Wednesday, November 7, 2012

Damned If They Did Win, Double Damned That They Didn't

As I write this, they just called it that President Barack Obama has won reelection.

Just as delicious, Tammy Baldwin is giving her victory speech.

That is, obviously, the good news.

It's not that the Republicans and their fascist backers didn't try.

Oh, how they tried.

First, their were the propagandists, trying to cast doubt on the election. One such example is Kevin Binversie, employee of Koch Industries, who tried to say that the Black Panthers were out there intimidating voters. Fox News tried it too, but if you watch their video, it's as comical as their story with the palm trees in Madison:



Watch the whole video, especially at the end. Did you see the way that Black Panther intimidatingly opened the door for those women? The beast!

Brian Sikma, proven liar, and his colleagues tried to intimate that it was somehow wrong to take the elderly, the poor and the disabled to their polling places.

Then there were the actual problems at the polling places.

There was the usual broken machines and insufficient ballots, which oddly keeps happening in poor neighborhoods or neighborhoods with higher number of minorities.

There were the poll workers asking for a picture ID, here in Wisconsin and in other states where it's not required. Apparently poll workers are one of the few types of people with no social media, no radios, no TVs and no newspapers, so they weren't aware of that these aren't required.

Then there were the "poll watchers." digby really has covered this with a number of examples of states with more sense than ours, where they simply banned these fools. Even better, she points out how dumb their watchers are when they spill the beans:
Elections Director William A. Anthony Jr. said the group may be investigated for possibly falsifying documents after today's election. The forms themselves warn that elections falsification is a fifth-degree felony...

One person told the elections board that she attended True the Vote training sessions and the observers were instructed to use cameras to intimidate voters when they enter the polling place, record their names on tablet computers and send them to a central location, and attempt to stop questionably qualified voters before they could get to a voting machine.
Here in Wisconsin, we didn't protect our elections, or our tax money, as well, allowing them into the election areas, only to have to kick them out when they tried to interfere with voters and listen to them complain when they couldn't.

Then there is the story, if it's indeed true, of the corrupted electronic voting machines.

At least there was some comic relief when Team Romney went so far as to complain that a polling place was held at Barack Obama K-8 School.

But like I said, the victories by Obama and Baldwin is the good news.

The bad news is that the Republicans' unethical and blatantly corrupt gerrymandering paid off for them as they not only kept the state assembly but retook the state senate. Sadly, Dirty Duffy and Dribble Ribble also kept their ill-gotten seats because of the gerrymandering.

The really bad news is that Romney's defeat means that Scott Walker is going to double down on his bid for the presidency.

We'll have to be girded for the fight against oddly termed "right to work" legislation, further raping of our environment (including the mining in the Northwoods and fracking everywhere else) and further attempts at voter suppression, anti-women and anti-LGBT legislation.

Walker's going to have to show the American fascists why he is the right tool for them.

I know, I know. Not an exactly a rosy picture for us Wisconsinites, right.

But it's not all doom and gloom.

The Obama and Baldwin victories show us that the Republicans are paper weasels and only have a temporary hold on the state because of their corrupt and unethical stunts. It also shows that they are very vulnerable in state wide races. And Walker is going to have to try to keep things together for two years if he hopes to be reelected in 2014.

But we don't have to wait for two years to start setting things to right.

Justice Pat Roggensack is up for reelection in the spring. If we can retake the majority of the Supreme Court of Wisconsin, we can at least get some honest rulings on the unconstitutional laws coming out of the ALEC Walker administration.

And let us not forget Walkergate. John Doe just might be able to take care of the job for us.

So while the elections might make the future look dark for our state, we have also shown that we can fight through the dark and let the light back in.

Enjoy the victory for a few days. You've earned it. Then come back and we'll get back to work. We helped save the country, now we gotta save the state.

5 comments:

  1. Plumbers told to stay on call for the next 24 hours. BRICKS CLOGGING TOILETS on the conservitive side of town !!!!

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  2. Koch Brothers tweet: Scotty, Ryan--no Xmas bonus for you!

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  3. I am so happy that I will not have to hear Tommy Thompson's voice or see his ugly mug for the next six years. Having to deal with the Weasel is bad enough, while Dumb Ron Johnson will provide some comic relief.

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  4. Yes, thank goodness we won't have Thompson to deal with and we can focus on cleaning up the state.

    I'm worried about the Supreme Court issue, though. Roggensack is currently running unopposed, and if there's going to be any chance of unseating her, someone has to step forward NOW.

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  5. "Paper weasels" - love it! Hope it's true!

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