race, and there's talk of a write-in campaign, a third party for Teabaggers, an investigation into the election, and general far-right Poutrage.

Make some popcorn and read what happened.

From Time
McDaniel lost in a runoff to the six-term incumbent Cochran by only about 6,000 votes, amounting to less than 2% of the total count. Many of those who pushed Cochran over the top were either Republicans who’d been unmoved to vote in the initial June 3 primary (in which McDaniel narrowly won but failed to secure the 50% needed to prevent a runoff), or Democrats who were inspired to vote for Cochran to prevent a Tea Party victory for McDaniel.
Turnout in Tuesday’s runoff was higher than in Round One, with about 55,000 more ballots cast, many of them by Democrats for Cochran. McDaniel supporters felt robbed; as their candidate took the stage at his election night watch party, the crowd chanted “Write Chris in!”

From Robert Costa in Washington Post
In a bitter and angry speech to supporters in Hattiesburg late Tuesday, McDaniel refused to concede and said, “we are not prone to surrender.” He cited “voting irregularities” and thundered that the “Republican primary [was] decided by liberal Democrats.”
“We’re not done fighting,” McDaniel vowed.
. . . McDaniel has drawn support from national tea party groups as well as conservative stars, including former Alaska governor Sarah Palin, former senator Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania and Chuck Woolery, the original host of “Wheel of Fortune.”



























~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~





Sarah Palin Word Salad On Facebook
With Friends Like These, Who Needs Liberals?
As we pointed out last week (see: http://t.co/y8T64iZQyR), there were several potentially illegal political games afoot in Mississippi to motivate Democrat voters to “switch” over to the GOP for a day to help save a 42 year Republican member of Congress. On top of that, millions of dollars from out of state liberal billionaires like Mike Bloomberg poured in at the last minute on that same incumbent’s behalf. You have to ask yourself why?
When a primary election is lost fairly, I am all for unifying behind the victor and joining forces to fight in November. When an election is questionable, with potential legal violations, politics MUST be put aside and the irregularities MUST be fully investigated. Regardless of party, we owe it to voters and to democracy within our Republic. The integrity of the vote speaks directly to the integrity of those who serve and the trust we ask the American public to put in our institutions.
I told Chris McDaniel last night that I stand with his effort to get to the bottom of this – he needs to know average, but tremendously concerned, citizens want to make sure the integrity of last night’s results in Mississippi are verified. Voting shenanigans never cease to amaze, but they had better cease altogether for the sake of ethical elections. And any GOP “architect” behind these abhorrent voting shenanigans should be ashamed of this Pyrrhic victory for the establishment.
If we find out it’s true that some of the characters alleged to have masterminded this Mississippi hijacking are the same ones who’ve tried to destroy other Republicans’ careers, they need to be taken to task and only be hired by unethical campaigns. Fool us once, shame on you; fool us twice, shame on us. And if any news organization ignores a free and fair elections issue like this, then whether left-leaning or center right, their silence will speak volumes.
You can read more about this issue from an article last week here:

http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2014/06/18/MS-GOP-Chair-Only-Those-Who-Plan-To-Support-GOP-Nominee-In-November-Should-Vote-In-Runoff

- Sarah Palin


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~





From "The Marionettes Remain Uncut" by Erick Erickson on Red State
. . . the Mississippi race does crystalize for me the desires of many to start a third party. In essence, tea party activists are the RINOs. A Republican Party campaigning on making the Senate “conservative,” used liberal Democrats to preserve an incumbent Republican and defeat a conservative. The actual conservatives are the outsiders with the GOP establishment doing all it could to preserve its power at the expense of its principles.
. . . Mississippi is a crystalizing election in that sense. Cochran is, for all intents and purposes, a marionette. His strings are pulled by staffers and lobbyists. They drop him onto the stage of the Senate and pull up a string to raise his hand. These puppeteers are so invested in keeping their gravy train going that they will, while claiming to be Republicans, flood a Republican primary with Obama voters to ensure their gravy train continues.

And to be clear, there is nothing wrong with that. They won fair and square. They changed who the electorate was, which was allowed under the rules.
. . . Unfortunately for the Republican Party the fight continues. And as grassroots activists feel further and further removed and alienated from the party, it will become harder and harder to win. . . . we may just see an irreparable split. Then, and even worse, if party leaders and party base voters cannot reconcile themselves to a common candidate in 2016, God help us.
I continue to oppose a third party. I’m just not sure what the Republican Party really stands for any more other than telling Obama no and telling our own corporate interests yes. That’s not much of a platform.









Posted by at No comments:
Labels: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Tuesday, June 25, 2013

#SCOTUS Brings Back Jim Crow


photo scotus.jpeg
source: @conormcdonough























































Posted by at No comments:
Labels: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Wednesday, April 10, 2013

Rand Paul Speaks at Howard University ~ Updated

photo Rand_Paul.jpg

From Business Insider ~ Rand Paul at Howard University
"The Democrats promised equalizing outcomes through unlimited federal assistance while Republicans offered something that seemed less tangible-the promise of equalizing opportunity through free markets," Paul said. "Now Republicans face a daunting task. Several generations of black voters have never voted Republican and are not very open to even considering the option."

"The Democrat promise is tangible and puts food on the table, but too often doesn't lead to jobs or meaningful success," he continued, adding later, "I would argue that the objective evidence shows that big government is not a friend to African Americans."

. . . "I can recite books that have been written, or I can plunge into the arena and stumble and maybe fall but at least I will have striven," Paul said. "My hope is that you will hear me out, that you will see me for who I am, not the caricature sometimes presented by political opponents."

Echoing a popular conservative talking point, Paul repeatedly reminded the audience that Democrats passed Jim Crow laws in the south and that Abraham Lincoln was a Republican, as were the first black legislators and the founders of the NAACP.
“Would everyone know here they were all Republicans?” he said at one point, referring to the NAACP’s founders.
“Yes!” came the booming response from nearly the entire audience, who appeared offended Paul would even raise the question.
~ Talking Points Memo

Rand Paul Randsplains How Republicans Lost The Black Vote: Black People Just Don’t Understand
. . . The real star was his engagement in the fun-at-CPAC pastime of reminiscing about all of the great things Republicans did before 1964, and the concurrently crummy things Democrats did back then, but with the manner of a first-grade teacher explaining the alphabet. Believe it or not, Rand, lots of people already know about the shift that occurred in 1964.
~ Tommy Christopher on Mediaite

You can’t just yada yada yada the last 60 Republican years. A Republican freed the slaves, gave black people the vote, yada yada yada, and now all blacks vote Democratic, I mean, what the hell?
~ Jon Stewart


























































Fact Check:

Paul said the Civil Rights Act of 1964 shouldn't apply to private business owners:

Via Think Progress 5-19-2010
INTERVIEWER: Would you have voted for the Civil Rights Act of 1964?

PAUL: I like the Civil Rights Act in the sense that it ended discrimination in all public domains, and I’m all in favor of that.

INTERVIEWER: But?

PAUL: You had to ask me the “but.” I don’t like the idea of telling private business owners—I abhor racism. I think it’s a bad business decision to exclude anybody from your restaurant—but, at the same time, I do believe in private ownership. But I absolutely think there should be no discrimination in anything that gets any public funding, and that’s most of what I think the Civil Rights Act was about in my mind.



Transcript of Rachel Maddow via Washington Post May 19, 2010
PAUL: Well, the interesting thing is, you know, you look back to the 1950s and 1960s at the problems we faced. There were incredible problems. You know, the problems had to do with mostly voting, they had to do with schools, they had to do with public housing. And so, this is what the civil rights largely addressed, and all things that I largely agree with.

MADDOW: But what about private businesses? I mean, I hate to -- I don`t want to be badgering you on this, but I do want an answer.

PAUL: I'm not -- I'm not --

MADDOW: Do you think that a private business has the right to say we don't serve black people?

PAUL: Yes. I'm not in favor of any discrimination of any form. I would never belong to any club that excluded anybody for race. We still do have private clubs in America that can discriminate based on race.

But I think what's important about this debate is not written into any specific "gotcha" on this, but asking the question: what about freedom of speech? Should we limit speech from people we find abhorrent? Should we limit racists from speaking?

. . . MADDOW: -- for private businesses to be desegregated by the government. You're saying those people should have gone to different places? Left them segregated?

PAUL: People who commit -- people who commit violence on other individuals should go to prison and go to jail. And there's nothing we should ever do to condone violence on other individuals.

MADDOW: And should Woolworth lunch counter should have been allowed to stay segregated? Sir, just yes or no.

PAUL: What I think would happen -- what I'm saying is, is that I don't believe in any discrimination. I don't believe in any private property should discriminate either. And I wouldn't attend, wouldn't support, wouldn't go to.

But what you have to answer when you answer this point of view, which is an abstract, obscure conversation from 1964 that you want to bring up. But if you want to answer, you have to say then that you decide the rules for all restaurants and then you decide that you want to allow them to carry weapons into restaurants.

MADDOW: I can -- we could have a fight about the Second Amendment.

(CROSSTALK)

MADDOW: But I think wanting to allow private industry -- private businesses --

PAUL: It's the same fight. It's the same fight.


Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Posted by at No comments:
Labels: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)