[Updated 8:59 p.m.] Only one Wisconsin political party - - the once Grand Old Party - - is dedicated to suppressing citizens' access to the ballot. The former party of Abraham Lincoln, and long ago more progressive party of Teddy Roosevelt, is now a party of secret money and process thievery seeking permanent power.
Look at how Walker and his legislative allies are using the law to manipulate and curtail, not to encourage voting - - thereby rigging as best they can the 2014 gubernatorial election:
* Early, absentee voting hours have been reduced twice since 2011 - - first cutting out one week, then all weekends.
* Voter ID requirements have been added - - and current student ID's don't count.
* The DMV offices where official ID's can be officially researched and/or approved are open only two days a week in most counties.
* Bogus mailings to registered voters have surfaced telling these voters their registrations do not exist.
And on top of all these tactics of confusion, hassle and mandated and wasteful personal expense:
* An armed, pro-Walker militia says it will intimidate voters at the polls - - voters who have overcome all the other hurdles and chaff thrown up before them.
Update: there are suggestions that the militia story was a hoax. Well, who thinks it's funny?
Remember that Walker's office got advance notice that armed guards without Wisconsin licenses were on their way to guard publicly-open forest land near the proposed iron mine site in NW Wisconsin. And the office did not discourage their illegal presence.
Wisconsin, America, 2011 - - 2014.
Win an election, Walkerites, but lose your democracy.
Look at how Walker and his legislative allies are using the law to manipulate and curtail, not to encourage voting - - thereby rigging as best they can the 2014 gubernatorial election:
* Early, absentee voting hours have been reduced twice since 2011 - - first cutting out one week, then all weekends.
* Voter ID requirements have been added - - and current student ID's don't count.
* The DMV offices where official ID's can be officially researched and/or approved are open only two days a week in most counties.
* Bogus mailings to registered voters have surfaced telling these voters their registrations do not exist.
And on top of all these tactics of confusion, hassle and mandated and wasteful personal expense:
* An armed, pro-Walker militia says it will intimidate voters at the polls - - voters who have overcome all the other hurdles and chaff thrown up before them.
Update: there are suggestions that the militia story was a hoax. Well, who thinks it's funny?
Remember that Walker's office got advance notice that armed guards without Wisconsin licenses were on their way to guard publicly-open forest land near the proposed iron mine site in NW Wisconsin. And the office did not discourage their illegal presence.
Wisconsin, America, 2011 - - 2014.
Win an election, Walkerites, but lose your democracy.
Don't forget our Dear Governor discussed with his staff the possibility of having agitators planted in the peaceful protest after he "dropped the bomb."
ReplyDeleteHis reasoning for not: may cause political pressure to negotiate a deal with his "opposition."
Always thinking ahead he is.
Divide. Conquer.
The militia plan is less a hoax, I think, than wishful thinking on their part. I know some of them, and they would love to be able to carry it off. Stupid, angry people.
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