Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Risk Your Lives--But Don't Think Of Voting

Attorney General Eric Holder, with the concurrence of his boss, wants to make sure you won't be seeing pictures like this more than absolutely necessary. Holder's Justice Department is taking time out of its busy schedule of dismissing Black Panther voter-intimidation cases and fighting Arizona's attempts to stop illegals from crossing the borders to make sure our armed forces cast as few absentee votes as possible.

The Military and Overseas Voting Empowerment Act ("MOVE") was passed to protect the rights of Americans overseas to receive their absentee ballots in sufficient time to fill them out and return them to their home precincts in time to comply with the law. It was specifically designed to protect the voting rights of our men and women in the armed forces in strange and dangerous lands. But just like the unimportant voters in Philadelphia, the Obamists consider soldiers to be fine gun fodder but not good voters.

After several hits from the public about their nefarious actions in direct contravention of the will of the majority, the lawyers at DOJ struck a secret deal with the State of Wisconsin to do a backroom end run around the act. There had been several complaints from the military and memos from the Department of Defense regarding Wisconsin's foot-dragging in preparing absentee ballots for military personnel serving outside the United States. Wisconsin officials spent considerably more time making excuses than they did in making any serious attempt to comply with the act.

The act requires that all absentee ballots for the military be mailed no less than 45 days prior to the election. Only a federal waiver can reduce that time period. Wisconsin dithered around until the last minute, then applied to the Pentagon for a waiver reducing the period to 32 days. The Pentagon pointedly denied the waiver. Instead of acting promptly and in good faith to comply, the Wisconsin officials then tried again, this time asking for only 29 days. In the scheme of domestic civilian voting, 13 or 16 days may not sound like much. But it will make a major difference in the ability of military personnel overseas to receive, review, and return the ballots in time. This is particularly true if they are stationed in war zones, or are on lengthy maneuvers in the field.

In upholding the two denials by the Pentagon, the director of the Federal Voting Assistance Program said that though some of the other states offered thorough and comprehensive plans to protect the voting opportunities for military voters overseas along with their waiver requests, "Wisconsin's waiver application didn't even come close to compliance with the MOVE act." He further said that "the folks at the Pentagon rightfully denied the waiver request."

It was a clear and decisive victory for the military and a strong endorsement of the letter and intent of the MOVE act. Wisconsin, though, continued to act as if the waiver was a mere detail and made no plans to expedite the absentee ballot procedures. In an honest, patriotic and competent Justice Department, a suit would have been filed against Wisconsin demanding injunctions, expedited legal proceedings ("time of the essence") and where applicable, administrative punishment for the offenders.

But this is the Holder Justice Department. No suits were filed, no injunctions requested, no punitive action was taken against the foot-dragging Wisconsin officials. The sneaky, slimy legal team set up by Holder instead entered into secret negotiations with the offending Wisconsin officials. During the negotiations, the time for DOJ to file an equitable action against Wisconsin expired. The brilliant DOJ lawyers actually had the nerve to proclaim a victory by getting Wisconsin to go back to its original request for a shortened 32 day period instead of 29 days. But during the negotiations, Wisconsin produced no more valid legal reasoning for requesting a waiver than it did when the requests were denied by the Pentagon.

The three day difference between the 29 and 32 days will generously be added to the time allowed for counting the absentee ballots after their receipt. Another dirty, sneaky DOJ trick to make Wisconsin seem reasonable. But even the dolts in Congess who enacted MOVE know that all the critical time required comes before the election date, not after. In fact, Congress specifically rejected post-election add-on time as a substitute for compliance with the time allowed for voting.

The extra time before the election was enacted in order to give the military time to receive the ballots, fill them out, and mail them back at least seven days before the election so that they arrive in time to be counted. If they arrive late, it doesn't matter how much extra time is allotted after the election for counting absentee ballots. Late ballots simply will not be counted at all, which is exactly what Wisconsin and Holder's DOJ lawyers wanted. The consent decree validating this evisceration of the MOVE act was published last Friday. No MSM coverage, of course.

The Obamists, socialists and various other Democrats are accomplished election-thieves. Fooling with the mechanics of how votes are received, cast and counted has resulted in multiple recent examples of Democrats being in big trouble and suddenly snatching "victory" from the jaws of defeat. It's always very mysterious. Al Franken's election to the Senate in Wisconsin's neighbor Minnesota was a perfect example of Democrat-controlled election commissions and courts implementing the plan: "Keep counting until the Democrat wins."

If you can keep the voters from voting in the first place, you don't have to bother with all those other legal pretenses. And so it is with Wisconsin, the DOJ, and the circumvention of the MOVE act. This is going to be a bad year for Democrats, and a few thousand, or even a few hundred ballots could make all the difference. Even liberal Wisconsin is not happy with the party in power.

The Democrats know that the military tends to be conservative and patriotic, something Democrats rarely are, and even in good times that means Republicans usually fare better. Obama was a temporary aberration, but he's not running this time. So every possible Republican ballot has to be fended off. Better to disenfranchise a minority of Democrats than to allow Republicans and Independents to vote the leftists out.

Each time I think that the thoroughly rotten Holder can't sink any lower, he proves me to be much too generous. Letting Black Panther thugs go free to intimidate voters and suing states for daring to protect their borders is bad enough. But now this stumblebum and his patriotism-deprived boss ask young men and women to risk their lives to protect the fundamental right of a free people--the right to vote. But the dirty duo wants to make sure that those very same young men and women can't themselves vote. It's far more important for them to protect the right of Muslims to vote for sharia, stoning for adultery, the demeaning of women, and leaders who threaten the destruction of Western civilization than to protect the right of Americans to vote the Democrats out.

So when the next Democrat indignantly asks me if I'm questioning his loyalty and patriotism, my answer will be "you're damned right I am!"

24 comments:

Tennessee Jed said...

If you believe the absolute worst about Eric Holder, you will never be disappointed

Joel Farnham said...

LawHawk,

I whole-heartedly agree.

One question: On the pursuit of wrong-doing of Democrat officials in office after November, can we make an exception to Eric Holder? I mean really!!

I don't want to tie up the Congress' time, but Holder and his office should be thoroughly investigated, charged and imprisoned if convicted. His actions are beyond the pale.

Unknown said...

Tennessee: That's a good rule to live by. I'm hard to shock, but I can be disgusted. Holder is disgusting.

Unknown said...

Joel: There comes a point where even a practical political realist like me has to say that there comes a point where a change in form is a change in substance. As we've discussed, I'm not big on Congressional investigations of past administrations, but I'm beginning to think Holder's Department may break my rule. There's something rotten in the state of Holder, methinks.

Notawonk said...

blogger ate my comment! ~sigh~

in a nutshell: i LOVE your proposed response to dems. BOOM!

as far as anyone trying to intimidate me into not voting, ain't gonna happen. and i don't care how big your stick is, holder. it infuriates me to know that these thugs got away with it.

Joel Farnham said...

LawHawk,

The reason I want him investigated is that I don't want these intimidations or voter fraud to ever to be considered "Business as Usual". This should be the sine qua non of voter franchise. Otherwise, we are will be just as bad as Iran.

Unknown said...

Patti: I'm with ya. I faced bludgeons, nightsticks, police dogs, and high-powered hoses during the civil rights voting marches in the South. Holder's going to have to do a lot better than the pissy New Black Panthers to keep me away from the polls.

Unknown said...

Joel: I agree entirely on the issue, and I tend to agree on the need for an investigation of DOJ actions and inactions. This goes beyond political banana-republic investigations of political enemies and goes directly to the heart of DOJ interference with a basic Constitutional right.

BevfromNYC said...

So many years ago when we were fighting for the right of 18 year olds to vote, we used the slogan "If I am old enough to die for my country in a war, I am old enough to decide who sends me there!" It worked. So what happened?

Since Charles Rangel insists that the majority of our soldiers are poor black folks (and that's why we need to reinstate the draft), AND Wisconsin tends to skews, shall we say, a bit "Aryan" with all of that Scandinavian influence AND because you know some of those Wisconsin soldiers are probably not all WASP-ish Lutherans, do we get to call them Bigoted, Racist Anti-semitic Homophobes???

Or is that too much?

Unknown said...

Bev: We German Lutherans object to the "Anglo" in WASP. LOL

Isn't it silly that the left has to frame everything in terms that require exactly the kind of byzantine reasoning you used (at least yours was tongue-in-cheek)? But it would be kind of fun to see black Wisconsin voters out in the streets shouting "racism" at the Democrats. Turnabout, and all that.

Writer X said...

This turns my stomach. And you're so right about Holder: Just when he can't sink any lower he does. He is worse than pond scum. Is this just happening in Wisconsin, LawHawk?

Notawonk said...

law: if he sent his goons to texas, we'd have them tuckin' tail and running in less time than it takes for me to order a steak, and that would be just the lady-folk.

Unknown said...

WriterX: It's been a long time since I've just wanted to punch a politician in the nose, and now I've got a twofer--Obama and Holder. Lyndon Johnson would have been my previous target.

Right now, Wisconsin is the only one that Horrible Holder has made a secret disenfranchising deal with. Other states asked for waivers, but made sufficient arrangements for exceptions for late military ballots so that the Pentagon approved the waivers. Those waivers somewhat violate the letter of the MOVE act, but comply with the spirit of the act. In other words, military ballots will be counted, even if late in arriving.

AndrewPrice said...

This Justice Department is perhaps the most nasty, most politicized it's ever been -- probably even worse than in the days of political patronage. They should purge the whole damn thing in the next administration.

Unknown said...

Patti: Instead of wondering why we can't be more like Europe, my fellow Californians should be wondering why we can't be more like Texas.

Unknown said...

Andrew: Remember how they used to excoriate the DOJ when Nixon was president (or are you too young)? But in that DOJ, ethical lawyers resigned en masse and went public rather than be complicit in the politicization of the Department.

The Obama/Holder Justice Department is a blot on American jurisprudence and a warning of what we could become if the leftists continue in office.

Unknown said...

Joel: I should probably add that even though certain separate acts may not individually be criminal or unethical, a pattern and collection of such acts can be. The DOJ's own Inspector General is now ordering a probe. He is looking into the Black Panthers dismissals, but made it clear that he doesn't have the authority to investigate those cases standing alone, but does have the authority if it is part of a pattern of lawless behavior being promulgated by the DOJ. If a new Republican Congress did the same thing in the same way, I would be completely comfortable with it.

StanH said...

The entire Barry administration is nothing more than a tool for their leftist ideology. When in truth, they are supposed to uphold the Constitution, their position is always what’s best for the party. Remember Barry said something in ’08 to the effect, “I’m the one that you’ve been waiting for.” Too ram their Marxist ideology down our throats, and if that means disenfranchising military voters, well, “the ends, justify the means.”

Unknown said...

Stan: I'll go one step farther. The Obamists are most concerned with aggrandizing and perpetuating the left wing base of the party--the institutionally welfare government-dependent poor, the pseudo-intellectual Marxists, race-baiters, illegal immigrants and class warriors.

Best of all, they have now dropped the "po' folks and oppressed minorities" game plan in favor of pretending to give a damn about law-abiding, tax-paying, middle class wage earners and business owners. They wouldn't know the middle class if it arrived at the White House in a huge box, with a bow and a tag that reads: "Fragile--Middle Class enclosed. Do not shake or drop." The message they see is "Middle Class cash cow enclosed--drain as quickly as possible."

StanH said...

Zap! Lawhawk. Your words have great passion Kimosabe! I love it, I believe you would punch Holder in the nose, are you heading to Washington as we speak?

Unknown said...

Stan: Oh, I think I'll just wait. They'll be back in California some time to raise more campaign money for their lost cause. Of course, each time they come here, there's less money for them to take as California leads the way into the financial abyss. Maybe we could get our own attorney general to arrest Obama and Holder for bringing people across state lines for immoral purposes.

rlaWTX said...

I keep trying to hold on to that hope that Dems are decent folk who skew into oddness... but then garbage like this happens, and I wonder all over again.

I dislike the "the other guy is evil" that got ramped up during Bush's years by the Dems. But sometimes, they just ARE evil!


LawHawk, are there any "news-ish" links about any of this, or is it THAT under wraps? Some folks I know won't accept the word of such a right-wing rabble-rouser as yourself...

Unknown said...

rlaWTX: I'm often surprised that liberals simply deny things that are both publicly-known and well-documented. Part of the problem may be that when the left pulls something like this, they don't see it on CNN, the major commercial networks, or their "newspapers of record."

Here are several for starters:
Courthouse News.
Associated Press-Navy Times.
Wisconsin Government Accountability Office.

Please tell your liberal friends that I strive to be creative, but unlike the left, I don't make things up out of whole cloth. In other words, this travesty is not like Al Sharpton saying "So even if it's not true, it could have been."

What little coverage the MSM has given this has been phrased as Wisconsin and the feds working out an arrangement to guarantee the military will get their ballots. Aw, hooey. Wisconsin was forced into it, and the DOJ didn't want the public to know that the Holder/Obamists were in substantial agreement with their sleazy tactics. So all the negotiations were conducted under strict secrecy, and the consent decree was published quietly in places that only those already concerned about it would find it.

Unknown said...

rlaWTX: The way the DOJ kept the negotiations quiet and the subsequent minuscule coverage by the MSM spinning it as a positive for the DOJ and the military reminds me of the old medical joke: "Mr. Smith, I have good news and bad news for you. The bad news is we accidentally removed your liver instead of your cancerous spleen. The good news is, your spleen isn't cancerous after all."

Post a Comment