#82 Intimidation

Today, from Reuters:

"Black Americans could vote in record numbers for Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, potentially giving him an edge in some states that are tightly contested with Republican rival John McCain. Blacks make up around 12 percent of the voting population and are the Democratic Party's most reliable ethnic constituency, although historically they have voted in lower numbers than other groups. This year, opinion polls show that more than 90 percent of blacks who vote could cast a ballot for Obama, in part because of racial solidarity with a candidate who would be the first black president in U.S. history."

We know that, in past elections, black voters in particular have been the victims of voter intimidation, sometimes subtly, sometimes overtly.

The overt intimidation has taken the form of threats and outright beatings, physically and emotionally preventing black voters from going to the polls. In the past, however, such actions have occurred primarily in local and statewide elections. This year, however, is the first time a national election has featured an African-American running for the most powerful position on the planet. Excuse me: as Senator Jim Webb would prefer us all to recognize, "the thirteenth Scotch-Irish to run for president."

The subtle form of intimidation has been practiced more recently, more often in the South but not entirely there. It occurs when black Americans go to the polls, only to be told that they're in the wrong polling place and have to go, instead, to...somewhere else. They are then sent on a wild-goose chase. Or, more accurately, on a missing-poll chase. The hope of the folk practicing this more subtle form of intimidation is that people will tire of running from one place to another and will just give up.

This year, the subtle intimidation has so far taken at least two other forms. In one, local Republican officials have developed lists of foreclosed homes, in order to challenge voter registrations: if your home has been foreclosed, you don't live there anymore, and hence are not eligible to use that address as your place of residence. This form of intimidation is definitely NOT limited to any one region of the country. It is terribly ironic that the very politicians whose deregulation policies have contributed to loss of homes, to the horror of homelessness, may actually profit from their malfeasance.

The second form of subtle intimidation this year is the challenge to voter registration drives conducted, for example, by ACORN. Some of the folk registered by ACORN have listed false names. By law, the good people conducting the registration drives are required to turn over all names, but what they do is identify and separate into different groups those names they could verify, those names about whom there may be some small concern (typographical errors, for example), and those names that are clearly questionable. "Mickey Mouse" may be an American icon, but he/she/it may not actually be a person's name...although one minor party candidate for president or the senate has legally changed his name to "Pro Life." [I hope his VP running mate (if he's running for president) is named "Anti-Choice."]

So far, at least the Ohio state supreme court has sided with Governor Ted Strickland that the governor's office does not have to provide support for the Republican challenge to voter registrations in that state.

If blacks are able to vote in this election, they may indeed move the "swing" states to Obama. As my electoral projections indicate, Colorado or Virginia should be enough (if indeed I'm correct that Pennsylvania is not really in play) to elect President Obama.

Voter intimidation is a violation of a fundamental American right and duty. I find it ironic that the party that claims to be the party of patriotism is so active behind this most unAmerican action.

-- triton --

# 66 Good News and Bad News: Read This Post

Actually, this post should be numbered 666. That is, at least, the way I'm feeling right now.

Here's the bad news:

John McCain has a really good chance of being our next president, and Sarah Palin our next vice president.

How can that be? By all the ideals that the citizens of this country claim to live by; by all that we individually view as sacred, and by our moral and ethical standards; by the use of our minds that can reason and analyze and synthesize; by all that is meaningful in our lives, especially our children and our grandchildren and our friends and our colleagues: by all of these, John McCain should be fifteen, twenty, twenty-five points behind Barack Obama in the polls.

1) The bush administration has deregulated so many parts of our economy that the entire economy is in a shambles, leading the German president to say, bluntly, that the United States will no longer be viewed as the world's financial leader. This is the Republicans' doing.

2) The bush administration has mired us down in a war that we probably had no legitimate reason for beginning in the first place. This is the Republicans' doing.

3) The bush administration, as a result of (2) above, has failed in its pledge to capture those responsible for the September 11 attacks. This is the Republicans' doing.

4) The bush administration, even as a johnny-come-lately to environmental concerns (if we believe they really care at all), has lost all credibility and hence the ability to get global agreement to attack global warming. This is the Republicans' doing.

(5) John McCain has admitted during the campaign that he didn't know much about economics. But one of the most serious problems (of many) that we currently face is the real possibility of a devastating depression in this country, putting millions more people out of work, out of homes, out of everything, and causing unimaginably horrible ripples through the economies of every other nation.

(6) John McCain, in a successful attempt to appeal to the faaaaaaaaaaaar right base of the Republican party, selected unknown and unqualified Sarah Palin to be his vice presidential running mate. If the McCain-Palin ticket wins this election, she will be a heartbeat away from becoming president, a horribly alarming prospect since then-president McCain has had cancer four times, is still psychologically suffering from his war experiences (even his Republican handlers fear his impetuosity and his temper), and looks, sounds, and thinks like a person much older than his 72 years.

(7) John McCain's temper and impetuous nature are precisely the qualities we must not have in a president, the person with his finger on the trigger to our nuclear and conventional weapons.

(8) John McCain flew into the middle of bailout negotiations in D.C. to find a way out of the current 780 billion dollar mess, and negotiations flew into a rage, at least temporarily failing.

(9) John McCain, unprepared to face Barack Obama in a debate on Foreign Policy--for God's sake, that's supposed to be McCain's forte!--so far has backed out, using the ruse of trying to settle our economic dilemma (see #5 above).

(10) Barack Obama needs to be waaaaaay ahead in the polls going into election day if he is to have a chance to win. The bottom line is, Right Now, more people than we could ever believe will deny him their vote because he's black. It is so prevalent now that people are actually saying it to pollsters. The pollsters are further concerned that "Undecided" is becoming a code word for "notablackperson." I am disgusted with racism.

I could go on and on and what good would that do. I see no other reason than racism for the closeness of the current election. It is very depressing.

And now here's the good news.

Right now, this evening as I write this post; right now, as the news is filled with the failure of the Republicans to help construct a solution to the country's, possibly soon to be the world's, economic disasters; right now, with the polls showing just about a dead heat between the two major candidates; right now, there is no good news.

Except perhaps for this courageous statement from Paul Begala, on Anderson Cooper's "A C 360" this evening. I'm surprised his comment wasn't blipped. I'll be surprised if tomorrow it isn't all over the press here and abroad. But perhaps his saying it will somehow awaken our reason, our sense of fairness, our sense of righteous indignation that some people, some of our own countrypeople, view race as more important than ability. Tonight, Paul Begala said that the current president of the United States is "a high-functioning moron."

And no one disagreed. God bless America for its freedom of speech. And that IS good news.

-- triton --

#15 "All Is Fluid"

The stock market is way up so far today (that can change in an instant, or a week, or...), and the Utilities average is particularly strong. If this continues, we won't have a market meltdown, and the Democrats can add No Market Crash to their list of otherwise-self-inflicted woes. Hillary is sounding increasingly petulant, and Obama is trying to maintain his cool in the face of some pretty nasty attacks. And what Hillary's people are doing is nothing compared to what Barack can expect, should he get the nomination, from the Karl Roves of the Republican party. In the meantime, John McCain can keep his own hands clean from direct dirt, if his handlers (and, yes, he needs handlers) succeed in positioning him.

Right now it doesn't look good for the Democrats, whose propensity for self-immolation goes back at least to the 1968 convention in Chicago. Probably further.

In addition to--or perhaps because of--the current campaigning, the press is making Hillary sound like a spoiled child and Barack look like he has things to hide, especially about his former pastor. Or maybe she is behaving badly, and maybe BO does have things to hide. I'm not enamored of either, though I started out months ago thinking Hillary would make a fine president.

As one of my former poker buddies used to say, however, "All is fluid." In poker that meant money going to one player now can just as easily and quickly shift to another and then another, and so on. In politics, McCain's increasing popularity as the alternative to either Democratic potential candidate can also change, once the Democrats actually select a candidate and IF they can heal the wounds they have self-inflicted (a big "if"). Right now it doesn't look good. But as my second favorite line from GwtW goes, "Tomorrow is another day."

My favorite line, of course, is "As God is my witness, I shall never go hungry again."