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Evening Reads: Thank the Gawds, Tomorrow is Tuesday!

Posted: November 5, 2012 | Author: | Filed under: 2012 presidential campaign, New Orleans, SDB Evening News Reads | Tags: , , , , |27 Comments

Good Evening

I am so sick of the ads, the lies, and the voter suppression…voter disenfranchisement, and voter intimidation. We are well on our way to Fascism, and no one can tell me any different! Mutthafukkin’ GOP.

I have plenty of links for you tonight, so I will make them quick.

First I have a few updates on stories we have mentioned earlier today.

Voter intimidation is real: Pennsylvania GOP accused of planning voter intimidation

The Philadelphia City Paper reported today that The Advancement Project, American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania and Pittsburgh United, along with other organizations, undersigned a letter asking the Justice Department to ensure voters in targeted locations are able to cast their ballots fairly.

“We have received information that strongly suggests the Republican Party, under the guise of combating alleged voter fraud, has assigned Election Day poll watchers disproportionately to majority African-American precincts in Allegheny County,” the organizations write.

According to the letter, the targeted precincts have over 79 percent of African-American registered voters, compared to non-targeted areas with less than 11 percent.

“The Pennsylvania Republican Party has serious questions to answer about where they are putting their poll watchers and why,” Nicole Berner, Associate General of Service Employees International Union, said in a statement.

A bit of info on that claim that Romney has paid no taxes for years is making news at Addicting Info: Dutch Source Confirms – Romney Paid ZERO Taxes

New documents released by the newspaper Volkskrant from the Netherlands yesterday detail how Mitt Romney took advantage, through his former firm, of a 9-figure tax loophole. When he retired in 1999, his golden parachute enabled him to operate as a company manager and executive, for purposes of investment, for 10 years. And so began Romney’s direct use of the “Double Irish With a Dutch Sandwich” tax avoidance scheme…

Copies of the Bain docs at the link.

There are lots of state amendments that Dakinikat mentioned this morning, here are some thoughts via The Volokh Conspiracy » Some Key Referenda to Watch

As we get ready for a very important election day tomorrow, there are stories out of California that may get ignored in the shuffle: California Agency Releases Evidence of Money Laundering in Right-Wing Campaign Spending on Ballot Measures

California’s Fair Political Practices Commission forced a mysterious $11 million donor to two ballot measures to reveal its secret funding sources today, and the result showed how most of these independent expenditure groups work, mostly through money laundering:

Ending a mystery that captivated the run-up to Election Day, the Arizona group behind an anonymous $11 million donation revealed under court order today that the shadowy donation was laundered through two groups, including one tied to David and Charles Koch, the billionaire brothers who have played a huge role in spreading anonymous political cash around the country.

The donation, the largest anonymous contribution to a ballot measure campaign in California history, was made to the Small Business Action Committee, a conservative group running a campaign for Proposition 32, the measure that would curb labor’s ability to collect political cash, and against Proposition 30, Gov. Jerry Brown’s tax-hike initiative.

“This isn’t going to stop here,” said Ann Ravel, chairwoman of the Fair Political Practices Commission, the state’s political watchdog. “They admitted to money laundering. We agreed to do this without an audit because we wanted to get information to the public before the election. But we in no way agreed this would preclude further action.”

Ravel said Phoenix-based Americans for Responsible Leadership conceded it was the intermediary and not the true source of the contribution. The true source was Americans for Job Security and was made through a second intermediary, the Center to Protect Patient Rights, she said.

Americans for Job Security was both active in the 2010 election cycle. They are a corporate front group which received initial funding from the insurance industry. And the Center to Protect Patient Rights is run by a Koch Brothers operative, Sean Noble, who admitted the money laundering to the FPPC. This is a misdemeanor under California law, but conspiracy to commit money laundering is a felony.

Earlier today Kurt Eichenwald tweeted this:

To which I responded:

When are you going to give those Koch Bros the @Kurteinchenwald treatment? Write a book and bring em down.

He actually replied back to me…unfortunately…he said:

Not really my kind of thing. My books are narratives. That wouldnt be.

Damn. I know he uses public records and sources after the fact, but the Koch Bros need to be taken down.

The rest of the links tonight are in link dump fashion…

Katrina vanden Heuvel: FDR and the fight to defend our freedom – The Washington Post

Florida Wants to Make History Majors Pay More for College Than Math Majors | Medieval News

10 Most Absurd Moments of the 2012 Campaign | Alternet

A Tale of Two “Seinfeld” Bosses (…and Campaign Cash) | Mother Jones

Take a look at this tumblr, it is like a postcard from NOLA to New York

And lastly, this video from Chris Rock, its been mentioned on Sky D before, but I had to end this post with some kind of laughter.

27 Comments on “Evening Reads: Thank the Gawds, Tomorrow is Tuesday!”

  1. JJ Lopez Minkoff says:
    November 5, 2012 at 6:09 pm

    Hey, how y’all doing tonight?

    • RalphB says:
      November 5, 2012 at 6:23 pm

      Great but I can’t wait this to be over. Been far too much BS and not enough Chris Rock 🙂

    • Fannie says:
      November 5, 2012 at 8:13 pm

      Getting by, that’s about it…………and wishing that for a change women will get the “spoils” of this election clyce………….in other words, more budget monies to help us and our families.

  2. JJ Lopez Minkoff says:
    November 5, 2012 at 6:17 pm

    Oh, I am proud of my girl…she gets it! God’s will, fuck that!

  3. pdgrey says:
    November 5, 2012 at 6:28 pm

    Thank you JJ, and all here, I have been a f’n mess for to long lately. I so want to go back to when I felt this country was really moving to include all. And it hard to think back now and remember it really felt like that once. It was true, I know it was, I was there.

  4. bostonboomer says:
    November 5, 2012 at 6:31 pm

    Democrats reach settlement in early voting lawsuit.

    The agreement means that voters in the three counties of southeast Florida will have two options for voting on Tuesday, Nov. 6. They can either go to their designated precinct and cast a regular ballot, or they can go to the supervisor of elections office, ask for an absentee ballot, complete it, and immediately turn it in.

    The in-person absentee ballot service offers an alternative for voters should precinct lines grow too long on Tuesday.

    Preliminary data show that 248,534 voters cast early ballots in Broward County, while 235,733 voted early in Miami-Dade County, and 105,981 voted in Palm Beach County.

    • NW Luna says:
      November 5, 2012 at 7:07 pm

      That’s good. They’d better not run out of absentee ballots.

      Hmmm. Wonder what hours that office will be open. Or am I being too cynical?

      • bostonboomer says:
        November 5, 2012 at 7:25 pm

        According to the DNC chair in FL, if you’re in line by 7PM, they have to let you vote. I don’t know if the same is true for the in person absentee voting, but it may be.

    • ecocatwoman says:
      November 5, 2012 at 8:10 pm

      Those Dade vs Broward numbers seem off. Dade is a much bigger county & has always had a higher population than Broward for as long as I can remember.

  5. pdgrey says:
    November 5, 2012 at 7:58 pm


    Politifact looked into it and found the Priorities charge to be “mostly true.” The fraud took place between 1988 and 1993. Bain first invested in the company in 1989.
    “But the fraud case at Damon Corp. doesn’t point straight to Romney,” it reported. “The statement is accurate but needs additional information.”

    A search for additional information, however, would be fruitless. According to a Justice Department document obtained by The Huffington Post, Damon destroyed or hid the relevant documents that would be needed to ascertain who in leadership was responsible.

  6. ecocatwoman says:
    November 5, 2012 at 8:15 pm

    Rachel just listed all of Obama’s accomplishments & finished with the most amazing of all……….and he quit smoking! With the stress in my life, I cannot quit smoking. My stress compared to being President of the US is miniscule. Now that’s one hell of an accomplishment under the circumstances.

    • RalphB says:
      November 5, 2012 at 8:40 pm

      The stress on him has to be insane and has been for all this time. I wouldn’t blame him for smoking like a chimney!

  7. RalphB says:
    November 5, 2012 at 8:47 pm

    via Political Wire, something tells me they don’t expect to hold a happy event.

    Romney Charges Reporters for Election Night Party

  8. RalphB says:
    November 5, 2012 at 8:50 pm

    May explain his appearances on election day? Down to the wire, he is.

    Romney’s Last Path to 270 Electoral Votes

    Romney officials tell National Review that the campaign “is focused on two key states as Election Day nears: Ohio and Pennsylvania. They believe that they are competitive in Ohio, but should it drift away, they’re looking at Pennsylvania and its 20 electoral votes as a possible substitute for the Buckeye State.”

    Said a Romney adviser: “We have got to win one of those two states and do well everywhere else. We’re still pushing in Ohio, but it’s unpredictable. Pennsylvania, however, is really in play.”

    Romney’s final-day schedule — he will campaign in Pittsburgh and Cleveland.– reflects his strategy.

  9. RalphB says:
    November 5, 2012 at 9:03 pm

    Nate Silver is zeroing in. Now shows Obama with a 91.4% chance of winning and predicts 314 EVs.

    http://fivethirtyeight.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/11/05/in-ohio-polls-show-benefit-of-auto-rescue-to-obama/#more-37207

  10. pdgrey says:
    November 5, 2012 at 9:30 pm

    Ezra Klein just tweeted Many on Wall Street are increasingly convinced that Barack Obama will win the election.
    http://www.cnbc.com/id/49662650

  11. pdgrey says:
    November 5, 2012 at 9:39 pm

    In a halftime interview during Monday Night Football, President Obama likened political reporters to sports journalists.

    “Political reporters are a lot like sports reporters,” he said. “You lose a game and you’re a bum. You win a game, you’re a God. You know, the truth is, just like in sports, in politics we’re all human, we make mistakes. Sometimes we perform well. But the key is to just stay focused on what it is that you’re doing.”

  12. RalphB says:
    November 5, 2012 at 11:03 pm

    Love this comment from Keysdan at TalkLeft.

    If experience in polling analysis counts, Lou Harris one of the first presidential pollsters who worked on the John F. Kennedy campaign in 1960 (who is now 91 years old) and sharp as a tack) told me today that he feels President Obama will win in a landslide. Hope this pollster-emeritus has not lost his touch, pretty re-assuring.

  13. RalphB says:
    November 5, 2012 at 11:53 pm

    PPPs final polls, electoral maps and predictions

    http://www.publicpolicypolling.com/final_2012_polls/

  14. RalphB says:
    November 6, 2012 at 12:25 am

    First 2012 election results. Dixville Notch ended in a 5/5 tie.

    https://twitter.com/#!/JamesPindell/status/265686777279418368

  15. JJ Lopez Minkoff says:
    November 6, 2012 at 1:40 am

    I watched Advise and Consent tonight, and read up on the real people the characters were based on. Nothing ever changes.

    Advise & Consent (1962) – Trivia – IMDb

    The blackmail attempt is based on the case of Wyoming Senator Lester C. Hunt, who was blackmailed by members of the Republican Party. Hunt was told by Sen. Styles Bridges that if he ran for re-election that November, the details of his son’s arrest (for soliciting prostitution from a male undercover officer) would end up “in every mailbox in Wyoming”. Hunt eventually agreed to step down, but eleven days later committed suicide in the Capitol.

    Lester C. Hunt – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

    Hunt was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1948 to a term beginning January 3, 1949, defeating incumbent Republican E.V. Robertson by an overwhelming margin.[12] His political positions combined fiscal conservatism and opposition to big government with support for public housing and increased federal aid to education.[13] During his tenure in the Senate, Hunt became a bitter enemy of Wisconsin senator Joseph R. McCarthy, and his criticism of McCarthy’s tactics marked him as a prime target in the 1954 election.[14] For example, he campaigned for a law to restrict Congressional immunity by allowing individuals to sue members of Congress for slanderous statements.[1] He called for reform of Senate rules: “If situations confront the Congress in which it can no longer control its members by the rules of society, justice and fair play, then Congress has, I feel, a moral obligation to take drastic steps to remedy those situations.”[1]

    In 1949 he recommended that the American Medical Association (AMA) and the American Dental Association (ADA) consider endorsing a plan for the federal government to offer health insurance policies with low deductibles, to cover “medical, surgical, hospital, laboratory, nursing and dental services.” He told an ADA convention that “We cannot preserve the freedom of the practice of dentistry and medicine, we cannot keep dentistry and medicine uncontrolled and unregimented by the Federal Government, we cannot maintain our American free and independent practice in the health services by simply denouncing socialization or by a stand-pat opposition.”[15]

    He served on the Senate Crime Investigating Committee, known as the Kefauver Committee,[16] the Senate Armed Services Committee.[1] He backed foreign aid programs and supported a call for disarmament designed to demonstrate that Russia’s peace proposals were not serious.[1]

    Following Eisenhower’s landslide victory in the 1952 election, Hunt announced that he felt obliged to support the Administrations legislative proposals wherever possible. He cited complete agreement with plans for agricultural subsidies, the expansion of Social Security, the creation of a Fair Employment Practices Commission, and the abolition of segregation in the District of Columbia.[17]

    […]

    On June 19, he shot himself at his desk in his Senate office, using a rifle he apparently brought from home, and died a few hours later in Casualty Hospital.[14] The New York Times reported that he acted “in apparent despondency over his health” and left four sealed notes.[28]

    Just one day before Hunt’s suicide, Senator McCarthy had accused an unnamed Senator of “just plain wrong doing”. After Hunt’s suicide, McCarthy’s Senate ally, Karl Mundt of South Dakota denied that McCarthy was referring to Hunt.[28][29]

    The day after Hunt’s suicide, Pearson published his charges about how Republican Senators had threatened Hunt, but described Hunt’s motives as complex: “Two weeks ago he went to the hospital for a physical check and announced that he would not run again. It was no secret that he had been having kidney trouble for some time, but I am sure that on top of this, Lester Hunt, a much more sensitive soul than his colleagues realized, just could not bear the thought of having his son’s misfortunes become the subject of whispers in his re-election campaign.”[19] In private, he confirmed that Hunt had no serious health problem and wrote in his diary that “Unfortunately I am afraid that the morals charge against his son and the experience Hunt suffered was the main factor.”[30]

    […]

    On June 24, 1954, Wyoming Governor Clifford Joy Rogers appointed Republican Edward D. Crippa to fill the remainder of Hunt’s Senate term.[32] Democrat Joseph C. O’Mahoney won the seat in the November 1954 election.[33]

    On July 9, Blick signed an affidavit exonerating Bridges and Welker of pressuring him, but his decision to prosecute Hunt Jr. remained unexplained.[34] Following the election, on November 9, the Senate eulogized its members who had died recently and Senator Bridges called Hunt “a man who demonstrated the best qualities of an American. He was loyal and he served well.”[35] Hunt’s cousin, William M. Spencer, president of the North American Car Corporation in Chicago, wrote Welker after learning he had eulogized Hunt:[36]

    I was shocked when I read this. It recalled to my mind so vividly the conversation with Senator Hunt a few weeks before he died, wherein he recited in great detail the diabolical part you played following the unfortunate and widely publicized episode in which his son was involved. Senator Hunt, a close personal friend of mine, told me without reservation the details of the tactics you used in endeavoring to induce him to withdraw from the Senate, or at least not to be a candidate again. It seems apparent that you took every advantage of the misery which the poor fellow was suffering at the time in your endeavor to turn it to political advantage. Such procedure is as low a blow as cold be conceived. I understood, too, from Senator Hunt, that Senator Bridges had been consulted by you and approved of your action in the matter.

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