Gov. Scott Walker has been trailing in his re-election bid, so it must be a relief to him to be able to fall back on voter suppression. But there is a new wrinkle, which is voter intimidation by armed pro-Walker goons. The Wisconsin Poll Watcher Militia is not just going to try to look intimidating at polling places; they are actually checking to see who signed the petitions to recall Walker a short time back, identify which ones are Democrats, and investigate them. And if any of those people have outstanding warrants, the militia will not just call law enforcement but will follow them to their homes — I think that’s called “stalking” — and then turn them over to law enforcement. Digby writes,
They are using information from a website a volunteer has set up to identify people who signed recall petitions. He’s created subsets of those with tax issues, those who are Democratic donors, those who (they claim) are sex offenders, etc., and they are listing the names in a searchable format that includes offenses as minor as speeding. Rush Limbaugh even gave them a shout-out the other day, saying, â€Thanks to his hard work, we finally know who is not paying their fair share of taxes in Wisconsin.†(That’s not actually true; this list only includes those who signed the recall petitions. It’s fair to guess that there are plenty of Scott Walker fans who aren’t big on paying their fair share of taxes.)
Are you putting up with this, Wisconsin? Seriously?
In the Kansas Senate race, Republican Pat Roberts is trailing independent Greg Orman, and the GOP is doubling down 0n the nasty. This is a critical race for keeping the Senate from changing hands. Part of Roberts problem is that he ran a scorched-earth campaign to win his primary against a Teabagger candidate, and the Kansas baggers have not forgiven him. He may yet persuade the Kansas baggers that Orman is a secret communist or worse, an Obama supporter, however. So we may yet see what baggers are made of. Um, be afraid.
What if one of them “stands his ground” and shoots the stalker?
If you have no new ideas or any good ideas, you have to resort to cheating to win.
I’m waiting for the first state to put paint color-swatches at the entrances to polling places that point to the shade of “Antique White,” with a sign that says, “You must be THIS white to vote! All others, go home!! NO VOTES FOR YOU!!!”
I thought it would be Texas or Arizona, or some other Southern state, but it might turn out to be Wisconsin.
In Missouri, the sign would probably be Authentic White. This state beats anything I have ever seen re: racism, greed, and several other things that are almost unbelievable. I keep looking around to be sure I’m not in Tennessee, Mississippi, or the like. I’m glad I’m old and not gonna live much longer. It don’t look good, dudes!!
â€Thanks to his hard work, we finally know who is not paying their fair share of taxes in Wisconsin.â€
I always thought that fat fuck loved the tax cheats, oh I guess only the one percent types and the multi-national corporations, fucking fat ass hypocrite!
Well it looks like the war-pimps got their war, I can’t decide if I’m disappointed in Obama, he seems to have been steam-rolled by the neo-cons? I guess if we have to have this war I’d rather have Obama running the show than some right-wing hack.
I signed it but I don’t have any outstanding warrants. So I guess they’re not going to come and see me. However, these aren’t the smartest people in the world so I wouldn’t be surprised to see them. Who they’re really targeting is inner city Milwaukee, meaning Black Milwaukee. I don’t think they have the stones to go down there and start abducting people. It would be fun to watch them try, however.
I hope all this voter intimidation backfires on Walker and his gang. I hope the young people out there will fight to keep these things from happening or they will wake up with no country left. Like Buddhacrone, I am an old woman. I fought in the fight for Civil Rights and Women’s rights. I’m tired. BTW, I agree with Maha that Ken Burns’ Roosevelts documentary was very good and would enlighten a lot of young people on important history if they would have watched it.
Jeez, the only thing missing from that story is brown shirts and red, white and black armbands. Those are some old-school tactics, right there.
Just read someplace that the group is only targeting milwaukee, Racine and Kenosha. In other words, Black Wisconsin. But they claim they’re not racist. On a more positive note, the UW system will start issuing IDs to students which will be acceptable as ID at the voting booths in November. We’ve been working on getting my son registered and then an absentee ballot since he’s attending a private school two hours away. It’s been a major hassle and if you’re not hyper-motivated, and we obviously are, you would just say the hell with it.
Voter suppression is, for lack of a better word, immoral. The target group is black voters in three urban areas, if BB has it right. (And I would bet on that.) Which begs the question, how does anyone rationalize that blacks in America aren’t entitled to vote. I know the fictional excuse that elections are being stolen by illegal aliens but black illegal aliens????
I know it will probably escape the scrutiny it deserves, but ‘True the Vote’ is a purely partisan group dedicated to preventing the votes for the opposition from counting. There’s no justice, no morality, in their tactics or targets. The god news is that minorities who are frequently apathetic about voting are energized by attempts to prevent them from voting. The strategy does backfire sometimes but the tactics will become more aggressive, more violent until minority voters are too frightened to vote or the federal police intervene.