Trump, Repubs, Racists Eye Voting Restrictions

"My concern is that this might be a signal that we will see an assault on voting rights," Wendy Weiser, the director of the Democracy Program at the Brennan Center for Justice, told me today. "Claims of nonexistent voter fraud and noncitizen voting are precisely the kinds of baseless justifications that we’ve seen for the wave of laws in the past couple of years restricting voting access."

Trump’s choice of Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions as attorney general makes this more plausible. As a U.S. attorney in the mid-1980s, Sessions tried to prosecute three civil rights activists for voter fraud, when they were trying to help poor, elderly, and illiterate people to vote. They were acquitted, (Sargent, Washington Post).

Prosecuting voting rights activists as opposed to murdering voting rights activists is not progress to a rational mind.

Desperate Scott Walker Asks Appellate Court to Kill Fed Injunction Against Voter ID

Updates II: See The Wisconsin Supreme Court Is Not Conservative (Fischer).

Update: See also Firestone, New York Times: "An enduring Republican fantasy is that there are armies of fraudulent voters lurking in the baseboards of American life, waiting for the opportunity to crash the polls and undermine the electoral system. It’s never really been clear who these voters are or how their schemes work; perhaps they are illegal immigrants casting votes for amnesty, or poor people seeking handouts.  Most Republican politicians know these criminals don’t actually exist, but they have found it useful to take advantage of the party base’s pervasive fear of outsiders, just as when they shot down immigration reform. In this case, they persuaded the base of the need for voter ID laws to ensure 'ballot integrity,' knowing the real effect would be to reduce Democratic turnout."
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Rick Hasen and Josh Gerstein have the story.

Scott Walker is running the numbers on his reelection and he is scared, so desperate that he wants to keep as many people away from the polls as possible.

Hence, Wisconsin's corrupt GOP Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen filed a new motion for Scott Walker asserting that the federal court's April 2014 "injunction purports to permanently enjoin a voting regulation that is designed to preserve the right to vote of all eligible Wisconsin voters," notes Gerstein.

Though Scott Walker and Van Hollen have produced zero instances of in-person voter fraud, Van Hollen asserts anyway that in-person voter fraud is "real."

And so is the Devil whom Justice Antonin Scalia fears.

Evidence is a bad thing in the minds of Walker and Van Hollen.

Van Hollen and Walker both publicly refuse to comment on the mountain of evidence presented at trial last year that showed 100,000s of people would be disenfranchised by Act 23, the GOP's voter obstruction law now enjoined.

U.S. District Judge Lynn Adelman recognized this evidence on fabricated notions of voter fraud and real people whose right to vote would be destroyed, writing, "The evidence at trial established that virtually no voter impersonation occurs in Wisconsin. The defendants (Scott Walker et al) could not point to a single instance of known voter impersonation occurring in Wisconsin at any time in the recent past." [pp 11,12]

Wrongfully Convicted: Words from Don Miller, innocent freed after 16 years behind bars

Miller with son, Kirk; Kirk became
distraught later and took his life.

Love, forgiveness and peace from Don Miller of Iron County Wisconsin

"I have to be free of hate, no hate in my heart. The judge, Judge Madden [Patrick J. Madden] and DA [Iron County DA Martin Lipske], well, they're people too. I wish them well, may they go in peace. We have to forgive and move on with our lives. There is power in that."

Just off the phone with Don Miller of Hurley Wisconsin in Iron County.

Didn't know what to expect, I just phoned to say 'Hi, and wanted to say 'good luck, dude.'

I spoke with Don Miller from his Hurley kitchen early this afternoon from his parents' home where he'll be spending his first Christmas in 17 years—arrested with no investigation, a prosecutorial abuse of process and, what I believe to a judicial abuse of office handing down a 42-year sentence, after he asked his live-in girlfriend, Connie Vargovich, to move out out after she slept around town in the sexual playground known as Hurley, Wisconsin in 1990s.

Vargovich had a relationship with the presiding judge and the DA.

Miller has served some 5,913 days in prison and jail.

"I have to be free of hate, no hate in my heart. The judge, Judge Madden and DA [Iron County DA Martin Lipske], well they're people too. I wish them well, may they go in peace," said Miller. "I spoke at the hearing and wished Madden, 'good luck' and thanked him," said Miller. "I don't think they were expecting that."

I'm afraid to go to a grocery store, everything scares me, but I know I'm surrounded by love. A lot of people are feeling safe now, and I would like them come forward with what they know. I want to single out the Innocence Project for what they did."

Miller says, in the mean time, "Merry Christmas, I'm home at last."

[Note: This conversation took place by phone and I did not expect Miller to be so talkative. Wasn't even taking notes into a few minutes, so quotes may not be perfect.]

Two things I want to do.

One: Here a link to Chief Judge for the Court of Appeals or the Ninth Circuit Calling his jurisdiction an 'Epidemic' of Prosecutor Misconduct and,

Two: Play Don Miller some SRV. Out to you, man:

Life Without You-Stevie Ray Vaughan

... And the guy that's standing on the ground, that needs some help. You don't walk up and kick him, if you gonna do this, You better wear his shoes for awhile. Because you know what? Trade places with him and he'll pick you up. It's the truth. You better pass around as much love as you can in your lifetime. It's all we really have to give or accept. Are you with me?

Texas Obstucts Women from Voting; Effort Similar to Wisc AG's Failed Suit

Civil rights violations are our business: GOP

Update: Barbara Arnwine and Eleanor Smeal explain the GOP's war on women voting: "The assault on voting rights is a naked attempt to suppress the votes of minorities, students, the elderly, and the poor. But don’t be fooled. This War on Voting is an essential part of the War on Women."

In 2008 Wisconsin's Republican Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen tried to push through the courts a new constitutional requirement to vote: An exact match of a voter's name on the databases of various government bureaucracies.

Ridiculous.

The GOP voter obstruction effort failed miserably, though Van Hollen later showed no shame in trying to stop our sacred right to vote, efforts for which Van Hollen will be well-compensated in the private sector at a cushy GOP firm, (Van Hollen is not seeking reelection in 2014.)

"Nothing in state or federal law requires that there be a data match as a prerequisite for a citizen's right to vote," Judge Maryann Sumi said in dismissing Van Hollen's lawsuit (J.B. Van Hollen v. Government Accountability Board (GAB) et al (2008)) that tried to use the Help America Vote Act (HAVA) as a voter suppression tool.

In October 2008, it was reported by WisPolitics that Reince Priebus (then Wisconsin and now national GOP Chair) and Wisconsin McCain-Palin co-chair Van Hollen met before and at the 2008 National Republican Convention in St. Paul to discuss this new voter obstruction effort which would was employed by the Van Hollen-headed Wisconsin Department of Justice during the 2008 presidential campaign.

Now, Texas is employing the Priebus-Van Hollen strategy to obstruct voting, requiring an exact and up-to-date name match on Photo Voter ID, per newly enacted Texas GOP law.

The New Civil Rights Movements notes: "Think Progress reports that as of November 5, Texans must show a photo ID with their up-to-date legal name. It sounds like such a small thing, but according to the Brennan Center for Justice, only 66% of voting age women have ready access to a photo document that will attest to proof of citizenship. This is largely because young women have not updated their documents with their married names, a circumstance that doesn’t affect male voters in any significant way. Suddenly 34% of women voters are scrambling for an acceptable ID, while 99% of men are home free."

Van Hollen had denied any contacts with the Republican Party and the McCain campaign about Wisconsin's invented 2008 voting rule in the GOP's failed lawsuit, a denial that was contradicted by WisPolitics‘ audio recording revealing Van Hollen promising this 2008 legal action to Priebus on alleged "voter fraud" during an address at the 2008 Republican National Convention held in St. Paul.

Texas GOP Attorney General Greg Abbott, Wendy Davis' likely opponent for governor in 2014, has had much to say about new voting requirements and other GOP obstruction schemes, now under challenge by the U.S. DoJ under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, to the chagrin of voting rights poseur and lede Republican bullshitter, James Sensenbrenner. Abbott is running the Reince Priebus playbook.

Writes Dave McNeely:

"In 2011, both houses of the Texas Legislature were controlled by large Republican majorities, and their redistricting decisions were designed to increase the Republican Party's electoral prospects at the expense of the Democrats," says the (legal) brief filed by Abbott's office, (defending Texas gerrymandering). "It is perfectly constitutional for a Republican-controlled legislature to make partisan redistricting decisions, even if there are incidental effects on minority voters who support Democratic candidates."

Abbott also accused Jose Garza, a lawyer for the Mexican American Legislative Caucus, of unethical behavior for telling Latino voters to go ahead to the polls even without the now-required photo ID in a Sept. 14 election in Edinburg to fill a city council vacancy.

It is "unethical for a lawyer to advise someone to violate Texas law," Abbott said. "Confusing and misleading Texans in order to create an unnecessary lawsuit is disgraceful."

Garza hotly shot back that he had never encouraged Texans to violate the law, but to cast provisional ballots if they can't get a photo ID. He said he thinks the law is unconstitutional, and if they are refused that would be grounds for a legal challenge.

"Do not stay home and allow a discriminatory law to suppress your vote and voice," Garza said. "That is my message to Edinburg's voters."

Abbott says he needs to stop voter fraud and ensure the integrity of Texas elections.

As the world looks at American politics, wondering vaguely if the US has lost its collective mind in allowing the Tea Party suicide caucus to threaten the world economy, it also cast dubious eyes on the American commitment to voting rights in a democracy, wondering in the words of Teresa Wiltz in The Guardian if this is "2013 or 1953?"

It's 1953, only worse.

In the words of Joel Bleifuss, editor of In These Times, enterprising and corrupt voter obstruction efforts by GOP operatives, including five sitting jurists on the U.S. Supreme Court judges, have in dismantling voter protections imposed on America a "gift to both the billionaire political hobbyists who gave us the Tea Party Congress and the noisy charlatans who push for cynical 'anti-voter-fraud' legislation that is crafted to suppress voter turnout."

Fascism-free Zone—Not Our Wisconsin State Capitol

The reverence toward the officious is a defect to be overcome in a classical liberal democracy

by Jackie Captain

Over-reliance on officiousness is a hallmark of fascism.

"Just doing my job," won't cut it for the Capitol police.

The black-booted thugs at the Capitol who are arresting protesters -- the elderly, veterans, and journalists -- know what they are doing is wrong.

They are violating the civil rights of Wisconsin citizens -- the very people who paid for the construction and restoration of the chapel of democracy wherein their representatives do work on behalf of those same citizens. One of the great pleasures of living in Madison was the ability to walk through the Capitol and show it to visitors -- no longer.

Grabbing hold of the notion that citizens need to file a permit to assemble at their own State Capitol is a product of little minds and malicious spirits. The lockstep following of this ludicrous directive is belittling everyone involved. I am ashamed of my state government.

The right to assemble peacefully and protest political policies are central tenets in the Wisconsin State Constitution. Transparency in government had been enshrined in Wisconsin via the open meetings and open records laws. Why then has the Department of Administration declared that citizens cannot gather in their own Capitol?

What Scott Walker's police are doing is a violation of civil liberties, raising the question what recourse do we have when the police in the People's House turn against us?

Certainly not petitioning the Wisconsin Department of Justice; they stand with Walker on this and in fact are perpetrating the prosecutions of Wisconsin citizens arrested for walking, talking, and singing, or as the police say, "obstructing."

Is a class-action civil lawsuit an answer?

Can an emergency petition for injunctive relief (a judicial order to halt the police targeting and arresting citizens in this instance) be filed in federal court?

Do we call the Lawyer's Guild, the ACLU, Madison civil liberties attorney Jeff Scott Olsen?

To be candid, I don't what to do when someone in my household wants to visit our state representative in the Capitol because I can't have someone arrested and detained for watching, posing a question, or as Matt Rothschild is aware, shooting a picture or trying to report on these events, when we have domestic responsibilities that demand attention at home.

I am proud of those who have been at the Capitol and have stood up for all our rights even at great risk to their own freedom and financial stability.

So who let Scott Walker turn the Capitol into an armed camp that subverts our civil liberties?

We cannot stand complacently by and let our rights be eroded. Leaders are going to rise up out of this movement (Rep. Chris Taylor?) -- perhaps even the next governor -- but where are they now? Why aren't they standing together against these violations?

There has been much commendable social-psychological research of obedience to authority in the 1950-60s trying to come up with some ideas how the rise of twentieth-century fascism could have happened, and how do we in the United States of America prevent it from happening here.

When Capitol police began telling people that they are subject to arrest for "spectating," watching the videos online I wondered if and when someone would speak up and how far the police would go.

Where will they stop?

I have no answers, but I do know that more people of good will need to stand up and speak out against the officiousness of the weak-minded.