Voter ID would have made June 5 election a disaster

I worked the polls on June 5.

And I can state as an empirical fact [from conversations alone with numerous voters asking questions] that had the Republicans' unconstitutional voter ID law been in effect on June 5, the resulting confusion, frustration and obstruction would have resulted in many voters not casting their votes in high turn-out wards, or being turned away.

This is precisely part of what Republicans wish for, especially among those pesky Milwaukee blacks and other minorities showing up at the polls trying to pass themselves off as good Americans. What nerve.

The 7:00 A.M. - in-line-by-8:00 P.M. polling place hours experienced presidential-level turn-out that kept staff very busy over 14-hour shifts.

Had each voter been asked for a voter ID—Republicans ludicrously claim that 10,000s of voter impersonations occur each election in Wisconsin—the checking of only GOP-approved IDs [no VA cards] for date, name, and picture verification would have added some 45 seconds for each voter.

Multiply that by some 2,100 voters and then compound the time and a hectic, under-staffed polling place becomes ultra-hectic and dysfunctional.

Joe-down-the-street, registered and voting for decades showing up at the polls ... sorry, Joe: You cannot voter without GOP-approved ID, the GOP's new constitutional qualification for your fundamental right.

Republicans kept up their voter fraud nonsense—repeated without facts by the dumb-downed Wisconsin press—up to the weekend before June 5 and of course after the election.

"State Sen. Mary Lazich, R-New Berlin, who represents the Waterford area ... said if voter ID had been in place she thinks voters would have been able to have more confidence in their votes [in a major race changing party control of the state senate], without disenfranchising anyone." (Jones. Racine Journal-Times, June 12)

Watch for the word "confidence" to be repeated many times between now and November.

"Chaos," "obstruction" and "voter impersonation" not so much.

Reporter Stephanie Jones repeats the Lazich lie without insertion of facts knocking down the fabrication; and another GOP lie gets free coverage from writers apparently as dumb as Jones who leaves the "without disenfranchising anyone" nonsense to stand alone.

The GOP lies continue, as the story of a major political party trying to halt legal voters from voting in Wisconsin goes uncovered as a scandal.

GOP misleading voters on voter impersonation and voter ID should be an ongoing story in a healthy democracy.

Bill Clinton Is Coming to Wisconsin

Scott Walker and his forces wish to remove the very means of the people throwing out corrupt politicians by deriding the recall, and obstructing the vote.

They want despair.

Bill Clinton is coming to the state carrying a message of hope.

Desperate GOP: Block the Black and Brown from Voting

Andrew Goodman - Murdered in 1964 for
standing up for voting rights of our black brothers
Born  Andrew Goodman

(1943-11-23) November 23, 1943
New York City
Died June 21, 1964 (1964-06-21) (aged 20)
Mississippi, U.S.
Cause of death   Murder
Ethnicity   Jewish

Minorities are actually voting in the Wisconsin recall elections!!!

Early absentee voting in Milwaukee foreshadows a heavy turn-out in Milwaukee County.

And the GOP is already busily at work trying to discredit the recall election against Scott Walker and gin up hatred towards Milwaukee African-Americans.

The nerve of minorities for voting!

See Cognitive Dissidence.

Hatemonger, Charlie Sykes:

"If this election turns out to be neck-and-neck; if it turns out to be decided, let's say Tom Barrett were to win this election by, say, 7,000 votes, I can tell you right now: There is not a single conservative, not a single Republican in the state of Wisconsin that would think that was a legitimate election, that it was not stolen. ...

On fellow hatemonger, RNC chair Reince Priebus:

The chairman of the Republican National Committee said Wednesday GOP candidates have to perform 1 or 2 percentage points better than they otherwise would to overcome voter fraud -- claiming that voter fraud is far more pervasive than what official reports have shown.



Ralph McGill (1898-1969)

Writing on the front page of the Atlanta Constitution in 1958: "You do not preach and encourage hatred for the Negro and hope to restrict it to that field. It is an old, old story. It is one repeated over and over again in history. When the wolves of hate are loosed on one people, then no one is safe."."
- Ralph McGill
Atlanta Constitution, Oct. 13, 1958
McGill won the Pulitzer Prize for a furious column denouncing the 1958 bombing of a Jewish Temple. The journalist, who had covered the Nazi takeover of Austria in 1938, linked the bombings of the 1950s-60s to the racial hatred of the South’s white leaders. History is repeated today, as GOP leaders denounce blacks and Latins' voting as "fraud," as hate crimes rise with the approval of the Republican Party.

More Jurists Agree: Only Thing Stopping Walker from Explaining E-mail System Is Scott Walker

Scott Walker

Update II: Scott Walker is likely a prosecutorial target in a federal investigation

Update: Walker transfers another $100,000 from campaign fund to Walker criminal defense fund, bringing total to $160,000.

Scott Walker's refusals to discuss his 2010 campaign for governor run out of the Milwaukee County Executive's office have evolved from 'we're helping' to 'I'm not a target' to 'it's a distraction' to 'the DA told us not to explain how we're helping.'

Walker's refusals are drawing howls but not from the press, just from informed sources whom the press should be asking for comment.

Writes Andy Szal in Wispolitics:

"You certainly have a right to go out and defend your own reputation," former Kenosha Co. DA Bob Jambois told reporters in a conference call organized by the state Democratic Party.

Jambois said he would tell the governor to pursue the same course if he was representing him, but that "it's unlikely to me that the district attorney is advising Scott Walker not to say anything."

Frank Tuerkheimer, an emeritus law professor at the University of Wisconsin and former member of the Watergate prosecution staff, said reports today about the John Doe looking into potential bid rigging in Milwaukee County means the investigation has taken a turn of "an even more serious magnitude."

Szal's piece confirms what we have been told here: Telling someone he is a target would in the words of one jurist, "defeat the purpose" of a John Doe investigation.

Many Wisconsin voters in central and northern Wisconsin have not even heard of the John Doe investigation, or the embezzlement by Walker's top aides of money meant for Iraq and Afghanistan veterans, so dedicated is Gannett Newspapers and local broadcast media to burying what would be a scandal of historic proportions were it to occur to a sitting Democratic governor.

For now, Scott Walker largely gets a pass as he campaigns from a headquarters at an undisclosed location.

Bid-rigging

As Tom Barrett and a handful of political writers take up the torch of reformist journalism, this situation may change very soon as reports circulate that the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (Bice) may run a piece on secret emails sent between Scott Walker and another close aide revealing a bombshell that could directly link Scott Walker to a bid-rigging scheme.

Federal Grand Jury

It's also an open secret among political insiders that a federal grand jury has also been convened to look into Scott Walker's corrupt dealings during his tenure as Milwaukee County Executive, but don't look to Charlie Sykes or Milwaukee squawk radio for any confirmation. And the federal grand jury empaneled for 18 months is expected to proceed very slowly.

For now, the question remains will enough people in Wisconsin be fooled again?

Tom Barrett, The First Debate on Friday; Look into the Camera and Say

Scott Walker - Smile and smile, and be a villain

My fellow Wisconsin citizens it gives me no pleasure to say what's on my mind tonight. To be blunt and candid about my opponent, Scott Walker who was recalled by the Wisconsin people:

Scott Walker is lying to you.

And I don't mean the polticians' spin on why Scott has established a legal defense fund and why his top aides are charged with stealing from veterans to running Scott's 2010 campaign from the Milwaukee County executive's office, among other crimes.

Scott won't address these charges tonight; he'll just respond to questions of his criminal culpability as a "distraction," from him. It's all about him.

I mean he has pursued a secret agenda: Telling billionaires one thing, and then telling the Wisconsin people another thing.

On jobs, on fiscal policy, on taking over community democracies, on SeniorCare, on turning our capitol, the people's house into a palace in which he think he rules as a king, not an elected servant.

These are not polite words I'm speaking tonight.

But the stakes are too high, and never in my life in Wisconsin have I seen anything like what Scott Walker is doing to our state.

I have run commercials demanding Scott Walker tell the truth about his aides' law-breaking, and release the 1,000s of e-mails on his secret computer system designed to elude the eyes the Wisconsin people, as Walker campaigned on the taxpayers' dime.

George Grosz - God of War (1940).
Fear of the Other, the people.

If elected governor, I will instruct each and every member of my administration that they are doing the people's work, and not mine.

And if any staff member of mine is ever charged while working in my campaign or administration; I say you cooperate with prosecutors 100 percent or I'll testify myself.

So, I ask again. Scott Walker, release these secret emails and be straight with the Wisconsin people.

And I'll say it again: Scott Walker is lying to you. He's thinks you're too busy to notice and he can get away with it.