DemCat's blog

From Brad Friedman:

This story is unfrickin'-believable. Or maybe it isn't. It took place in Thor Hearne country, after all. And though she didn't get arrested and thrown in jail, a similar incident happened to the Missouri Secretary of State during the 2006 election.

A voter in Kansas City on Tuesday --- one I happen to know, because he's an Election Integrity advocate in the Show Me State --- was arrested and sent to jail after he refused to show a driver's license at the polling place before attempting to vote during the state's Primary Election.   Read the full story here.­

In case you missed this nugget in all the news about the sale of St. Louis-based Anheuser-Busch, John and Cindy McCain are the Big Winners in the foreign takeover of our favorite hometown beer brewer.

From the Wall Street Journal:

"Mrs. McCain’s company owns between $2.5 million to $5 million in Anheuser stock..."

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THIS JUST IN:

Rod Jetton's presser today addressing Peter Kinder's recent brush with "ethics" apparently threw some tough talk back at Poor ol' Peter.   Basically calling Kinder a hypocrite, Jetton revealed Kinder's attempt to hire Jetton on his short-lived gubernatorial bid.

More via Rosenbaum..
 

Thank you to Robin Carnahan, House and Senate Democrats, and Missouri voters and community groups statewide who worked together, against the odds, to preserve our constitutional right to vote.

Together, you achieved a great victory for all voters, and for democracy.

Delbert Scott finally says what we’ve all known.  The mean GOP knows it might not control the legislature and Governor’s mansion so, before they are ousted, they are going to force through a constitutional amendment to weaken our voting rights, as well as an extremely unpopular accompanying measure that could disenfranchise as many as 240,000 registered, law-abiding Missouri voters – including the elderly, disabled, poor, students, nuns, Lillie Lewis and Kathleen Weinschenk.  From CDT's Rosenbaum:  Story Continued »

Today, our courageous Secretary of State Robin Carnahan penned a guest column about protecting the right to vote for the Huffington post.  Read the whole thing here:

Elections Can't Really be Fair, Free and Accurate if Eligible Voters Can't Vote

 

This afternoon, the Missouri House of Representatives Republican leadership continues to try and push through a bill to change the constitution to allow for overly-restrictive election reforms to keep certain eligible voters from voting.

Well, here we are, two years later...this time in a presidential election year.   Despite a Missouri Supreme Court ruling that overturned the costly 2006 photo ID law because it would effectively disenfranchise as many as 240,000 registered voters while doing nothing to prevent non-existent voter fraud, the House and Senate Republican leadership suddenly seem positioned to again push through another regressive measure to make it harder for registered, law abiding Missourians to vote.

The last time, GOP Senate Pro Tem Mike Gibbons allowed a rarely-used procedural move in the middle of the night to shut off debate about the highly-controversial photo ID measure so it would pass and “punish” democrats.   Story Continued »

Another important story on the GOP conspiracy to use the Department of Justice in order to hold on to Republican power: 

Efforts to stop `voter fraud' may have curbed legitimate voting

In this case, the story centers on Hans Von Spakovsky, a Civil Rights division appointee/partner in crime with other voter fraud myth pushers Brad Schlozman, Thor Hearne, Bob Popper, and Karl Rove.

This story has major Missouri overtones...  Story Continued »

In case you missed it earlier this week, make sure you watch Fox STL's Elliott Davis on "You Paid For It."

The story is shocking as it points out the huge amount of taxpayer dollars last year wasted on the GOP's Photo ID to Vote scheme.

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Campaign against alleged voter fraud fuels political tempest
By Greg Gordon
McClatchy Newspapers

some excerpts:

WASHINGTON - For six years, the Bush administration, aided by Justice Department political appointees, has pursued an aggressive legal effort to restrict voter turnout in key battleground states in ways that favor Republican political candidates.

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For years, the Missouri (and national) GOP has been crying voter fraud and the press simply repeat their talking points in their stories. By doing so, the press has been used like a dishcloth in order to help build the case for regressive election changes that would make it harder for voters – especially poor, disabled, minority, and elderly voters – to vote. (Most of these folks aren’t Republican voters, so Republicans would prefer they not vote.)

For those of you who haven’t figured it out yet, here’s a refresher how the national GOP election reform spin strategy cycle works:

Republicans continually cry, “voter fraud is rampant!” --> Media outlets continually repeat and print this quote --> Public continually hears and reads “voter fraud is rampant!" from the press and GOP --> Perception of voter fraud is perpetuated, undermining voter confidence --> Republicans call for regressive election reforms, such as photo ID legislation, to address people’s lack of confidence in elections due to “rampant voter fraud”

Take, for example, Rosenbaum’s article today in the Columbia Daily Tribune on this year’s GOP attempt to pass another unconstitutional photo ID bill:  Story Continued »

Out with the Good Friday trash…DOJ announced that another top US DOJ staffer, Senior Counsel Monica Goodling, resigned amidst the White House/DOJ/US Attorney/Corruption Cases/Voter Fraud national scandal. (also known as the Bush/Rove/Aschroft/Gonzalez/Cummins/Blunt2/Graves3/Schlozman/Bond/Hanaway/Wood/etc. scandal). You may recall Goodling was the one who took the Fifth in front of Congress so she wouldn’t go to jail.

From the Washington Post:

Throughout the week, Gonzales has been reaching out to lawmakers, predominantly House Republicans. Aides on Capitol Hill confirmed that the attorney general spoke with Rep. Chris Cannon (Utah), the top Republican on a Judiciary subcommittee, and to Rep. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), the minority whip and a close ally of Christian conservatives...

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In case you missed it, Salon has another comprehensive piece on the politicization of the US Justice Department and its mission under the Bush administration to create issues and push institutional election reforms that will create a legal framework to ensure Republican victories.

Bush's long history of politicizing justice
It's not only the U.S. attorneys who are threatened by partisan politics. Since Day One, the Bush administration has been quietly dismantling the DOJ's Civil Rights Division.

The piece is important because it helps shed more light on what’s been happening behind the curtain at Justice over the past few years. It’s no wonder that folks like Delbert Scott and Bill Deeken feel the need to keep pushing regressive photo ID schemes here in Missouri, when the propaganda and orchestration is coming straight from the top.

Among other things, the piece mentions:

• the calculated shift from professional attorneys to political hacks in the Civil Rights Division under Bush and Ashcroft’s DOJ
• the plan to design redistricting schemes to secure Republican victories
• the reverse of long standing policies to support photo ID legislation in order to suppress voter turnout
• and more

READ THE WHOLE STORY HERE:

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