Voter Intimidation: A Comparison
[UPDATE BY PATTERICO: Welcome, Huffington Post readers. You have been lied to by Jason Linkins. This post is not how this blog reacted to Obama winning. If you truly want to see how we reacted, try reading this open letter to Obama. Or this post, in which I say that Obama is a good man trying to do what he thinks is right for the country.
Those are the posts Jason Linkins would have linked to if he were being honest with you. Thank you and have a nice day. -- PATTERICO]
[Guest post by DRJ]
Republicans complained about voter intimidation in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania this morning. Via Hot Air, it turned out to be two Black Panthers – one with a nightstick – who were guarding the polling site doors and reportedly were intimidating voters.
Meanwhile, Democrats complained about voter intimidation in Sugar Land, Texas. Via the Houston Chronicle, it turned out to be “election monitors from the U.S. Department of Justice” who were there to ensure “a fair and open election.”
UPDATE: According to Tim Robbins, it’s intimidation if the poll workers can’t find your name on the voter list and ask you to move out of the way:
“On Real Time with Bill Maher last month, Robbins seemingly foresaw his fate when he urged thwarted voters to “refuse provisional ballots. They’re throwing those out. They can throw those out. If that’s your last resort, take it, but fight in the polling place to vote. It’s your right as an American.” And fight he did, even refusing to move at the behest of a poll worker who threatened to have an officer remove him. “Is this some kind of intimidation? I’m taking this as intimidation,” the Tapeheads star reportedly remarked.”
– DRJ
To Democrats, voting for other than Democrats is illegal, immoral, and justification for physical mayhem upon the non-Democrat. Also, ballotbox stuffing for Democrat is in their genes.
Comment by PCD — 11/4/2008 @ 1:11 pm
Having any type of law enforcement official within 10 miles of a polling place is prima facie evidence of voter intimidation. Threatening them with a nightstick, not so much.
Comment by JD — 11/4/2008 @ 1:18 pm
It was almost surreal to watch the reporting on the black panther dudes standing there. It seems the “leader” is quite a guy.
Welcome to post-racial America!
Comment by CW Desiato — 11/4/2008 @ 1:20 pm
DRJ – Can’t believe your taking any of these complaints at face value.
Comment by Oiram — 11/4/2008 @ 1:33 pm
So, Oiram, you have no issue with an armed thug standing outside a polling place?
I know that’s a long-standing Democrat tradition (all that’s changed are the skin tones), but, really, wouldn’t it a nice tradition to end?
Comment by Rob Crawford — 11/4/2008 @ 1:47 pm
I’m pretty sure it would be ill-received if I went down to my polling place similarly attired.
Comment by CW Desiato — 11/4/2008 @ 1:51 pm
Oiram – Did you bother to watch any of the video?
Comment by JD — 11/4/2008 @ 1:53 pm
That local Fox reporter went back and interviewed the New post-racial Black Panther that remained behind. It was priceless.
Comment by JD — 11/4/2008 @ 1:53 pm
#5 Fox News reports that voters complained of intimidation in Philadelphia when they saw a purported Black Panther poll watcher guarding the door to the polling station with a nightstick. Police apparently moved him along (transcript by TV Eyes):
You expect me to take that serious?
You probably were the first in line to take the backwards B burned into the McCain supporters face seriously too.
Comment by Oiram — 11/4/2008 @ 1:53 pm
#7 You caught me JD. I don’t watch video’s at work. sorry.
Tell me what was on it please.
Comment by Oiram — 11/4/2008 @ 1:55 pm
This kind of story, where Democratic areas are shorted voting machines, are much more typical:
http://www.tmz.com/2008/11/04/attempted-sabatoge-foiled-in-florida/
Comment by snuffles — 11/4/2008 @ 1:55 pm
I suppose the interview that the local Fox reporter did the with fucking New Black Panther member was a fake? The police were really not called out there. The US Army veteran that made the complaint was just a cowardly liar.
Comment by JD — 11/4/2008 @ 1:56 pm
you have no issue with an armed thug standing outside a polling place?
The guy with the “nighstick” left. Another uniformed Black Panther was described by Fox News as a “certified poll watcher.”
FNC’s Rick Leventhal: “There is no evidence any voter was denied entrance or there was an intimidation.”
Comment by steve — 11/4/2008 @ 2:00 pm
Snuffles, it always amazes me how Democrats blame Republicans for voting problems in areas where Democrats are running the elections boards.
But, hey, if it can convince a judge to
give poll workers more time to manufacture votesextend voting hours, any port in a storm, right?Comment by Rob Crawford — 11/4/2008 @ 2:01 pm
sniffles – You should complain to Dr. Brenda Snipes, Broward County Supervisor of Elections, a Democrat. Was she trying to disenfranchise her own people?
This is such patent BS trolling. I waited in line for over 2 hours, with only 4 voting machines for our precinct. Was it a pain in the ass, yes. However, waiting in line is part of the process, and you fucking liars squeal about being disenfranchised every damn time, even when your own party is the one doing it.
Dr. Brenda Snipes
Comment by JD — 11/4/2008 @ 2:02 pm
Except for the guy that called the police and made a complaint.
Good Allah. Can you imagine if there were white guys with nightsticks standing in front of polling places in traditionally minority neighborhoods?
Comment by JD — 11/4/2008 @ 2:03 pm
The Republicans at the state level decide how many voting machines go to each county, Rob.
Comment by snuffles — 11/4/2008 @ 2:04 pm
Sure, they do, snuffles. And they must do this just minutes before the polls open, right? No one has ANY time to protest?
Comment by Rob Crawford — 11/4/2008 @ 2:07 pm
Your link indicates that more voting machines were delivered.
Looks like they tried to disenfranchise this guy too!
Maybe you should get on the case!
Comment by CW Desiato — 11/4/2008 @ 2:08 pm
sniffles – And the County Supervisor of Elections, Dr. Brenda Snipes, apparently thought that 1 precinct only needed 1 voting machine. One is not disenfranchised by having to wait to vote. Period.
Does it surprise anyone that sniffles gets its news from TMZ?
Comment by JD — 11/4/2008 @ 2:11 pm
Talking Points Memo is casting doubt on the Philly story already.
Comment by Aplomb — 11/4/2008 @ 2:11 pm
Umm…again, hate to pile on…but if you’re wanting to be taken seriously, a link to TMZ probably isn’t the best way to go.
Comment by Chris — 11/4/2008 @ 2:12 pm
So, snuffles thinks that the TMZ (hearsay) link trumps the Fox film? I’m guessing “snuffles” would like to “take” that stick.
Comment by Got Balls — 11/4/2008 @ 2:12 pm
And, for that matter, neither is Talking Points Memo.
Comment by Chris — 11/4/2008 @ 2:12 pm
No doubt. Pity there’s video.
Comment by Rob Crawford — 11/4/2008 @ 2:13 pm
If the democrats get their way, soon it will be hard to tell the New Black Panthers and Obama’s justice department apart.
Change!
Comment by ML — 11/4/2008 @ 2:16 pm
What does the video show though? I didn’t see anyone intimidated or turned away. The guy on Fox admitted he went in and voted. Someone claims those guys actually kept anyone from entering, you have a story.
Comment by Aplomb — 11/4/2008 @ 2:19 pm
Who are you going to believe, Josh Marshall or your lying eyes?
Comment by Techie — 11/4/2008 @ 2:20 pm
Okay, I’ll bite. Isn’t the mere presence of Black Panthers with billy clubs standing around outside intimidating on its face? I sure think it is…but that’s probably because I’m racist or something. (Never mind the fact that I’d think the same thing about some white Hells’ Angels doing precisely the same thing.)
Comment by Chris — 11/4/2008 @ 2:25 pm
#27 I didn’t see anyone intimidated or turned away.
Jeeze, seriously? A Black Panther in paramilitary garb, tapping a night-stick in his palm, planted front of the doors to a polling place and backed up by another guy similarly garbed isn’t intimidating?
It’s clearly intended to scare away white people. Whether or not it succeeded, it still was intended to keep people away from the polls who might otherwise want to go in there.
That you pretend otherwise is shameful.
Comment by Pious Agnostic — 11/4/2008 @ 2:29 pm
Didn’t really seem intimidating to me if you see the video, people are milling around freely and the guys were just standing there. I won’t call it intimidation unless someone claims they were intimidated. The cops did properly ask the one guy who wasn’t an official poll watcher to leave, but there’s no proof any actual harm was done.
Just as I won’t claim these Republicans in Indiana (2:54 pm item) actually kept anyone from voting. What they were doing was also wrong, the cops made them leave, but I don’t see actual intimidation until someone steps up and claims they were intimidated.
Comment by Aplomb — 11/4/2008 @ 2:30 pm
Chris – Consdier yourself denounced.
Aplomb – So this is acceptable because he went ahead and voted? This is such standard election day bullshit from Dems. The only actual intimidation and fraud is conducted by the Dems, yet the Dems and the media act like it is some kind of Republican plot (like sniffles tried to do upthread). It is dishonest, at best.
Comment by JD — 11/4/2008 @ 2:31 pm
The same Fox reporter who arrived after the “nightstick” Panther left, said the other one was a “certified poll watcher.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0wwAsjErHeU&eurl=http://www.mediabistro.com/tvnewser/
Comment by steve — 11/4/2008 @ 2:31 pm
Aplomb – The gentleman that called the police felt intimidated.
Comment by JD — 11/4/2008 @ 2:34 pm
This is ridiculous. I said early on, in another thread, that the Left would ignore this out of hand because it was one of their own, and Fox reported it.
Comment by JD — 11/4/2008 @ 2:35 pm
Hmmmm….so apparently to some people, showing up in racist paramilitary costume is A-OK on Election Day!
I’ll keep that in mind when I see someone dressed as a Nazi or a Klansman that I shouldn’t protest or anything.
Comment by Pious Agnostic — 11/4/2008 @ 2:35 pm
So, because the guy with the nightstick had already been removed from the scene by the cops before the reporter arrived, it did not happen?
Comment by JD — 11/4/2008 @ 2:35 pm
Pious – It is not racist to do things like that in service of Teh Narrative.
Comment by JD — 11/4/2008 @ 2:36 pm
There was intimidation and that is why the cops were called. A white observer was denied entrance by the bozo with the stick. I guess maybe the white dude was a racist for thinking that two black dudes dressed up in monkey suits, and one holding a stick could possible be a threat.
Comment by Got Balls — 11/4/2008 @ 2:36 pm
JD: did he? I heard him expressly say he wasn’t scared. He certainly wasn’t intimidated from voting. He just assumed others were intimidated.
I’m just asking for a claim someone was actually intimidated enough not to vote.
Comment by Aplomb — 11/4/2008 @ 2:39 pm
JD – Yes, I know. Plus, minorities can’t be considered racist because they don’t have the political power to act upon their race hatred.
Blah, blah, blah. I hate these PoMo MoFo’s.
Comment by Pious Agnostic — 11/4/2008 @ 2:40 pm
The guy on Fox admitted he went in and voted.
The guy interviewed was called “a Republican poll watcher.”
He was making sure actual voters did not feel intimidated.
Comment by steve — 11/4/2008 @ 2:40 pm
Aplomb – if they were intimidated and left, obviously they wouldn’t be around to be interviewed. If they waited around until the thug was chased away by the police, they probably went in and voted.
What you claim you want is a report by somebody who ran home shaking, and then called up after the polls closed to complain. Since the polls haven’t closed anywhere yet, that’d be kind of hard to provide, wouldn’t it?
Comment by Pious Agnostic — 11/4/2008 @ 2:42 pm
I got a call from “Democratic Women of Collin County” (Plano, TX) advising me to vote at a polling site that wasn’t in my precinct. I’m sure it was an innocent robocall error (we live right at a precinct and county boundary) and I hope it confused Democrats living in our precinct.
The Republicans at the state level decide how many voting machines go to each county
No, they don’t. Florida’s Dept of State certifies polling systems for use in the counties, but each county budgets for and deploys its own polling systems.
Comment by furious — 11/4/2008 @ 2:44 pm
Aplomb… do you hold all claims of voter intimidation and disenfrancisement to the same low standard? Do you demand prove that some voter was duped into voting before condemning one of those perennial: “McCain voters, vote Tuesday; Obama voters have been given until Wednesday to vote” e-mails? What about when people talk about announcing that police will be at polling places enforcing warrants? Do you say that’s ok, as long as nobody admits to being too intimidated to vote?
Two thugs standing in front of the polling place, clearly supporting one of the candidates in the race, one carrying a night club… that’s intimidation, no matter how you look at it.
Comment by PatHMV — 11/4/2008 @ 2:45 pm
This is pretty weak beer for an election day “surprise.”
Chalk it up to another fanciful Fox “News” story and go vote.
Comment by snuffles — 11/4/2008 @ 2:45 pm
So, snuffles, when confronted with video, puts its fingers in its ears and goes LALALALALACANTHEARYOUCANTHEARYOUFAUXNEWSFAUXNEWS
Comment by Techie — 11/4/2008 @ 2:48 pm
I guess I’m too sensitive. Maybe those two nice young gentleman were “volunteers” for Obama’s planned “civilian force”. I just love a man in uniform!
Comment by Got Balls — 11/4/2008 @ 2:53 pm
Look everyone, I’m not trying to be a dick about this. I could certainly see how someone could have been intimidated by those guys. And I agree the one with the club who wasn’t a poll watcher should not have been there. And I agree that the probable intent was to intimidate non-Obama voters. And I agree the cops should have been called, as happened.
I’m just saying so far there is no evidence they kept anyone from voting. Until that happens, I see it as an attempt to intimidate, which is wrong, but not an incident where anyone was actually denied a vote based on current information.
I don’t see evidence that those Republicans in Indiana kept anyone from actually voting either. Just as wrong as an attempt to intimidate or wrongfully challenge voters, but so far no evidence they actually denied someone a vote.
Comment by Aplomb — 11/4/2008 @ 2:54 pm
Personally, I’m more impressed with the report from three states that compared voter rolls and learned that thousands of state residents were registered in more than one state and had voted in more then one. Vote fraud in the thousands and these are votes, not registration alone.
Comment by Mike K — 11/4/2008 @ 2:56 pm
In the video it was reported the black Panthers told the republican that called the police “not to come outside, tonight a black man was going to be president no matter what and they are tried of white supremacy”. While tapping the night stick in his hand.
Voter intimidation?
Not unless intimidation means threatening someone with violence if they don’t comply to your wishes.
Comment by ML — 11/4/2008 @ 3:04 pm
#49 Aplomb, you only saw video for the extent of time the Fox News team and the Penn Student were at the polling place. You can’t say for certain that white voters weren’t menaced and frightened away when cameras weren’t there. Absence of evidence DNE evidence of absence.
And given the secret ballot, how do you know a registered voter wasn’t intimidated and didn’t vote?
Comment by furious — 11/4/2008 @ 3:14 pm
Aplomb wrote: What does the video show though? I didn’t see anyone intimidated or turned away. The guy on Fox admitted he went in and voted. Someone claims those guys actually kept anyone from entering, you have a story.
Bull, horse, chicken! Dems were screaming about intimidation of blacks in 2000 in Florida that had no basis in fact, and three years afterward, they were reviving disproved rumors to gin up outrage if John Kerry lost in Ohio.
National Review’s Peter Kirsanow — one of those black guys who liberals despise because he rejects victimization — clarified the situation (bold his):
Now, what’s more intimidating, Aplomb? An empty patrol car parked outside a polling place, or two black men in military garb standing near the entrance, one carrying a stick made to beat people with?
Kirsanow has my utmost respect because he had to serve on the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights alongside Chairperson Mary Frances Berry, as toxic an individual as I have ever seen. She fought Kirsanow’s appointment to the commission by GWB because she wanted another sycophant to replace the Clinton appointee that was termed out. When a suit failed to stop Kirsanow from being seated on the panel, on his first day she invoked meeting rules to prevent him from speaking, and wouldn’t even refer to him by name.
I was watching live on C-SPAN and watched Kirsanow sat politely. I would have left my seat before hitting a septuagenarian woman in what’s left of her teeth.
Comment by L.N. Smithee — 11/4/2008 @ 3:16 pm
Furious: I don’t know someone wasn’t intimidated and didn’t vote. But so far no one has claimed that actually happened. It certainly could have. That’s why I acknowledge what they were doing was improper and the cops properly chased that one guy off. But I don’t know if a vote or votes were actually denied any more than you do, in this case or in the case of the Indiana republicans.
Comment by Aplomb — 11/4/2008 @ 3:18 pm
According to Tim Robbins, it’s intimidation if the poll workers can’t find your name on the list. Imagine what he would think if the poll worker were carrying a nightstick.
Comment by DRJ — 11/4/2008 @ 3:23 pm
Aplomb can usually be somewhat reasonable. This is not one of those times. Were this situation to have been done to blacks by the KKK, the Dems and the media howling would be deafening. They are still complaining about imagined intimidation in FL 2000. I have to believe that aplomb is being ludicrous intentionally.
Tim Robbins is a git.
Comment by JD — 11/4/2008 @ 3:29 pm
FWIW – Indiana polls have closed, but the results will be really late as Lake County, a franchise of the Cook County machine, will not tabulate and report until they know how many votes Baracky needs.
Comment by JD — 11/4/2008 @ 3:34 pm
OT:
One of Patterico’s guest bloggers, Justin Levine, has a new post up about free speech, and he’s in favor of it, but he’s not allowing any comments.
Comment by Official Internet Data Office — 11/4/2008 @ 3:40 pm
It is racist to even discuss intimidation or fraud.
Comment by JD — 11/4/2008 @ 3:41 pm
Barackkk’s new poll watchers – change that beats the opposition.
Comment by Perfect Sense — 11/4/2008 @ 3:43 pm
#59 JD, Don’t you mean sexist?
Comment by Oiram — 11/4/2008 @ 3:43 pm
OIDO – That is what Justin does.
Comment by JD — 11/4/2008 @ 3:44 pm
No, Mario. I meant racist. Had I meant sexist, I would have typed sexist.
Comment by JD — 11/4/2008 @ 3:47 pm
I dunno. Justice Department election monitors would intimidate me a lot more than Black Panthers would. I would never shoot a Justice Department election monitor were he try to stop me from voting.
Comment by nk — 11/4/2008 @ 3:52 pm
#63 LOL
Comment by Oiram — 11/4/2008 @ 3:55 pm
IANAL, but it strikes me that voter intimidation is one of those crimes that doesn’t require an actual victim. It’s like public indecency — the behavior is sufficient.
The intent was certainly there.
Comment by Rob Crawford — 11/4/2008 @ 3:56 pm
You wish that were true but it is not. I voted almost straight ticket Democratic this election and I don’t believe that at all.
Comment by truthnjustice — 11/4/2008 @ 3:58 pm
Hey how many straws are there left to grasp for McCainers?
Comment by Oiram — 11/4/2008 @ 3:58 pm
How come when Democrats complain about a police car near a polling place that’s a sign of voter intimidation, but when Republicans complain about a Black Panther standing with a billy club at the entrance to a polling place, it’s overreaction?
Comment by Steverino — 11/4/2008 @ 4:00 pm
Steverino – It is because we are racists.
tnj is bringing its usual jackassery.
Comment by JD — 11/4/2008 @ 4:04 pm
Even if Obama were to win every state, every electoral vote, and a vast majority of the popular vote, it would still be wrong to intimidate voters in the way described in this post.
I know that it’s different for some of the trolls around here, but some of us care about the right and wrong.
Here’s how to decode what we think: “wrong” is not “OK” when it’s on our side. “Wrong” is “wrong” no matter which side it’s on. And while there may be some of it on “our” side (which we will disavow because, you know, we’re the good guys and so those guys are “wrong), the vast majority of this crap happens on “your” side.
I know it’s difficult to follow that, but trying to change the subject with comments like “Hey how many straws are there left to grasp for McCainers?” just indicates (to us) that you realize that you are on the “wrong” side of the argument and just trying to distract.
Comment by Pious Agnostic — 11/4/2008 @ 4:04 pm
Pious – Well said.
Comment by JD — 11/4/2008 @ 4:19 pm
49.
Yes, you are.
An election monitor interviewed on local Philly radio reported that a number of people were observed to turn around and leave the area: when checking with the poll judges they reported that only about a third of the locations registrants had voted at 3pm, which they described as “unusual” for that location; apparently the self appointed doormen intimidated not only whites but blacks as well.
The election monitor mentioned elections she had monitored in South America and the Middle East, with Philly coming off badly in comparison with the shenanigans she observed today.
Comment by EW1(SG) — 11/4/2008 @ 4:27 pm
By aplomb’s standard, Ron and Nicole were not murdered because nobody was convicted.
Comment by JD — 11/4/2008 @ 4:51 pm
Pious Agnostic is correct (#71).
This behavior is inexcusable. My surprise is that so many are willing to dismiss/excuse/ignore it simply because (in this instance) this behavior supports their particular candidate.
Armed men (who are members of a self-described militant faction) at the entrance of a polling station are a threat to our fellow citizens and an assault on democracy.
As American citizens, is this really the road we wish to travel? For those who support Senator Obama, is this really the way they wish to win?
Please do not dismiss it (it’s just on Fox news, so it isn’t true/important), excuse it (no explicit evidence of a crime), or ignore it (it isn’t on CNN, so I don’t have to worry).
Immoral behavior is dishonest behavior; for the intelligent, moral person, there is no justification for these activities.
Comment by Pons Asinorum — 11/4/2008 @ 5:02 pm
Pons and Pious sre far more kind than the trolls deserve.
Comment by JD — 11/4/2008 @ 5:19 pm
Comment by Pious Agnostic — 11/4/2008 @ 4:04 pm
But, the question is, is this behavior in the “Main Stream”?
Comment by Another Drew — 11/4/2008 @ 5:34 pm
For all of you saying that this was NOT intimidation-
What would be your reaction if this had been 2 “Uniformed” KKK members with one of them holding a ball bat? Just standing there. And one of them being a “certified poll watcher”.
Lets see how many of you can be honest and objective.
Comment by Thorolf — 11/5/2008 @ 5:46 am
Hey,
Jackass… How about all those fliers that told people that democrats vote on the 5th. Stop with your ridiculous shit. Are you really that stupid to believe this one isolated instance had an effect on the entire state? Are you kidding me? Get a fucking clue.
Comment by james — 11/5/2008 @ 3:57 pm
In 2000 when there were election challenges in Florida, Al Gore was called Sore Loserman.
I’m just watching the shoe put itself on the other foot right now.
Comment by a. mcewen — 11/5/2008 @ 6:22 pm
You mean that McCain is suing to try to steal the Presidency? I missed that.
Comment by JD — 11/5/2008 @ 6:29 pm
If you’re wondering where the idiot trolls are coming from: it’s the Huffington Post. Apparently they decided to choose this post as an example of conservatives reacting to Obama’s victory, even though this is not a post reacting to Obama’s victory, and even though there are other posts on this blog that are.
In other words, the HuffPo blogger is lying. Whaddya know about that?
Comment by Patterico — 11/5/2008 @ 9:54 pm
You lost deal with it.
Comment by blackadpet — 11/6/2008 @ 4:23 am
Racist
Comment by JD — 11/6/2008 @ 4:27 am
I’ve read majority of your posts. I actually voted at said polling place. I am mixed(white mother, black father), the alleged “New Black Panther Party” men who stood outside only crime was not greeting white voters. They completely ignored my mother and two sisters walking into the polling place, but gave a hand shake and a Good Evening My Brother, to my father. Were these two guys assholes? YES. intimidating people? Not in the least.
Comment by MissDrea — 11/6/2008 @ 5:54 am
Dear James:
I am not certain what argument you are trying to make: a) two wrongs make a right, b) a wrong that does not affect everyone is not a wrong, or c) you do not understand why intimidation is wrong.
In short:
a) Your proposition is morally illogical.
b) If one or more of our fellow citizens is intimidated from voting, it is an attack on all of us (E Pluribus Unum – out of Many, One).
c) Cannot help you here.
Resorting to specious rhetoric (and offensive stereotypes of people that you do not know) is the hallmark of someone insecure in his ideas and intellectually unable to argue in a logical manner; similar to the definition of a bigot.
Knowledge, learning, and tolerance may be able to overcome your deficient moral capacity and it is my hope that you might someday acquire these qualities.
Good luck to you James—
Comment by Pons Asinorum — 11/6/2008 @ 9:15 pm
Dear A. Mcewen (#80):
You say: “In 2000 when there were election challenges in Florida, Al Gore was called Sore Loserman.”
Al Gore was a sore loser (although I am unfamiliar with the term “Loserman”).
Please contrast his behavior to Senator McCain’s behavior.
Like Senator McCain, I too believe we must support President-elect Obama (and I do).
However, I will ALWAYS refuse to support voter intimidation regardless of which candidate/party benefits (or even if there is no benefit, as is the case here). Our most sacred principle as Americans is the right to vote (and all that that implies – i.e. without intimidation).
An armed man in the uniform of a militant organization at a polling place is wrong (now, forever, and always).
As a fellow American, I trust you would join me in condemning this intimidation.
Comment by Pons Asinorum — 11/6/2008 @ 9:32 pm
Pons – Your trust, while honorable, is misplaced.
Comment by JD — 11/6/2008 @ 9:40 pm
Hi JD—
Maybe, but maybe not.
Quick stroy:
Two soldiers, they hate each other. Platoon sergeant places them on the same foxhole detail. Nighttime. RPG falls into the foxhole. Does not detonate, but smoking. One soldier dives on the RPG to prevent the concussion blast and shrapnel for getting the other. Turns out the RPG is a dud, both live. Today, they are best friends and inseparable. Weird how that works.
Sorta happened on 9/11 nation-wide.
Didn’t last though. Weird how that works.
Calling it a night JD—thanks again for all your kind words, take care–
Comment by Pons Asinorum — 11/6/2008 @ 10:45 pm
Dear MissDrea (#85):
When I read your post, I was struck by three thoughts: surprise, fascination, and a question.
My surprise was the originality of your thoughts. Normally I see repetitive drivel (moral inconsistencies (#79), stereotypical responses (#80), simplistic platitudes (#83), etc) devoid of logic or originality. Like a mantra that if said over and over; it becomes true. Your antidote, however was nothing of the sort and strikes me as genuine and true.
I was fascinated because I learned something (or I think I did anyway); probably the Black Panther members were there because they were worried about voter intimidation. How ironic.
A question for you: should not all voters have the courtesy of being allowed to vote without a man armed with a club acting as a “greeter”?
I wish you well MissDrea. Regards to your parents (for what it’s worth, it seems to me they did a great job)–
Comment by Pons Asinorum — 11/7/2008 @ 11:59 am