News Will there be a large two-face factor

[Ivan Seeking]

I am certain the race issue will help him far more than it will hurt.

With the exception of the last couple of elections, blacks have voted overwhelmingly for Democrats since the 60s..

As LBJ correctly prophesied when he signed the Civil Rights Act, that act cost the Democrats the white Southern vote for the lives of everyone present. Likewise, the Democrats have won the black vote ever since.

Why? Think about it.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

It must have been fraud, because people couldn't possibly have preferred Bush or his idology, right?

It was likely fraud because that's what Statisticians at Berkeley and Cal Tech concluded after studying the results. It was likely fraud because the President of Diebold - the voting machine company - promised Bush [in a memo made public] that he would deliver the votes for Bush.

What's more, we have discussed this before and you know that.

 

[turbo]

Apart from fraud, the GOP will engage in voter-suppression in heavily Democratic districts, including but not limited to disenfranchising voters whose ID's don't match the information on the registrar's print-out EXACTLY. This allows simple transcription errors by the registrars' staff members to deny a voter his or her rights. "Wrong middle initial? Too bad!" The GOP has also constructed caging lists and will challenge as many people in these districts as possible, slowing the lines and causing people to wait hours, some of whom (who have to get to work, perhaps, or take care of a child) will have to leave before they get the chance to vote. We can also expect that there will be insufficient numbers of voting machines and/or ballots in minority districts, and the excuse will be "we never had this many voters before", ignoring the fact that any reasonable person would expect record turnouts in among minority voters.

Our elections have been plagued with such dirty tricks, especially recently, and the culprits never get prosecuted. The right to vote is a fundamental right, and it is increasingly under attack by the GOP.

 

[LURCH]

...any reasonable person would expect record turnouts in among minority voters...

What makes you say that?

 

[Ivan Seeking]

With Obama leading in the polls, the racists are getting angry and desperate. CNN was just running a number of stories about open and blatant racism directed towards Obama.

Here is one story
http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/politics/2008/10/17/racist.obama.newsletter.kcal

Also in the news of late:

(CNN) -- Pennsylvania Rep. John Murtha, a supporter of Barack Obama's presidential bid, apologized Thursday for calling western Pennsylvania "a racist area."

http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/10/16/murtha.racism.apology/

Should Murtha have apologized, or did he merely succumb to the pressure for fear of his job? Is it likely that having represented his district since 1974, he knows what he's talking about?

 

[Evo]

More on racism in the campaign.

Republicans allege that the Association for Community Organizations for Reform Now is engaged in rampant voter fraud, but they've offered no proof of such a systematic effort.

On Friday, the U.S. Supreme Court overruled an attempt by Republicans to challenge the validity of 200,000 voter registrations in Ohio, saying that the party lacked the standing to sue.

The Republicans had sued to force Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner, a Democrat, to provide county election officials with lists of registrants whose personal information did not exactly match Social Security or driver's license data, a step that would leave those voters vulnerable to eligibility challenges.

Kettenring said that a senior ACORN staffer in Cleveland, after appearing on television this week, got an e-mail that said she "is going to have her life ended." A female staffer in Providence, R.I., got a threatening call from someone who said words to the effect of "We know you get off work at 9," then uttered racial epithets, he said.

McClatchy is withholding the women's names because of the threats.

Separately, vandals broke into the group's Boston and Seattle offices and stole computers, Kettenring said.

Since McCain's remarks, ACORN's 87 offices across the country have received hundreds of hostile e-mails, many of them containing racial slurs, Kettenring said. "We believe that these are specifically McCain supporters" sending the messages, he said.

The e-mail to the Cleveland employee was traced to a Facebook Web page in the name of a Baltimore man. It featured a photo of a McCain-Palin sign.

Kettenring said that the bulk of the e-mails had been either "flat-out racist" or had racial overtones. Most of the group's 400 members and about 80 percent of the 13,000 voter-registration canvassers are African-American or Latino.

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/312/story/54386.html

 

[Astronuc]

Kettenring said that a senior ACORN staffer in Cleveland, after appearing on television this week, got an e-mail that said she "is going to have her life ended." A female staffer in Providence, R.I., got a threatening call from someone who said words to the effect of "We know you get off work at 9," then uttered racial epithets, he said.

Sounds like the GOP (or perhaps it's the McCain campaign) has become a terrorist organization.

As far as I know, Ayers has not threatened anyone in the GOP.

It seems members of the GOP are inclined to threaten those with whom they disagree. That's the modus operandi of terrorists.

 

[LURCH]

...any reasonable person would expect record turnouts in among minority voters...

Seriously; why?

 

[turbo]

Seriously; why?

Because activists have been registering voters in poorer neighborhoods at a furious clip. Why do you think that the GOP is hyperventilating about ACORN? These community activists are not scouring wealthy neighborhoods, and the GOP expects that the vast majority of the new registrants will vote Democratic. One way to suppress this new bloc is to say "we had 10 voting machines at this polling place last year, and that should be fine this year." despite the expectations that voter turnout will hit record levels. There will be slow lines blocks long if this happens, and many people will be disenfranchised as a result, especially those who who have jobs that they have to get to, or have children or elderly relatives to care for.

 

[turbo]

Some of the voting machines appear to be two-faced.
http://wvgazette.com/News/200810180251

 

[LURCH]

Can you explain who are the people that make up the multitudes that will vote for him because he is black?

These people:

...any reasonable person would expect record turnouts in among minority voters...

Not "economically disadvantaged voters," not "inner-city voters," but "minority voters." A racially specific segment of the population that "any reasonable person" can see will show up to vote for Obama. Race will play a significant roll in this election, alright. In Obama's favor.

 

[turbo]

Not "economically disadvantaged voters," not "inner-city voters," but "minority voters." A racially specific segment of the population that "any reasonable person" can see will show up to vote for Obama. Race will play a significant roll in this election, alright. In Obama's favor.

Minorities are heavily represented in inner-city neighborhoods, poor neighborhoods, etc.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

These people:

Not "economically disadvantaged voters," not "inner-city voters," but "minority voters." A racially specific segment of the population that "any reasonable person" can see will show up to vote for Obama. Race will play a significant roll in this election, alright. In Obama's favor.

You seem to be missing the point. Blacks always heavily favor the Dems. So the percentage of blacks that would vote Dem probably won't change much from a historical pov. What will change is the level of participation. As will I, yes, black people will take great pride in casting their first vote for a black president.

On the other hand, how many white racist do we still have in the country? The Civil Rights Act cost the Dems the entire South, so racism plays a huge role here.

The next question is one of cultural fear. How many people will simply be afraid to vote for a black man? These people aren't racists. Most are just underexposed.