Blacks may doom Barack Hussein Osama

[Stoner]

BLACKS MAY DOOM BARACK

By DICK MORRIS & EILEEN MCGANN

Published in the New York Post on February 26, 2007.

With polls showing Barack Obama winning less than half of the African-American vote in trial matchups with Hillary Clinton and John Edwards, the question is: Can the Illinois senator start pulling the kind of black support he needs in order to win?

Obama needs to carry the African-American vote overwhelmingly, while Hillary just has to hold her own to blunt the edge of Obama's challenge. As one New York black political leader put it, "Obama needs 85 percent of the black vote. But Hillary only needs 35 percent."

Early primary state South Carolina, where blacks cast more than a third of the vote, looms large. If Obama can't produce big African-American m
ajorities there, his overall ability to win the black vote will be in doubt - leaving him without any obvious base, and in free fall.

Black political observers seem to agree that Obama won't win the automatic support of African-American voters. To get black votes, he must fight for them.

Bill Clinton's popularity among African-Americans runs far too deep - and Hillary is vigorously battling. Her blatant purchase of the support of South Carolina state Sen. Darrell Jackson for $200,000 demonstrates the lengths to which she will go to win enough of the African-American vote to embarrass and perhaps derail Obama.

Another angle to the Barack vs. Hillary battle is New York vs. Chicago - with Big Apple African-American leaders like Rep. Charlie Rangel lining up for Clinton and most Chicago black pols backing their hometown guy, Obama.

But in his zeal to paint
himself as the vanguard of a new generation of African-American leaders, Obama may be alienating the existing leadership. As he tries to attract whites, Obama is being questioned in the black community. In moving to assuage the fears of whites, Obama may be distancing himself from his base.

Rev. Jesse Jackson will likely still be helpful, if only to make sure that his son, Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. (D-Ill.) isn't frozen out of hometown politics. But Obama antagonized Chicago black leaders by backing Mayor Richard Daley for re-election, rather than supporting Cook County Circuit Clerk Dorothy Brown, an African-American.

In New York, the Rev. Al Sharpton's refusal to follow Rangel in backing Hillary may be emblematic of his willingness to defy the black political machine. But Obama hasn't gone to see Sharpton; he seems to be shying away from an identification with the maverick civil-rights leader that could ant
agonize white voters.

A lack of black enthusiasm could also damage Obama if he fails to win the nomination and wants the No. 2 spot.

Which he should: The job would give him extra experience and give America four or eight years to get used to a black vice president. He'd emerge as the prohibitive favorite for the nomination in 2012 if Hillary loses this year and in 2016 if she wins.

But Obama will need the organized, vocal support of national black leaders if he's to bargain effectively for the veep spot. Right now, New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson is probably the frontrunner for the slot. A Clinton administration alum, he's closer to Hillary than is Obama - and attractive to his fellow Latinos.

But if Hillary defeats Obama and African-American leaders demand that he join the ticket to assuage the hard feelings, Sen. Clinton may have no choice but to
oblige. The question is: Will the traditional black leadership go to bat for Barack - or is he turning them off by turning away?

[bobbylien]

Man you are such a racist..

[CheesyMuslim]

Sorry bout that,

1. But Obama is dirty.
2. We gonna find it more and more.
3. Hilary is dirty.
4. We gonna find it more and more.
5. Which neolib isn't dirty?
6. This may take awhile.

Regards,
SirJamesofTexas

[Buck Laser]

The more Stoner and Cheesy rant about Obama, the better he looks to real people.

[BoogyMan]

Man you are such a racist..


Bobby, there was no commentary posted with the article, how is this racist?

[CheesyMuslim]

Sorry bout that,

1. Ha!
2. I was wondering if any body else would take notice!
3. Bobbyliens a race batter!
4. Sad fact that.
5. And yes I am *Yoda*.

Regards,
SirJamesofTexas

[Stoner]

Bobby, there was no commentary posted with the article, how is this racist?


He has that disease in which he runs off at the mouth before he thinks. Common amongst libs.

[bobbylien]

The correct term is xenophobic and I was referring to your title.. Osama.

2. We gonna find it more and more.
Did you even read the article chess?

[Labrocca]

Man you are such a racist..



What? That's a story by creditable people (Dick Morris ex Clinton advisor). If the same story was about Hillary and the female vote would you scream sexist?

Bobby there is truth to the fact that Obama will be the "black" candidate. You nor I can deny that. Good article btw...I am a Dick Morris fan. :)

[Stoner]

I am a Dick Morris fan

Yeah, me too.

I like him because he knows what he's talking about and is very neutral. He tells it the way it is regardless of political affiliation.

[bobbylien]

Man you are such a racist..



What? That's a story by creditable people (Dick Morris ex Clinton advisor). If the same story was about Hillary and the female vote would you scream sexist?

Bobby there is truth to the fact that Obama will be the "black" candidate. You nor I can deny that. Good article btw...I am a Dick Morris fan. :)

I knew people would jump on me for that :D. I wasnt talking about the article but Stoners title, Osama. I said that racist wasn't really the right word, even though its ignorant to the same degree. I think Lab saw that post and responded without even reading the rest of the thread. :)

[potter]

Since the black population of the US is just about 12.5%, does anyone really think they have the power to sway any election?

Hell, most of them have been scrubbed as "felons" from the voter lists by the republicans anyway.

[BoogyMan]

Since the black population of the US is just about 12.5%, does anyone really think they have the power to sway any election?

Hell, most of them have been scrubbed as "felons" from the voter lists by the republicans anyway.


I don't guess you would care to try and substantiate ANOTHER baseless claim like the one above eh Potter?

[potter]

Well, that was mostly tongue in cheek, but since you asked....

http://www.progress.org/florida01.htm

Florida Used Made-Up Data to Exclude Legitimate Voters

by Gregory Palast

This week, I was hacking my way through the Florida swampland known as the Office of Secretary of State Katherine Harris and found a couple thousand more names of voters electronically 'disappeared' from the vote rolls. About half of those named are African-Americans. They had the right to vote, but they never were allowed in to the balloting booths.

When we left off our Florida story two weeks ago, The Observer discovered that Harris's office had ordered the elimination of 8,000 Florida voters on the grounds that they had committed felonies in other states. None had. Harris bought the bum list from a company called ChoicePoint, a firm whose Atlanta executive suite and boardroom are filled with Republican funders. ChoicePoint, we have learned, picked up the mitaken list of faux felons from state officials in - ahem - Texas. In fact, it was a roster of people who, like their Governor, George W, had been convicted of nothing more than misdemeanours.

For Harris, Florida Governor Jeb Bush and his brother, the Texas blacklist was a mistake made in Heaven. Most of those targeted to have their names 'scrubbed' from the voter roles were African-Americans, Hispanics and poor white folk, likely voters for Vice-President Gore. We don't know how many voters were deprived of their citizenship rights before the error was discovered by a few sceptical county officials, before ChoicePoint, which has gamely 'fessed-up to the Texas-sized error, produced a new list of 58,000 supposed felons.

In May, Harris, who was also serving as a Bush campaign official, sent on the new, "improved" scrub sheets to the county election boards. Maybe it's my bad attitude, but I thought it worthwhile to check out the new list. Sleuthing around county offices with a team of researchers from internet newspaper Salon.com, we discovered that the 'correct' list wasn't so correct.

One elections supervisor, Linda Howell of Madison County, was so upset by the errors that she refused to use the Harris/ChoicePoint list. How could she be so sure the new list continued to identify innocent people as felons? Because her own name was on it!

Our 10-county review suggests a minimum 15 per cent misidentification rate. That makes another 7,000 innocent people accused of crimes and stripped of their citizenship rights in the run-up to the presidential race. And not just any 7,000 people. Hillsborough (Tampa) county statisticians found that 54 per cent of the names on the scrub list belonged to African-Americans, who voted 93 per cent for Gore.


And how's this for dispicable:

http://www.truthout.org/cgi-bin/artman/exec/view.cgi/61/20537

African-American Voters Scrubbed by Secret GOP Hit List
by Greg Palast
Democracy Now!

Friday 16 June 2006

Palast, who first reported this story for BBC Television Newsnight (UK) and Democracy Now! (USA), is author of the New York Times bestseller, Armed Madhouse.

The Republican National Committee has a special offer for African-American soldiers: Go to Baghdad, lose your vote.

A confidential campaign directed by GOP party chiefs in October 2004 sought to challenge the ballots of tens of thousands of voters in the last presidential election, virtually all of them cast by residents of Black-majority precincts.

Files from the secret vote-blocking campaign were obtained by BBC Television Newsnight, London. They were attached to emails accidentally sent by Republican operatives to a non-party website.

One group of voters wrongly identified by the Republicans as registering to vote from false addresses: servicemen and women sent overseas.

[Greg Palast's discussion with broadcaster Amy Goodman on the Black soldier purge of 2004.]

Here's how the scheme worked: The RNC mailed these voters letters in envelopes marked, "Do not forward", to be returned to the sender. These letters were mailed to servicemen and women, some stationed overseas, to their US home addresses. The letters then returned to the Bush-Cheney campaign as "undeliverable."

The lists of soldiers of "undeliverable" letters were transmitted from state headquarters, in this case Florida, to the RNC in Washington. The party could then challenge the voters' registration and thereby prevent their absentee ballot being counted.

One target list was comprised exclusively of voters registered at the Jacksonville, Florida, Naval Air Station. Jacksonville is third largest naval installation in the US, best known as home of the Blue Angels fighting squandron.

[See scrub sheet.]

Our team contacted the homes of several on the caging list, such as Randall Prausa, a serviceman, whose wife said he had been ordered overseas.

A soldier returning home in time to vote in November 2004 could also be challenged on the basis of the returned envelope. Soldiers challenged would be required to vote by "provisional" ballot.

Over one million provisional ballots cast in the 2004 race were never counted; over half a million absentee ballots were also rejected. The extraordinary rise in the number of rejected ballots was the result of the widespread multi-state voter challenge campaign by the Republican Party. The operation, of which the purge of Black soldiers was a small part, was the first mass challenge to voting America had seen in two decades.

The BBC obtained several dozen confidential emails sent by the Republican's national Research Director and Deputy Communications chief, Tim Griffin to GOP Florida campaign chairman Brett Doster and other party leaders. Attached were spreadsheets marked, "Caging.xls." Each of these contained several hundred to a few thousand voters and their addresses.

A check of the demographics of the addresses on the "caging lists," as the GOP leaders called them indicated that most were in African-American majority zip codes.

Ion Sanco, the non-partisan elections supervisor of Leon County (Tallahassee) when shown the lists by this reporter said: "The only thing I can think of - African American voters listed like this - these might be individuals that will be challenged if they attempted to vote on Election Day."

These GOP caging lists were obtained by the same BBC team that first exposed the wrongful purge of African-American "felon" voters in 2000 by then-Secretary of State Katherine Harris. Eliminating the voting rights of those voters - 94,000 were targeted - likely caused Al Gore's defeat in that race.

The Republican National Committee in Washington refused our several requests to respond to the BBC discovery. However, in Tallahassee, the Florida Bush campaign's spokespeople offered several explanations for the list.

Joseph Agostini, speaking for the GOP, suggested the lists were of potential donors to the Bush campaign. Oddly, the supposed donor list included residents of the Sulzbacher Center a shelter for homeless families.

Another spokesperson for the Bush campaign, Mindy Tucker Fletcher, ultimately changed the official response, acknowledging that these were voters, "we mailed to, where the letter came back - bad addresses."

The party has refused to say why it would mark soldiers as having "bad addresses" subject to challenge when they had been assigned abroad.

The apparent challenge campaign was not inexpensive. The GOP mailed the letters first class, at a total cost likely exceeding millions of dollars, so that the addresses would be returned to "cage" workers.

"This is not a challenge list," insisted the Republican spokesmistress. However, she modified that assertion by adding, "That's not what it's set up to be."

Setting up such a challenge list would be a crime under federal law. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 outlaws mass challenges of voters where race is a factor in choosing the targeted group.

While the party insisted the lists were not created for the purpose to challenge Black voters, the GOP ultimately offered no other explanation for the mailings. However, Tucker Fletcher asserted Republicans could still employ the list to deny ballots to those they considered suspect voters. When asked if Republicans would use the list to block voters, Tucker Fletcher replied, "Where it's stated in the law, yeah."

It is not possible at this time to determine how many on the potential blacklist were ultimately challenged and lost their vote. Soldiers sending in their ballot from abroad would not know their vote was lost because of a challenge.

--------

[BoogyMan]

Greg Palast!?!?!??! Bwahahahahahahahaha

You intimated that there was a wholesale republican effort to keep blacks from voting, which you cannot substantiate. You comment was as posted below.

Since the black population of the US is just about 12.5%, does anyone really think they have the power to sway any election?

Hell, most of them have been scrubbed as "felons" from the voter lists by the republicans anyway.

You didn't mention clearing the rolls of felons, you tried to say that republicans don't want black people to vote.

That kind of garbage will meet a swift response potter.

[potter]

As I said Boogy, that was mostly said tongue in cheek, which you chose to ignore. the fact that it did happen though, using the felon roles as justification, and the fact that the GOP was dienfranchising folks in the military speaks quite well to the point.

[Stoner]

and the fact that the GOP was dienfranchising folks in the military


Someone else who buys moveon.org's bullshit at wholesale.

[Labrocca]

Interesting how a list of 8000 was really suppose to be 58,000. Mistakes happen..on BOTH sides of an election. It's like a dirty boxing match at this point where an eye gouge or a hit below the belt barely raises an eye brow.

As for on topic..most likely Obama is doomed unless he can carry a significant portion of the black vote. Because I am pretty sure there will be white that won't vote for him for their own racial difficulties with a black president.

[BoogyMan]

As I said Boogy, that was mostly said tongue in cheek, which you chose to ignore. the fact that it did happen though, using the felon roles as justification, and the fact that the GOP was dienfranchising folks in the military speaks quite well to the point.


Felons don't have the right to vote potter. Its law.

You made the claim in such a way as to make it sounds like republicans just didn't want black people to vote.

[Buck Laser]

As I said Boogy, that was mostly said tongue in cheek, which you chose to ignore. the fact that it did happen though, using the felon roles as justification, and the fact that the GOP was dienfranchising folks in the military speaks quite well to the point.


Felons don't have the right to vote potter. Its law.

You made the claim in such a way as to make it sounds like republicans just didn't want black people to vote.


Boogy, I think that varies from state to state. I don't know what the situation is with federal felonies. I know there are moves in several states to change the state laws.

[BoogyMan]

As I said Boogy, that was mostly said tongue in cheek, which you chose to ignore. the fact that it did happen though, using the felon roles as justification, and the fact that the GOP was dienfranchising folks in the military speaks quite well to the point.


Felons don't have the right to vote potter. Its law.

You made the claim in such a way as to make it sounds like republicans just didn't want black people to vote.


Boogy, I think that varies from state to state. I don't know what the situation is with federal felonies. I know there are moves in several states to change the state laws.


Hi Buck, you are correct. I think Potter was referring primarily to Florida though, which does prevent fellons from voting. The sources provider were partisan hack sites.

[potter]

As I said Boogy, that was mostly said tongue in cheek, which you chose to ignore. the fact that it did happen though, using the felon roles as justification, and the fact that the GOP was dienfranchising folks in the military speaks quite well to the point.


Felons don't have the right to vote potter. Its law.

You made the claim in such a way as to make it sounds like republicans just didn't want black people to vote.



From the article:

When we left off our Florida story two weeks ago, The Observer discovered that Harris's office had ordered the elimination of 8,000 Florida voters on the grounds that they had committed felonies in other states. None had. Harris bought the bum list from a company called ChoicePoint, a firm whose Atlanta executive suite and boardroom are filled with Republican funders. ChoicePoint, we have learned, picked up the mitaken list of faux felons from state officials in - ahem - Texas. In fact, it was a roster of people who, like their Governor, George W, had been convicted of nothing more than misdemeanours.

[potter]

As I said Boogy, that was mostly said tongue in cheek, which you chose to ignore. the fact that it did happen though, using the felon roles as justification, and the fact that the GOP was dienfranchising folks in the military speaks quite well to the point.


Felons don't have the right to vote potter. Its law.

You made the claim in such a way as to make it sounds like republicans just didn't want black people to vote.


Boogy, I think that varies from state to state. I don't know what the situation is with federal felonies. I know there are moves in several states to change the state laws.


Hi Buck, you are correct. I think Potter was referring primarily to Florida though, which does prevent fellons from voting. The sources provider were partisan hack sites.


Any site you don't agree with is going to be a "hack site" Boogy, be it the Bible itself.

No, this wasn't just florida, the GOP was in it all over, disenfrachising as many military voters as possible.

The RNC mailed these voters letters in envelopes marked, "Do not forward", to be returned to the sender. These letters were mailed to servicemen and women, some stationed overseas, to their US home addresses. The letters then returned to the Bush-Cheney campaign as "undeliverable."

The lists of soldiers of "undeliverable" letters were transmitted from state headquarters, in this case Florida, to the RNC in Washington. The party could then challenge the voters' registration and thereby prevent their absentee ballot being counted.

One target list was comprised exclusively of voters registered at the Jacksonville, Florida, Naval Air Station. Jacksonville is third largest naval installation in the US, best known as home of the Blue Angels fighting squandron.

Over a million absentee ballots were thrown out in this manner. Why does the GOP hate democracy?

[Stoner]

Well it looks like Hussein Osama isn't getting that jolt he needs from the blacks.

http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/02/27/obama.black.vote/index.html

[Anti-Racism]

Multiculturalism, failing as usual.

[lily]

Since the black population of the US is just about 12.5%, does anyone really think they have the power to sway any election?

Hell, most of them have been scrubbed as "felons" from the voter lists by the republicans anyway.



I'm not sure, but under the new recruiting laws, they are now taking felons. I would assume that they would be allowed to vote, no?

[potter]

Since the black population of the US is just about 12.5%, does anyone really think they have the power to sway any election?

Hell, most of them have been scrubbed as "felons" from the voter lists by the republicans anyway.



I'm not sure, but under the new recruiting laws, they are now taking felons. I would assume that they would be allowed to vote, no?


I think it depends on the state. It seems I read somewhere that read that some states will allow a felon to vote after he/she has served thier time. It may be that once you're a convicted felon you lose all voting rights. I could be wrong.

[BoogyMan]

Any site you don't agree with is going to be a "hack site" Boogy, be it the Bible itself.

No potter, stop posting "proof" from "progressive" sites and we can talk. It would be no different that me posting something in support of my argument that was authored by Newsmax or Michelle Malkin.

[ECW]

Any site you don't agree with is going to be a "hack site" Boogy, be it the Bible itself.

No potter, stop posting "proof" from "progressive" sites and we can talk. It would be no different that me posting something in support of my argument that was authored by Newsmax or Michelle Malkin.


Turns out that Greg Palast, who is cited more times than I can count in all sorts of publications, wrote a book on the debacle of 2000 and how the company ChoicePoint and Katherine Harris came together to disqualify legitimate voters and hand the election over to George Bush. Being the Secretary of State for Florida (who is the person that is responsible for counting ALL the votes) AND being the co-chair of Bush's election committee would seem, to most folks, to be a conflict of interest. Greg Palast provides proof that far too many people were disqualified and the websites that are interested in this have posted this information.

Your problem is that you cannot counter his assertions with "facts" of your own so you employ the now-famous rightwing tactic of Shooting The Messenger. (Hate the message? Attack the source but do not provide a counter to it. Just attack, attack, attack.)

Potter made an assertion and provided a citation that you disputed. Your turn. Bring your Newsmax/Malkin sources and see if they stand up to the scrutiny. I doubt they will.

[Anti-Racism]

[quote=potter]
I'm not sure, but under the new recruiting laws, they are now taking felons. I would assume that they would be allowed to vote, no?


What a terrible idea that is. I think voting should go back to being restricted to people of 120+ IQ, who own land and are over 30 and are natural-born citizens.

(Not that I am in favor of voting -- it leads to selfishness.)