Voter ID scam is the real fraud

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/oped/bal-op.tucker14jan14,0,461309.story

Voter ID scam is the real fraud
Cynthia Tucker
January 14, 2008
ATLANTA

If the U.S. Supreme Court upholds Indiana's harsh voter ID law, as its justices seem poised to do, hundreds of thousands of black Americans should march in protest. So should hundreds of thousands of Latino Americans. Native Americans, too. Political activists from across the ethnic spectrum should convene the biggest political demonstration since the historic March on Washington in 1963.

Where is the Rev. Al Sharpton when a genuinely critical issue comes along? Where's the Rev. Jesse Jackson?

The GOP-led campaign to pass stringent voter ID laws is a greater injustice than the prosecutions of the Jena Six, more significant than the incarceration of Michael Vick, more damaging than the insulting rants of Don Imus. This is a frankly brazen effort to block the votes of thousands of people of color who might have the temerity to vote for Democrats. And it's un-American.

As happened in several states, including Georgia, the then-GOP-dominated Indiana legislature pushed through a rigid law in 2005 requiring state-sponsored photo IDs at the ballot box. While the Republican spin machine has worked mightily to portray this as an effort to curb voter fraud, it is no such thing. There has never - never - been a single case of "voter impersonation" at the ballot box, with a fake voter using an electric bill or phone bill to pretend to be a valid voter.

Earlier this month, radio journalist Warren Olney pressed Indiana Secretary of State Todd Rokita about the prosecution of voter impersonation cases in Indiana. "Oh, yeah. We suspect it happens all the time," Mr. Rokita said. "Suspect?" Mr. Olney countered.

"Well, are you saying you want to define whether or not there's fraud based on whether or not its prosecuted?" Mr. Rokita answered, adding, "It's a hard type of crime to catch. ... It's hard to catch one in the act."

OK, then. Got that? It's a little like the search for life on other planets. Extraterrestrials are out there, even if none has actually been spotted.

(If Republicans were interested in actual voter fraud, they would have tightened the rules for absentee ballots, since that's where most voter fraud occurs. But because Republican voters tend to favor absentee ballots, many GOP-dominated legislatures have made absentee balloting rules less stringent.)

But there is evidence aplenty of this: There are thousands of law-abiding registered voters across the land who have no government-sponsored ID - no passport, no driver's license - and who will be banned from the ballot box if the highest court upholds this highly partisan law. It is difficult for middle-class citizens to believe, I know. If you live inside the comfortable economic mainstream, where taking airplane trips and renting DVDs is a routine part of life, you can't imagine voters without a state-sponsored photo ID.

But they're out there. Just ask Mary-Jo Criswell, 71. Her ballot was thrown out when she showed up at her Indiana polling place expecting to use the same forms of ID, including a bank card with a photo, that she had used in the past. She has epilepsy, she says, so she has never had a driver's license.

Citizens like Ms. Criswell are Americans, too, and they have every right to vote. It is elitism, pure and simple, to suggest requiring them to obtain a state-sponsored photo ID is a "minor inconvenience." But that's exactly what Justice Anthony M. Kennedy called it during oral arguments, noting that the law is expected to affect only a small percentage of voters.

That's true. The GOP is aiming at a small pool of voters - mostly poor, often elderly, usually black or brown - who lack driver's licenses. As it happens, they tend to support Democrats. With so many elections decided by a margin of a few hundred votes, Republicans figure they can stay in power by blocking just a few Democratic ballots.

But the Republicans could be in for a jolt. The electorate seems much more excited about Democratic candidates this year. The Democratic presidential candidates have topped the Republicans in fundraising, and in early primary states, more Democratic ballots have been cast than Republican ones.

The way things are going, Republicans running for national office could lose by a lot of votes - not a few. So they'll need a new scam to win elections.

Cynthia Tucker is editorial page editor for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Her column appears Mondays in The Sun. Her e-mail is cynthia@ajc.com.

"Don't Tase Me, Bro" tops '07 memorable quote list

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20071219/us_nm/usa_quotes_dc

"Don't Tase Me, Bro" tops '07 memorable quote list
By Arthur Spiegelman
Wed Dec 19, 2007

"Don't Tase Me, Bro," a phrase that swept the nation after a U.S. college student used it seeking to stop campus police from throwing him out of a speech by Sen. John Kerry, was named on Wednesday as the most memorable quote of 2007.

Fred R. Shapiro, the editor of the Yale Book of Quotations, said the plea made by University of Florida student Andrew Meyer on September 17, accompanied by Meyer's screams as he was tased, beat out the racial slur that cost shock jock Don Imus his job and the Iranian president's declaration that his country does not have homosexuals.

Shapiro said Meyer's quote was a symbol of pop culture success. Within two days it was one of the most popular phrases on Google and one of the most viewed videos. It also showed up on ringtones and T-shirts.

Second on Shapiro's list was this tortuous answer by Lauren Upton, the South Carolina contestant in the Miss Teen America contest in August:

"I personally believe that U.S. Americans are unable to do so because some people out there in our nation don't have maps and I believe that our education like such as in South Africa and Iraq and everywhere like such as and I believe that they should our education over here in the U.S. should help the U.S. or should help South Africa and should help Iraq and the Asian countries so we will be able to build up our future for us."

Upton had been asked why one-fifth of Americans are unable to locate the United States on a map and later apologized for her answer not making a lot of sense.

Third was Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's October comment at Columbia University in New York, "In Iran we don't have homosexuals like in your country."

Shock jock Don Imus comments about the Rutgers University women's basketball team: "That's some nappy-headed hos there," was fourth.

Imus created a national outcry and lost his job at CBS radio in April, but returned to the airwaves in December with Citadel Broadcasting.

Other phrases on the list:

5. "I don't recall." -- Former U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales' repeated response to questioning at a congressional hearing about the firing of U.S. attorneys.

6. "There's only three things he (Republican presidential candidate and former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani) mentions in a sentence: a noun and a verb and 9/11." -- Sen. Joseph Biden, speaking at a Democratic presidential debate.

7. "I'm not going to get into a name-calling match with somebody (Vice President Dick Cheney) who has a 9 percent approval rating." -- Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Democrat.

8. "(I have) a wide stance when going to the bathroom." -- Idaho Republican Sen. Larry Craig's explanation of why his foot touched that of an undercover policeman in a men's room.

9. "I mean, you got the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy. I mean, that's a storybook, man." -- Biden describing rival Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama.

10. "I think as far as the adverse impact on the nation around the world, this administration has been the worst in history." -- Former President Jimmy Carter in an interview in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette newspaper.

(Editing by Jill Serjeant and Eric Beech)

Beast of the Month - May 2007

Beast of the Month - May 2007
Don Imus, "Shock Jock" Radio Host

"I yam an anti-Christ... "
John Lydon (aka Johnny Rotten) of The Sex Pistols, "Anarchy in the UK"

"That's some rough girls from Rutgers. Man, they got tattoos and... That's some nappy-headed hos there. I'm gonna tell you that now, man, that's some -- woo!"
Don Imus, showing his clever sense of humor

Who would have guessed at the start of April Don Imus (The Konformist Beast of the Month) would be dumped from radio before Sanjaya or Alberto Gonzales got their asses booted from American Idol or the DOJ?

(Okay, we'll try to keep the Sanjaya jokes to the minimum. True, he lacks the singing talents of fellow Idol competitor Melinda Doolittle, and frankly the male Konformist staff doesn't get what all these teenage girls see in the guy - although we appreciate the amazing skills of his sexy sister Shyamali, which consists of her boobs jiggling in slo-mo during a widely viewed YouTube clip. In any case, somehow The Konformist suspects if the American public's outrage over Gonzales' blatant disregard for the US Constitution matched the hysteria surrounding the Sanjaya backlash, Alberto - along with, among others, Rove, Cheney and Bush - would have been frog marched out of power and into prison long ago.)

The fall of Imus was fast and furious, coming just eight days after his crudely insulting cracks about the Rutgers female basketball team on his April 4 show. That Imus, a rich old white guy, could dismiss a group of dedicated young women of mainly African-American descent who managed to reach the NCAA championship with racist taunts comparing them to prostitutes received a widespread backlash, and soon his ass was off the airwaves, his $10 million a year contract null and void.

The reaction by the korporate media to the Imus affair was pretty revealing: while none would actually defend what he said, there was much lamentation that a nearly four-decade career on airwaves could be ruined by a single solitary incident. In this respect, he became linked to Mel "Mad Max" Gibson and Michael "Kramer" Richards, a trinity of victims to a new political correctness.

Of course, there's a problem with this viewpoint, starting with the sympathetic portrait of victimhood. Imus, like Gibson and Richards before him, is responsible for what he said, and has nobody to blame for his own words but himself. That said, there was nothing in Richards' career before his failed "He's a nigger!" comedic rant to suggest a man with any hatred of African-Americans. Gibson, for all the controversy surrounding The Passion of the Christ, had likewise never revealed any overt hostility to Jews before his drunken anti-Semitic ramble. Both Richards and Gibson, to their credit, afterwards exhibited clearly sincere regret and shame for what they had said. Contrast that with Imus, who seemed more annoyed that he now had to feign regret for his inflammatory joke. In a predictably self-pitying moment, he declared on his show, "I don't deserve to be fired. So, I should be punished and I'm being punished - and not insignificantly, by the way." He ended his whine by declaring "I'm not whining." Hardly a convincing case of contrition.

Furthermore, Imus' insult followed a track history of offensive behavior by the radio host. Among his "greatest" hits itemized by FAIR.org :

* Referred to African-American journalist Gwen Ifill as "a cleaning lady"

* Called New York Times sports reporter Bill Rhoden a "quota hire"

* Referred to tennis player Amelie Mauresmo as "a big old lesbo" on air

* Described Washington Post reporter Howard Kurtz a "boner-nosed... beanie-wearing Jewboy"

* Dismissed a disabled colleague as "the cripple"

* Nicknamed an Indian men's tennis duo as "Gunga Din and Sambo"

* Declared the New York Knicks to be "chest-thumping pimps"

* His sometime sidekick Sid Rosenberg called African-American tennis star Venus William an "animal" and cracked that she and sister Serena would be more likely photographed for National Geographic than Playboy

* Insulted onetime show newsreader Contessa Brewer by calling her a pig, a skank and dumber than dirt on air

* Boasted in a 60 Minutes interview that he picked one of his producers to do "nigger jokes" on air

Even more telling is his nasty "jokes" involving those of Middle Eastern descent, which puts his "nappy-headed hos" comment to shame. As noted by FAIR and the World Socialist Web Site, he regularly refers to Arabs as "rag-heads" and "goat-humping weasels" on air. During the funeral of Yasser Arafat, he and others on his show referred to the mourning Palestinians as “stinking animals” who “eat dirt” and declared the US "ought to drop the bomb right there, kill ’em all right now." When a civilian Iranian airliner crashed and killed 43 people, Imus charming response: “When I hear stories like that, I think who cares.” For these comments, he was given in December 2004 a P.U.-litzer Prize from FAIR's Norman Solomon, yet there was no punishment of Imus for his overtly racist tirades.

Of course, Imus is just one of many: the radio airwaves have long been dominated by so-called "shock jocks" who have turned bigotry and intolerance into a crude form of mass humor. Ever since Howard Stern (and to a lesser extent, Imus) popularized the shock jock shtick, numerous others have copied the formula. With the exception of Stern, there is little comic talent among them, but they all make up for it with shock value. Opie and Anthony had their show cancelled by Infinity Broadcasting in 2002 for egging on a couple to have sex in St. Patrick's Cathedral. (They moved to XM Satellite Radio in 2004.) Mancow has contests where contestants eat kitty litter and try to impersonate being a murderer and a carjacker in public to frighten onlookers. Bubba the Love Sponge had a pig slaughtered with sound effects implying it was being tortured on a "Road Kill Barbecue" special, shaved a man's genitals and sprayed them with carburetor cleaner, and has an annual "Shit Your Pants Contest" where participants try to hold in their feces after being given multiple laxative treatments. One similar contest that got out of control: in January, there was a water-drinking contest for a Nintendo Wii (cleverly titled "Hold your Wee for a Wii") in Sacramento by the local Morning Rave show. Though a nurse called warning that drinking too much water is hazardous and potentially deadly, the shock jocks laughed it off, mocked the contestants’ pain and offered no medical assistance. The next day, one of the contestants was found dead, a victim of water intoxication. (What a knee-slapper!) Needless to say, those involved with the stunt were fired by the station for their charming prank.

Imus, along with Stern and the others, claim they are the heirs of Lenny Bruce, but any true fan of Bruce knows this is a lie. True, Bruce used foul language, gags on racial stereotypes and scatological humor in abundance, but his purpose was to challenge the public's minds. It is unsurprising to note that for all their "shock" value, the jock’s politics (unlike the radical Bruce) is almost uniformly the ugliest elements of reactionary beliefs. Howard Stern has devoted much energy defending the beating of Rodney King. In 2005, after Howard Dean declared the Iraq War unwinnable, Mancow ranted on Fox News that "Howard Dean is a vile human being... this guy is bloodthirsty. He is evil." He would add that Dean "ought to be kicked out of America" and "tried for treason." Do either of these stances sound like something Lenny Bruce would advocate? In essence, the shock jocks take Bruce's shock without his deeper purpose, and one has to look at the korporate media's embrace of the shock fad as an attempt to neuter the true rebellious message of Bruce and his peers.

Looking at the evidence, it's clear Imus is no Lenny Bruce, nor even a Don Rickles, who cleverly used prejudice and hatred as a comic tool to made light of it. He isn't even a Mad Mel or Kramer, the popularity of both being despite their infamous tirades that have tarnished their reputation. Instead, Imus is closer in spirit to former Virginia Governor and Senator George Allen, making a career out of exploiting the ugliest prejudices in society, doing so in a way to comfort the prejudices rather than challenge them. And like Allen, Imus has now had his Macaca moment.

Perhaps other moments of accounting are on the horizon. After highlighting the "Nappy-headed hos" controversy, the Website MediaMatters listed other crude and offensive statements by numerous other personalities within the right-wing media. Among them are Glenn Beck, Neal Boortz, Ann Coulter, John Gibson, Rush Limbaugh, Bill O'Reilly and Michael "Weiner" Savage. Their comments were at least of equal offense. It has also been noted by FAIR and MediaMatters, among others, that Imus long has received a free ride in the press because many news personalities guest on his show for his impressive history of hawking books. Among the guilty: Jonathan Alter, Tom Brokaw, Maureen Dowd, Howard Fineman, Jeff Greenfield, David Gregory, Howard Kurtz, Tom Oliphant, Clarence Page, Dan Rather, David Remnick, Frank Rich, Cokie Roberts, Tim Russert, Bob Schieffer and Evan Thomas. But the accounting goes even higher, as the following political figures have appeared on the Imus show: Richard "Donkey Dick" Cheney, Christopher Dodd, Harold Ford (an African-American, no less), John Kerry, Joe Lieberman, John McCain and Mitt Romney. Note that the list has multiple members of both parties, many of which are involved in the 2008 Presidential election race. And then there's the billion-dollar accounting question: how could giant korporations such as MSNBC and CBS Radio back a man for so long with such a sordid history? We at The Konformist can't wait for more Macaca to hit the fan.

In any case, we salute Don Imus as Beast of the Month. Congratulations, and keep up the great work, Donnie!!!

Thanks to FAIR.org, MediaMatter.org and The World Socialist Web Site ( WSWS.org ) for reference material used in this article.

Time for an Ann Coulter Ban

http://www.film.com/tv/story/timeforananncoulterban/13982602/15287733

Time for an Ann Coulter Ban
Ethan Morris, Jun 28, 2007

Okay, enough is enough. Will someone please get Ann Coulter off my TV set?

Seriously. The FCC needs to implement an Ann Ban as soon as humanly possible.

Aside from the fact that many believe her to be a raving lunatic, now she's all but threatened the life of a presidential candidate.

In an interview on ABC's Good Morning America, Coulter said she wished Democratic candidate John Edwards "had been killed in a terrorist assassination plot."

The ultra-super-duper-uber-over-the-top conservative columnist and frequent talk show guest says she was merely making a point, after notoriously liberal talk show host Bill Maher made a similar comment about Vice President Dick Cheney.

In fact, what Maher said was that if Dick Cheney had been killed in a real (but failed) attempted assassination in Afghanistan, fewer people would be dying in Iraq right now. "If he did die," Maher said at the time, "other people, more people would live." But he didn't actually "wish" Cheney dead.

Technically, Coulter didn't either. Here's her exact quote: "If I'm going to say anything about John Edwards, I'll just wish he had been killed in a terrorist assassination plot." By couching her words with conditionals like "if" and "I'll" and by using the past tense, Coulter will no doubt avoid any trouble from the law. (Presidential candidates get protection from the Secret Service and threatening their lives is a serious no no.)

But she couldn't stave off a response from Edwards' wife, who called Coulter when she later appeared on MSNBC's Hardball. Elizabeth Edwards asked Coulter to stop attacking her husband with such hate language. Coulter smirkingly refused, and it quickly degenerated into a shouting match.

Now listen: I'm not some liberal who hates Ann Coulter for her politics. I hate Ann Coulter because I, and a lot of others, think she's a venomous nut case.

This is the woman who wishes Timothy McVeigh had blown up the New York Times building.

This is the woman who wants to invade other countries, kill their leaders, and convert the entire world to Christianity. (Does that include Israel, Ann?)

This is the woman who quotes God as saying man should "rape" the earth so we don't end up "living like the Indians."

Now she's implying a death wish against a presidential candidate.

I'm sorry, but this goes way beyond political debate. It's nothing more than venal pandering for profit. Coulter's outrageous statements are obviously designed for the sole purpose of selling her books and getting people to read her columns. (And getting sucker-bloggers like me to waste time writing my opinion about her!)

And her hateful spewing crosses the line. As a writer and journalist, I'm as big a supporter of free speech there is. But Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes helped us draw an important line when he pointed out that free speech doesn't mean you can yell "fire" in a crowded theater.

You can bet Don Imus must be wondering why he doesn't have a job right now.

Seriously, it's time for Ann to go. Shame on network executives and talk show hosts who agree to have Ann as a guest ever again. Shame on viewers for watching her, or for reading her columns. Shame on me if I ever write another word about her.

C'mon FCC. You can spare us all if you'll just implement an Ann Ban, punishable by a fine of one beeeeeelion dollars.