First, the good news: FDL denizen nonquixote alerted me this morning that the Supreme Court has shot down Wisconsin’s photo ID voting requirement. Bad news: the Journal-Sentinel article he sent quotes Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen as saying he will seek ways to reinstate the law within the month. He and Walker are the Snidely Whiplash Twins of Wisconsin politics.
From Scotusblog.com:
‘Over a mild protest by three Justices, the Supreme Court on Thursday night barred Wisconsin from enforcing a requirement that voters must produce a photo identification before voting, by absentee ballot or in person. The Court majority’s one-paragraph order gave no reason, but the fact that this year’s election is less than a month away may have been the key factor.
The Wisconsin law, challenged by civil rights and citizens’ advocacy groups, was described by them as “one of the strictest voter ID laws in the country.” It would require voters to show one of only nine specific forms of identification to cast a ballot. Apparently, thousands of Wisconsin voters have already cast ballots without producing the kind of ID required, and tens of thousands reportedly do not have the right kind of ID. November 4 is the general election day this year.
The Court’s order was unsigned, but apparently had the votes of at least five Justices, since that would have been the minimum necessary to set aside a lower court’s order.’
(Alito, Thomas, and Pffftt-Scalia dissenting)
More good news: An update at ScotusBlog brings news that a Federal District Court Judge in Corpus Christie has struck down a Texas Voter ID law that had been challenged by the Obama administration and civil rights and voting rights groups (one good thing this administration had done, even if rather self-serving; who’s to say?).
‘U.S. District Judge Nelva Gonzales Ramos found that Texas had intentionally discriminated against black and Hispanic voters in adopting the law. The judge next plans to move on to the challengers’ request that Texas be ordered to come to court to get clearance for any new voting law it enacts — a seldom-used power open to the judge under the Voting Rights Act of 1965’s Section 3(c). Even under the decision on Thursday, the judge said, Texas would have to get permission for any remedy it attempts for the violation found in this ruling.’
Horrid Decisions:
Yesterday I’d read at Al Jazeera that SCOTUS upheld the draconian rights restrictions in North Carolina that were obviously meant to disenfranchise the disabled, the working poor, and minorities, especially blacks.
‘An unspecified majority of the justices told North Carolina it can go ahead with ending same-day voter registration and prohibiting out-of-precinct voting.
The decision overturns last week’s ruling by the U.S. Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals, which said that ending those practices would discriminate against African-American voters, who had relied on them more heavily than whites. [snip]
In a dissenting opinion, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, joined by Justice Sonia Sotomayor, argued that North Carolina’s restrictive new voting law would likely not have been allowed under the Voting Rights Act of 1965, had that bill not been gutted by the Supreme Court last year in Shelby County v. Holder. The dissenting justices noted, as had the lower court, that the Republican-controlled North Carolina legislature passed the omnibus bill the day after Shelby County ended its 48-year-old requirement to ask the federal government for permission to make such changes.’
Most of the coverage of the decision included the ‘unspecified majority’ language, but this morning I found (ahem) that McClatchy is reporting it was indeed a 7-2 decision, which means, of course, that Justices Breyer and Kagan voted with the majority, fook them very much. Kagan, you will recall, helped to begin to shred the long-standing Miranda Rule for arrestees’ constitutional protections.
According to Lyle Dennison at Scotusblog, other provisions in the new state law, not at issue in the state’s plea to the Supreme Court, required identification to vote, cut short early voting by a week, barred voting on the final Saturday before election day, ended pre-registration of sixteen- and seventeen-year-olds in high schools, and authorized any registered voter to challenge ballots cast early or on election day. Pffftt.
And of course, Ohio, Ohio, oh my. On Sept. 29, according to Lyle again:
With just sixteen hours before polling stations were to open in Ohio, the Supreme Court on Monday afternoon blocked voters from beginning tomorrow to cast their ballots in this year’s general election. By a vote of five to four, the Justices put on hold a federal judge’s order providing new opportunities for voting before election day, beyond what state leaders wanted.
The order will remain in effect until the Court acts on an appeal by state officials. If that is denied, then the order lapses. It is unclear when that scenario will unfold. The state’s petition has not yet been filed formally.
The practical effect of the order will mean that, at the least, early voting will not be allowed this week — a period that supporters of early balloting have called “Golden Week.” That permits voters to register and cast their ballots on the same day.
Depending upon the timing of the state’s filing of a petition for review and the Court’s action on it, Monday’s order may also mean that early voting will not be permitted on most Sundays between now and election day, November 4, and will not be permitted during evening hours — that is, after 5 p.m.
Early voting during “Golden Week,” on Sundays, and in evening hours are the opportunities that civil rights groups have said are most important to black and low-income voters and the homeless. State officials, however, contended that those arrangements would raise the risk of voter fraud, and would cost too much for county election boards to implement.
Never mind that ‘voter fraud’ has largely been disprove as a myth.
For the legal beagles among you, Selby County was quite the landmark case, and its decisions will be discussed in mot of the appeals of voting rights disenfranchisement cases in the future, as has already begun. There are a lot of sections in it, including several, iirc, that deal with the limitations of the original Voting Rights Act ‘federal preclearance of laws’ provisions and re-authorizations, if I have it right; but more as well.
From the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights on Shelby Co. v. Holder:
‘In April 2010, Shelby County, Alabama (a largely white suburb of Birmingham) filed suit in federal court in Washington, DC asking that Section 5 of the 1965 Voting Rights Act be declared unconstitutional. Shelby County, Alabama v. Holder, No. 1:10-cv-00651 (D.D.C.). The county asserts that Congress exceeded its constitutional authority when, in 2006, it reauthorized Section 5 for another 25 years. On June 25, 2013, the Supreme Court ruled that the coverage formula reauthorized by Congress is unconstitutional.
Section 5 requires that certain States and localities, located primarily in the South and Southwest, obtain federal preclearance for all voting changes before they may be implemented. To obtain preclearance, a jurisdiction must demonstrate that the change neither has a discriminatory purpose nor a discriminatory effect.’ [snip]
In its 5-4 decision, the Supreme Court held that Section 4 of the Voting Rights Act, which establishes the formula that determines which jurisdictions must comply with Section 5 preclearance, is unconstitutional and can no longer be used. In the majority opinion, Chief Justice Roberts writes, “We issue no holding on [Section] 5 itself, only on the coverage formula. Congress may draft another formula based on current conditions.“
With the help of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights and other civil rights group, Congress has seemingly reauthorized it every five years, so the discussion must have split some fine legal hairs, but I can’t claim to understand much of it.
Whether or not one chooses to vote, or to vote only on ballot initiatives, local races, and not for federal races, people should not be robbed of their voting rights for any reason, much less this sort of partisan/classist bullshit. If those of us of conscience and principles can keep applying leverage to create a better and just world… (Playing for Change, live at Folsom)”
(cross-posted at My.Firedoglake.com)
davidly
Greyson Smythe
LeMoyne
juliania2
ohiobarbarian
stephenadavis1
wendyedavis
café babylon 
Almost renamed justantagonist to justtellingus, (emphasis the third syllable).
Sheeesh! What a piece of work.
Seriously, close to home is where the grassroots grow. Keeping manure out of our wells, I guess is as worthy a cause as any.
Didn’t know you ran a campaign.
Skipped the WI gubernatorial debate tonight, will get enough of the post game analysis soon enough. Can’t bear to listen to a sociopath lying, live on the air.
er…is that a reference to cunnilingus er just ‘tongue-i-ness’?
yah, was a campaign organizer at least a dozen times, county only, but i got a job organizing the entire western slope of colorado for josie heath-D. my last stand, actually. he lost, as did all the peeps i ever ran campaigns for, as far as i can remember. and to a creep of a man, ish. went to state D conventions several times, kinda exciting, and even once for jesse jackson. that was a fun one, getting ranchers to support him at the county level. reminds me of the best quote during that campaign season (he supported farms and agricultural parity). heard in a café:
“Me, i’m gonna vote for the nigger.”
can’t blame you for skipping the debate; some witness-bearings are just meaningless torture.
heard this today; damn, i love it! night; i’m knackered.
Love the small body acoustic 4 string (tenor) guitar near the end.
Follow up reporting about Judge Posner and future SCOTUS influences.
http://m.jsonline.com/news/appeals-court-dissenters-blister-states-voter-id-law-b99368734z1-278806271.html
the pace of his harmonics was startling, eh? i forget their names, but two of them recorded with playing for change; stellar!.
ah, yes; photo ID makes voting cleaner, prompting more peeps to vote. good on posner for calling crap on voter fraud. looked around this morning for citations debunking that, and found ‘true vote’ discredited. it’s the breitbarts of the world who push the theme. arrgh. glad you left the link with our friend. (so i got the reference wrong up yonder?)
This old lady’s returning to her roots as an observer, but bravo wendye for your days running campaigns for worthy candidates. The subject brings me to a link to Hone’s challenge to Parliament as he leaves:
http://livenews.co.nz/2014/10/03/manas-challenge-to-the-51st-parliament/
You might have seen this already – shades of Jesse Jackson I thought. My older kids were caught up enthusiastically by his run (Jesse’s, I mean.)
Sadly, the few campaign commercials I see from our Udall he’s pushing his devotion to the military. Ugh.
Augh, SCROTUS; the epitome of DEMiserepubilkan mirrorspeak.
Sigh
I was an Official Green Party Observer in the 2004 Ohio Re-Count. So much can be said about then and this story. Which is the logical conclusion of what happened in Ohio 2004. However “liberal” “progressive” Democrats do not seem interested in what I observed there in 2004 or my analysis of it.
I weary of the blatant cowardice and complicity of “progressive” Democrats and their friends who work to keep true left corralled in the “Veal Pen.”
Remember that phrase?
17 December 2004
by Michael Cavlan RN
Re my article written in Ohio, during the 2004 Re-Count.
This is both pieces. Took me a while to find them.
These are the actual reports that I made from Ohio 2004
Two part report. The second part is the most compelling.
PART ONE
—————————————————–
Live Report From Ohio Recount
————————————————————
Friday, 17 December 2004
by Michael Cavlan RN
Summary: there are stunning developments opening up in the Ohio Re-Count currently
underway. This is a live report coming to you from Seneca County, Ohio from your
intrepid Indy Media Journalist.
There are a total of 10 people from Minnesota that we know of here in Ohio, fighting
for the principle of democracy. This includes Eli Anthony and Mark Halverson from
Minneapolis, Kurt, a lawyer from the twin cities, Burt from St Paul and myself.
This is the story of two of the observers, Levi Anthony and myself. The below are
the facts and experiences as best as we understand them.
We recieved the call Friday that a number of Republican attempts to stop the re-count
had failed and so the recount was on. We were given our assaignment, after a period
of confusion, while we were driving up on Monday. We were to assist the Regional
Co-ordinator, Noca Timassy who was in charge of Erie, Seneca, Huron and Sandusky
Counties.
After we showed up late that night, we were brought to a local hotel and put up
for the night. Early the next morning the recount began.
Seneca County Board of Elections was our destination. After a cordial welcome and
introduction to the Democrat and Republican observers, the work began.
Problems began almost immediatly. The pricincts had already been chosen by the Board.
While not an issue for our count, we found out from Mark Halverson that is had been
an issue elsewhere and will be part of the basis of potential legal challenges in
the future, if needed.
More significant is the issue of David Cobb and others experience with technicians
from Triad Manufacturers who built the optiscanners. apparently Cobb and others.
We have to leave our location but will follow up later.
PART TWO
————————————————————
Stolen Election-Lost Democracy: Report From Ohio
————————————————————
Monday, 20 December 2004
by Michael Cavlan RN
Summary: The evidence is mounting that this election, just as the last one, had
been stolen. What makes this one even more stunning is the brazen nature in which
it had been stolen. Add to this the nature of how it had been stolen, with the possible
use of manipulated machines as well as the silence from the media and the leadership
of the Democratic Party. Many observers have noted the common feeling that the democratic
process is slipping away right in front of us.
This is the second part of this Indy Media Journalist and Official Observer for
the Green Party’s David Cobb Re-count effort in Ohio.
We met them everywhere. People who were angry, who knew that something very wrong
had happened in the last election. Typical reactions were such as the young waitress
who served us in Dianne’s Restaraunt in Sandusky, a town in Seneca County, Ohio.
She approached us after we entered Dianne’s to eat and strategize our efforts for
the re-count. Eli Anthony, Noca Timassy and myself were seated at a booth, bedecked
in bright orange scarf, hat and wearing our Green Party Ohio Election Re-count team
buttons. She asked if we were helping in the Re-count effort underway. When we answered
that we were, she thanked us profusely and also spoke of her anger. She, like many
there, knew that something had gone very wrong in this election. They understood
that the exit polls did not match the result in the presidential race, even thought
they did match all the other races. We met many others like her, all over our designated
area. The stench of a corrupted election was everywhere.
We also met the Erie County head of the NAACP. We heard stories of voter intimidation
and where minority communities had few machines, causing folks to stand for hours,
often in the rain even as other whiter and more affluent communities had no such
problem. Even more damning were the reports that there were voting machines lying
unused in storage containers in Colombus, Ohio. However we discovered that things
were to get much worse.
Tuesday, we had been at the Board of Elections Headquarters for Seneca County. There,
while we had a few problems such as the “random” pick of pricincts already
being chosen before observers were present, none the less it had gone fairly well.
In Seneca, we watched and had explained that the ballots were opened in a locked
storage facility and needed a key from both the Republican and Democratic secretaries
to be opened, thereby ensuring integrity of the ballot access.
On Wednesday, our focus was the media and our team talked to some local media including
a newspaper from Sandusky. Later we went to the local library where I filed my initial
Indy Media report. By this stage we had already been hearing some of the reports
from Greene, Lucas, Hocking and other Counties. We also taped an interview with
the local co-ordinator Noca Timassy, Eli Anthony and myself which Noca promised
would be edited and appear on the local cable access. Noca promised that she would
send a copy, when finished so that we could also screen on our own cable access.
Later that evening we recieved reports of David Cobb, Green Party candidate and
other observers personally witnessing “technicians” from the Triad Company
approach them, while they were auditing a machine in Hocking and other Counties.
These “technicians” stated that they had to change a battery in the machine.
In the proccess of changing the battery, some were observed removing other parts
from the Triad machines. He was challenged but since observers had to legal authority
to actually stop a count or even contest actions such as this, the individual in
question left. Even more appalling was reports from Cobb of the same individual
approaching them to “change the battery” after the team started to check
another machine that was counting another county.Apparently the only ones with actual
authority were the Member of the Board of Election Committee. They did nothing to
challenge the technicians in question or their questionable behavior. Triad of course
produce machines that count the optiscan ballots and have reportedly close ties
to the Republican Party. We can report though, that after Cobb and others testified
at the Conyers hearings, that an investigation has been opened into voter fraud
by both the FBI and local authorities. We can watch this development with interest.
We also recieved reports of individuals who had been approaching Board of Elections
offices in other parts of the state after they were closed late at night. In this
instance, while observers were watching one office, an unknown individual was seen
attempting to enter the office. When challenged by an observer, who had been watching
the office from a distance for any irregularities, the person in question mysteriously
stated ” hey, we all make mistakes” and then left. After this incident,
there was a statewide call for us to watch our local Board of Elections offices.
Our team went to Eire County and we did not see anything out of the ordinary but
since we had to report there the next morning, we had to leave later that night.
But we did have local people who would “drive by from time to time” and
keep an eye out. It would have to do because we would have a big day tommorrow.
Also there is the reports of other observers experience in Greene County, to the
south. In one instance Katrina Sumner arrived at a Board of Elections office the
day before and was stunned to find it wide open. After calling it in, she testified
to the Conyers hearing in Colombus, Ohio. After she testified, she recieved threating
phone calls, from individuals who told her that she was at a variety of locations
and that they were watching her. Later she had the tires on her car slashed.
8:00 am we arrived at the Offices of the Erie County Board of Elections. While the
workers there were very helpful and willing to assist, we experienced problems immediately.
The first thing was that the boxes of ballots were already out on the table. There
had been no observer present to watch the ballots removal from a secure location.
At 8:07 the team of Green party Observers made our first objection, that the random
pricinct selection, with observers present had not been made. Like other places
in the state, the pick of pricincts to do a hand count, to represent a 3% total
of the state had already been chosen. This means that by definition it was not a
random count. The Republican Board member, Chris Marinko over-ruled us immediately.
The count went on.
Then Board member Marinko called, in a very angry tone, an “emergency meeting”
of the Board. There he was heard to make comments such as “I can’t believe
we have to do this shit”, “do we have to do this Green Re-count”,
and to the Democratic lawyer present ” We could never be Green’s, we have too
much money and we like our big houses and SUV’s way to much”. It must be noted
here that the Democratic Party lawyer specializes in corporate law. During this
and later events Democratic Party Board of Elections Chairman, Dave Gasse sat passively
on. Marinko was quickly to earn the title “the Little Prick” from the
members of the Green Party Election Observer Team.
We were also to hear later that Chairman Gisse was ” about as useless as shit”
from a constituant. While Gisse was the Chairman, it was obvious that Marinko was
really the one who was “wearing the pants” in Eire County. It was already
turning interesting in Eire County.
Then we began the Logic and Accuracy Test of the optiscanner machine. This machine
was manufactured by AIS and so was not a Triad, but troubles were to develop. At
first it appeared that a test deck had already been run Nov 14th and obviously we
questioned this. We wanted a test run done in front of us observers and they did
indeed do this. But upon further questioning, we found some details that upon further
analysis may prove to be troubling. The reason that there had been a “test
run” done Nov 14th was that there had been a new chip placed in the machine
at this date. This begs the question as to why there were new chips added to this
machine Nov 14th, after the election but before the re-count, especially knowing
that the re-count was going to be done. The explaination may be innocent, but it
will take others, more knowledgably of the AIS machinary than the Observer Team
to rectify this potential problem.
Upon completion of the hand count of the selected pricincts #2 and #41 of Eire County,
the machine did it’s count. For a minute we were all stunned because the count was
off. The Democratic lawyer and Eli Anthony demanded a full hand re-count of the
entire county, but after some deliberation it was decided to do another hand count,
which the board could do, according to procedure. The second hand count matched
the machines total. Of interest though was that the operators of the machines, workers
for the board made the comment that “oh, the machine may be off because I forgot
to press the button for the overvotes” as a way to explain the descrepancy.
Observer Anthony from the Green Party team raised an objection that this was never
rectified but it was ignored by the board.
Another thing that we observed was the number of votes that were not originally
counted because they had been filled in by pen. Apparently when the bubble was filled
by pen, the machine would reject them. By the end of the count Kerry would recieve
an additional 17 votes and Bush 4 more. Each of these were filled in with pencil
by Board members, therby ensuring that it would count. We were curious as to why
these had not been done the first time, during the Nov 2nd Election. We also noted
the large number of overvotes, where the voter had filled in more than one selection
for president, therby nullifying that vote. Of interest was that the vast majority
of overvotes were Kerry/Nader/other votes. Very few were Bush overvotes, even though
the ballot had two other conservatives, the Constitution Party and Libertarian Party
candidates. There is no way to verify if there had been any intentional ” additional
filling” of bubbles by unknown others.
It must be noted here that Ohio’s Secretary of State, the person directly responsible
for mmaintaining the integrity of the voting proccess is none other than Ken Blackwell.
Blackwell, a Republican, is no ordinary Secretary of State. As a member of the Council
on Foreign Relations, many believe that Blackwell has experiences in subverting
the democratic proccess elsewhere. Places such as Venezuala, where it is suspected
that the Council on Foreign Relations helped foster the attempted coup of popular
Venezualian president, Hugo Chavez. This could very easily be a case of the chicken
truely coming home to roost.
Finally, the re-count was finished at 4:00 pm. The staff at the board had been very
friendly and transparent and we observers got on well with them. perhaps they, like
us were “not rich with big houses and SUV’s”. After a quick interview
with the local, Republican friendly newspaper, a lsat dinner with Noca at Dianne’s,
Eli and I were off home to the twin cities.
Since coming home, more has become evident. Apart from the almost complete silence
in the “mainstream” corporate media, apparently we are now hearing that
even thought there are now serious concerns that the entire democratic proccess
for the future is at risk, the reason that the Kerry campaign will not speak out
is because of their fear that they will be portrayed as “whiney loosers”.
The media has stated that they are not reporting it due to Kerry remaining silent
and Kerry remains silent because of his fear of the reactions in the media to him
speaking out. It is a self perpetuating cycle of political cowardice by both the
leadership of the Democratic Party and of the media.
Our democracy is at risk and we deserve better than this. We should not accept these
“chickens coming home to roost”. It is now our job to reclaim our right
to vote and become involved in the democratic proccess. The Democratic Party and
the Corporate Media might be afraid but we, like many in Ohio are not afraid. We
are angry and will not stand idly by, while our democracy starts to slip away from
us. We will claim it back, despite the cowardice of the so called leadership, or
lack there-of, of the Democratic Party along with the complicity of the corporate
media.
Minneapolis / St. Paul IMC: http://twincities.indymedia.org/
Michael Cavlan RN
Green Party
Candidate US Senate 2006
well, factor in kagan to scrotus republican-speak on some issues, bruce.
interesting and touch piece f hone’s, juliania. i can see why he chose to feature that supporter’s letter. fun about your sons having been jesse jackson fans, and what a shame he got busted for some of his anti-semitic crap. (i mean that he used that verbiage, not that it was discovered…)
oy, michael; interesting posts on voting irregularites, but rather ubiquitous stories/reports ignored, eh? add in the black box voting machine tampering evidence, and ugh! small wonder some folks choose *not to vote*.
Michael, technology has improved dramatically since the ’04 election and now there is no need to manipulate individual election machines when the tabulators are an easier target for corruption. Here in NM our elections are tabulated by a company in Spain, the ultimate outsourcing.
Democrats used to be the masters of election fraud and ballot box stuffing in the old paper era but now the Repugs are the masters of the electronic election era but the end results are just more Kabuki, would we have been better off with Kerry as our Glorious Leader?
Democracy is dead and dancing in this Ghost Dance of elections will not bring back liberty or the buffalo.
bugger; i lost my whole comment…
yes, democracy is dead, but also because of obama extending the notion of bush’s unitary executive (with no pushback), citizens united, a corrupt congress and revolving doors from wealth funds to ‘public service’, untold numbers of lobbyists, the coming tpp, i forget all the ones i’d listed.
but still, there is some vestige of democracy left in local elections and state ballot issues, as i said in the OP. meaning: no one should be disenfranchized of their right to vote *if they care to*.
were you possibly lurking during the discussions here concerning snowden’s and greenwald’s stated views of ‘democracy’? no one here agreed with my take, for sure, but i would have been interested in your take. (although i’m not even sure which thread it was on; topics range far and wide here.) if needed, i might be able to dig the discussion up thru the comments sectin, but jeezum crow, it seems it was a while back in time.
nice to see you, amigo west. and i did see your other comment on email, but will need to respond a bit later.
0, I think mirrorspeak is apropos Alle halfascist PNACis, including Kagan (see this):
http://www.politico.com/magazine/politico50/2014/victoria-nuland-47.html#.VD24fhbwLIU
Both he and wiffer, so enamored of “democracy”; that they’d DESPOTUSly putsch Ukraine back into forties fascism to lmpose “It” !
it was not just the u.s who putched ukraine at maidan: read: NED, USAID, Center Ua. Pierre Omidyar and friends. read at
http://my.firedoglake.com/jpsottile/2014/02/28/things-are-getting-weird-at-first-look-media/
yeah, i lost some friends there and beyond… and so it goes.
your email seems to have changed? just got one back.
So many turncoats, so little time … Left! InDeed, who turned the spigot on Greenwald’s “fireworks’ finale”; Omidyar, last summer? But as I just commented to TomDispatch, US haz an equal number of black ops employees to the 2 MILLION in “legitimate” civil service; Alles at the beck and call of the Bush Company (et al) crime syndicate coupsters!
was there ever the fireworks fire rockets delight? the timing suggested not, to me. can’t remember what folks thought it was, but… as i remember, it was rather puny. but first look is on hold until…a few years from now, according to pierre.
https://firstlook.org/2014/07/28/update/
Insane LOL: “to experiment, innovate and overcome existing obstacles and to make it easier for journalists to deliver the transformative stories we all need.” ! Were I still a whistleblower, the intercept/firstlook’d be The LAST place I’d approach!! That quote prompts cognitive dissonance right out of “The Corpspath” powerpoint ‘mission statement’, 2004 (my retirement declaration of Independence year!)
Marcy Wheeler escaped the clutches of Omidyar soon after joining the First Look faux free press. She has never really explained that rapid rejection of money and glory but we are all lucky she retained her cred with that move.
What are we to do without a benevolent Billionaire to back the best and brightest in their search for the truth?
she did indeed, west, but said it was an amicable split, but that she hadn’t time to keep emptywheel and contribute there. she definitely defends gg from questions or critiques on twitter (eep, that stuff will lkill a person).
alexa obrien (covered the manning trials, created a searchable database, etc., was big in Occupy) said she had turned down gg’s offer, but he denied it, lol. it was quite a spat, but given that i have high regard for her, i did in fact believe her side of the story.
bruce: pretty puerile writing, isn’t it? but then, i’d considered gg’s “my finale is coming soon! put stars by it!” grand-standing jabber in the ny times, waPo, interviews was pretty creepy, myownself.
Just in time for Hollowe’en (aka mid-terminal selection season) and the self-0botomized zombie partisans are out in farce.
http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/missmarple/57741/u-s-airstrikes-prevent-genocide-and-carry-out-a-moral-committment
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/in-defense-of-obama-20141008?page=5 (Krugman, feinting with DEM praise)
But for sheer Ebola creep, Over THERE is bloggading direct SW airlines flights, from Tampa, straight to DALLAS!
Wendy, the timing of Marcy’s escape from First Look was telling it happened just before the Afghan cell-phone spying censorship. GG and the other people there are her friends so I never expected her to dis them and I think it had more to do with the editor Omidyar brought in, some clown from Gawker I believe.
It took some courage for her to walk away from the large financial rewards offered by Omidyar and keep her self-respect and cred untainted.
I don’t think judging GG or the others who stayed too harshly is productive because they need the protection and security offered by a powerful Oligarch although their credibility is forever tainted.
ay yi yi, bruce. can’t read at smirking chimp; the red and yellow combo leaves me with a great hegg-ache, making it hard to read herr krugman. even scanning, all of it ghastly, but his section on dodd-frank…frankly makes me want to box his ears for its prevarications….or should i say ‘fucking big deal partisan prevarications’?
and it sure put me in mid of this gasbag waste of brain cells who writes at a site i used to inhabit…until i quit, and then was banned from even commenting. same dude writes three-foot long diatribes against cornell west once a week, to boot.
http://dagblog.com/reader-blogs/barack-obama-hands-down-one-greatest-presidents-nation-has-ever-had-period-18612
westie, you may be referring to jon cook, and while i don’t remember the timing, it took wikiLeaks to name the nation. was that the fireworks finale? it was something equally pedestrian.
it’s not that i fault them for staying with pierre, but i do find a lot of fault with greenwald claiming that he’d ‘never checked into pierre’s financial ventures’. bull.shit. he just didn’t are. an i care a lot what he and snowden imagine democracy looks like, and that gg has said that he supports any kind of government, left, center, or right: as long as it opposes the nsa (which neither he nor snowden oppose, save for ‘bulk collection’. ‘there are bad guys, you know!’ Pfffft.
but thank you for sharing your opinion, srsly.
0 and his Obamapologists are cowards and cons; contrast West’s “hush-puppy” boots on the ground in a picket charge of the “skirmish line” for justice: a real hero among US in St. Louie and coast-to-coast!
http://www.sott.net/article/287376-Its-only-freedom-and-democracy-when-we-say-it-is-Mass-arrests-in-St-Louis-as-protest-movement-grows
brother cornell was there indeed, and ‘committed assault on police officers’ and got arrested with a number of other clergy (mainly black? i’ve forgotten). i may have linked to an instagram of his speech on my OP, but don’t count on my memory. :)