Last Call

Been saying for years now that GOP voter ID laws are all about suppressing the vote among Democrats, particularly poor and minority voters, the elderly, and college students.  Former Florida Republicans Jim Greer and Charlie Crist confirmed this to reporters this week in what would be a bombshell story to anyone who has had their head encased in cement for the last two years.  You know, your average FOX News viewer.

Jim Greer, the former head of the Florida Republican Party, told The Palm Beach Post that a new law shortening the early voting period in the state was intended to prevent Democrats from voting. Greer said that since at least 2009, GOP staff and consultants had discussed limiting early voting hours, which they believed helped Democratic candidates. He described current talk of eliminating voter fraud as a “marketing ploy.”

Former Republican Gov. Charlie Crist of Florida confirmed that GOP officials had sought to limit early voting in an effort to suppress Democrat turnout. He told the Post that the effort seemed to be aimed at ethnic minorities, a key demographic for Democrats.

“The sad thing about that is yes, there is prejudice and racism in the party but the real prevailing thought is that they don’t think minorities will ever vote Republican,” Greer said. “It’s not really a broad-based racist issue. It’s simply that the Republican Party gave up a long time ago ever believing that anything they did would get minorities to vote for them.”

The racism is a feature, not a bug, people.  If you think anyone in the Republican party truly gives a damn about anyone who isn't white, you deserve your fate with these idiots.  Hell, if you're white and make less than six figures, the same applies.

“I am appalled but sadly not surprised by these officials’ admissions that their goal was purely to suppress the African American vote,” Elder Lee Harris, the pastor of Mt. Olive Primitive Baptist Church in Jacksonville, said in a statement. “Even while cloaked in the dubious language of ‘voter fraud,’ the real reason for these measures was always clear. African Americans in Florida knew that, and we fought back – by voting.”

Damn right we will.

Once again, if your stated goal is to reduce the number of people who are allowed to vote in a representative democracy, you are perverting the most basic freedom in our country.  If it's the only way you feel you can win, through systematic disenfranchisement of tens of millions of citizens, then your party deserves to be cast into the black hole of history.

A Canadian Ford Recall

Toronto Mayor Rob Ford, who can generously be called "controversial" given the country's own growing Tea Party style backlash against social programs and health care (yet another instance where I feel the need to apologize to our northern neighbors) has run into a bit of a problem:  Canada actually gives a damn about things like conflict of interest, and it's cost Ford his job.

A court ordered the mayor of Toronto, Canada’s largest city, to be removed from office for violating conflict of interest rules when soliciting donations for his football charity.

Mayor Rob Ford got into legal trouble when he spoke out at a city council vote in February against a $3,150 fine he was ordered to pay over the ethics breach.

A Toronto resident took him to court for violating the Municipal Conflict of Interest Act, which at trial Ford said he had not read.

Ford said he will appeal the ruling, and if he fails to have the decision overturned will run again for mayor in a by-election.

“I will fight tooth and nail to hold onto my job,” he told reporters, blaming “leftwing politics” for the court action that led to the ruling.

Compare Ford to say, Mike Bloomberg in New York City.  If Bloomberg was held to the same legal standard as Ford, he'd have been out on his ass within a year instead of on his third term as Mayor (itself in violation of the city's laws until he changed them.)  Ford vows to be back however, and he's counting on winning his appeal and running again for Mayor on the "Evil liberals stole my job" ticket.

How Ford ended up mayor of Toronto in the first place?  Well, I've got no room to complain considering Michele Bachmann still has a job in Congress that doesn't involve emptying trash cans.

Benghazi Been-Gotcha

FOX News should really just stop talking to actual journalists and experts, because whenever they try to force their propaganda past sane people, stuff like this invariably happens.

Thomas E. Ricks, the veteran defense reporter and author, said he expected his Monday morning appearance on Fox News to last about three minutes. It ended, in fact, after 90 seconds — his last sentence was a description of the network as “a wing of the Republican Party.”

After the interview, a Fox News staffer told Mr. Ricks that he had been rude.

The strange and unusually short interview segment quickly gained the attention of media critics, because criticism of Fox News is rarely aired on Fox News. Mr. Ricks said in an e-mail message afterward that he did not think he was being rude. “I thought I was being honest,” he said. “They asked my opinion, and I gave it.”

The topic was the attack on the United States’s diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya. Before being thanked and sent on his way, Mr. Ricks said he thought the controversy around the attack was “hyped, by this network especially.”

So, Tom Ricks won't be back on FOX ever again.  Which is sad, because tens of millions of FOX viewers desperately need to see the view outside the network's anti-Obama propaganda bubble.  That won't happen anytime soon either.

StupidiNews!

• NATO military officials are working with Turkey to possibly deploy Patriot anti-missile batteries along that country's border with Syria.
• The US Supreme Court has let stand a lower court ruling blocking an Illinois law that would have made recording police officers a crime.
• Lawmakers stand ready to back any "fiscal cliff slope" deal but budget cuts are making all sides nervous.
• A deal with Greece and its creditor nations has finally been reached as the EU turns to deal with growing problems in Cyprus and Spain.
• Nintendo of America says the new Wii U console has sold 400,000 units, well behind the first week sales of the original Wii, but ahead of PS3 and Xbox 360.