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Lyin' John Fund just can't help himself, makes up
tale of current NJ 'voter fraud' taken from 1993 incident

post from Crooks and Liars on 03 November 2009 06:00:26 PM. © Crooks and Liars

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John Fund went on Glenn Beck's show last night to help Beck with his characterization of the Obama White House as a nest of fist-bumping terrorist radicals, mostly by underscoring its supposed connection to ACORN and the SEIU. (According to Beck, SEIU's Andy Stern is "really controlling our country.")

At the end of the segment, Fund began describing the ways ACORN's nefarious activists are supposedly engaged in voter fraud in the New Jersey election:

Fund: People are going door to door in parts of Camden with Hispanics that don't have very much knowledge of English, and they're saying, "We have a new way for you to vote, la nueva forma de votar; just fill out these papers."

But as Media Matters noticed, he's actually describing something that happened in 1993 in Philadelphia. Indeed, he accurately described it in his Wall Street Journal op-ed in which he tried to claim that fraud was occurring in New Jersey:

There are additional reports from Camden that Hispanic voters have been misled into voting absentee ballots. So-called bearers who are allowed to collect and carry absentee ballots are said to have encouraged voters to fill out applications for absentee ballots. A few days later, the bearers reportedly return with the actual ballots, which they offer "assistance" in filling out.
Authorities in nearby Philadelphia know about such scams. In one infamous case, a key 1993 race that determined which party would control the Pennsylvania state senate was thrown out by a federal judge after massive evidence that hundreds of voters had been pressured into casting improper absentee ballots. Voters were told by "bearers" that it was all part of "la nueva forma de votar" -- the new way to vote. Local politicos tell me Philly operatives associated in the past with Acorn may now be advising their Jersey cousins on how to perform such vote harvesting.

Notice that in this version of events, there's no mention of the "la nueva forma de votar" ruse being used in Camden -- just the use of absentee ballots. And despite Fund's claims, there is no evidence of actual fraud yet even in this absentee-ballot operation -- just the potential for it.

Conservatives like Fund have long pinned their electoral hopes on reducing voter turnout, because encouraging large numbers of voters is a certain recipe to right-wing defeat. The Right succeeds most when voter turnout is suppressed -- and absentee-ballot efforts are part of reversing that trend.

They also like having handy excuses when they lose. It's clear that Fund, Beck, and the rest of the Right is setting themselves up with a way to claim that an electoral loss in New Jersey was illegitimate. Because that's what they're best at -- tearing down liberals after they beat them at the polls.

Read The Full Article:
http://crooksandliars.com/david-neiwert/lyin-john-fund-just-cant-help-himsel

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Prelude to Results Open Thread

post from Open Left - Front Page on 03 November 2009 06:00:00 PM. © Open Left - Front Page

Tonight, we will be covering election results in three threads:One thread for Maine, starting at 8[...]

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http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/OpenLeft-FrontPage/~3/Ld_JXFDL-VQ/prelude-to-resul
ts-open-thread

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2009 Election Results

post from DemConWatch on 03 November 2009 06:00:00 PM. © DemConWatch

Follow along with tonight's election results.

Virginia Governor (Polls close at 7PM) - Official Results

Candidate
Percent of Vote
     Creigh Deeds (D)
      Bob McDonnell (R)
      Percent of vote in:

New Jersey Governor (Polls close at 8PM) - Official Results

Candidate
Percent of Vote
     Jon Corzine (D)
      Chris Christie (R)
      Chris Daggett (I)
      Percent of vote in:

New York 23rd District (Polls close at 9PM) - Official Results

Candidate
Percent of Vote
     Bill Owens (D)
      Doug Hoffman (Con)      Dede Scozzafava (R) WITHDREW      Percent of vote in:

Maine Question 1 (Polls close at 8PM) - Official Results

Candidate
Percent of Vote
Yes - Repeal Same-Sex Marriage No - Do Not Repeal Same-Sex Marriage Percent of vote in:

Read The Full Article:
http://www.Demconwatchblog.com/diary/2709/2009-election-results

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Ashley Todd in a Bottle

post from Talking Points Memo on 03 November 2009 05:57:00 PM. © Talking Points Memo

Looks like we've got a fun one cookin' already. A short while ago, Conservative Doug Hoffman, the special election candidate in NY-23, breathlessly announced that frustrated Dems had slashed the tires of one of his campaign workers. Right-wing yakkers[...]

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http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Talking-Points-Memo/~3/9MMISiqzKaM/ashley_todd_in_
a_bottle.php

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Pawlenty purges Snowe from GOP

post from Daily Kos on 03 November 2009 05:56:04 PM. © Daily Kos

Gov. Tim Pawlenty has gone the full teabagger.

Gov. Tim Pawlenty (R-Minn.) warned Olympia Snowe today that she's risking her position in the GOP by considering a vote for healthcare reform.

"She's somebody who has gotten into the middle of the healthcare debate in a way that makes Republicans mad," Pawlenty said on Morning Joe. "They make accept that, but they're not going to accept her deviating on many other things."

Asked whether he was glad Snowe was a Republican, Pawlenty hedged.

"There is a process in her state that is broad based that endorses her, and the Republicans in that state say 'we want her to be our candidate,'" Pawlenty said.

Pawlenty thinks he has a shot in 2012, so he's trying to out-Palin Palin. But he's apparently too stupid to realize that Snowe is the GOP's best chance at killing the public option given the Obama administration's fetish with "bipartisanship".

And in the process, he's eagerly adopting the teabagger's tactic of choice -- the purge.

How confident is Snowe that she can survive the coming purge? Because it's coming. It's inevitable, and she's going to suffer the same indignities inflicted on Dede Scozzafava in NY-23.

When we set out to bring the Democratic Party back from the dead in 2002, we didn't try to push the Democratic Party anywhere new. Instead, we tried to bring them back to the principles they once fought for -- Paul Wellstone's "Democratic wing of the Democratic Party". We argued -- using polling as empirical evidence -- that the public would respond to true progressivism, and 2006 and 2008 vindicated us. Even Connecticut polling today makes clear that nutmegers have buyer's remorse on that whole Lieberman thing.

I'm not sure where the teabaggers are taking the GOP, but it isn't anywhere that is empirically popular in the polling, nor historically successful. Even St. Ronnie signed an immigration amnesty and raised taxes to close a ballooning budget deficit. He'd be quickly purged out of today's GOP.

Only question is, why is Snowe putting up with it?

Read The Full Article:
http://feeds.dailykos.com/~r/dailykos/index/~3/jBevFNxnNyc/-Pawlenty-purges-Snowe
-from-GOP

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What Happened in Virginia - and How to Prevent
the Same Disaster in Your State

post from They gave us a republic... - Front Page on 03 November 2009 05:54:02 PM. © They gave us a republic... - Front Page

At Firedoglake, Ben Tribbett Ben Tribbett offers details to back up what I posted yesterday about the Lessons of Virginia.

For those of you following the 2009 elections, I don't have to tell you that Virginia-one year after voting Democratic for President for the first time since 1964-is about to sweep our most conservative Republican ticket in history to victory today. What you might find useful though is why-and how you can prevent something similar from happening in your state in 2010.
SNIP
The strongest groups for Democrats in 2008 were voters under the age of 30 and minority voters. Also known as the two groups whose participation historically falls in midterm elections. In Virginia this year, one poll showed the percentage of the likely electorate under the age of 30 falling 70% from 2008-and the African American share of the vote falling 39% from 2008! That's why virtually every poll has shown today's likely electorate as having voted for John McCain by double digits over Barack Obama in Virginia last year-despite Virginia having voted almost exactly the reverse.
Unfortunately for us, the Deeds campaign freaked out and read these polls wrong over the summer. Instead of attempting to energize more young and minority voters to the polls to make the electorate more representative of Virginia-they began running a campaign targeted to the people already planning to vote. Creigh began bashing federal Democratic priorities like "Cap and Trade" and health care reform to appeal to the conservatives that were headed to the polls.
And every time he did it, polls indicated turnout shriveled even further among Democrats and progressive voters-making the electorate even older, whiter, and more conservative. To which Creigh responded to by bashing federal Democrats more-which resulted in even more progressives becoming disengaged. Over and over, the cycle continued. Over the last six weeks, PPP polls indicated the share of the electorate that identified as Democrats declined from 38% to 31%. In other words almost one out of every five self-identified Democrats planning to vote on Labor Day has since then looked at Creigh Deeds and his conservative message, and decided they weren't voting. Ouch!
SNIP
The lesson for candidates in 2010 is clear: do not depress your base when our electorate is already far less likely to vote than Republicans to begin with.
Successful candidates in 2010 will find a way to engage young voters and minority voters so they come back to the polls-and AFTER they do that, work on winning over enough Independents to win.
If this election serves as a reminder that pandering to right wingers is not a successful electoral strategy, then Creigh Deeds will have done even more good for Democrats than if he had won the Governorship today.

Read the whole thing.

Are you listening, Blue Dogs?

Every step to the right loses you Democratic votes.

Every rejection of liberal values loses you Democratic votes.

Every slap at President Obama loses you Democratic votes.

And in the face of a credible republican opponent raising money fast, nothing you can do or say will gain you a single republican vote.

You run as a Real Democrat, or you lose. Your choice.

Read The Full Article:
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheyGaveUsARepublic-FrontPage/~3/bcxYRv-KNfA/what-
happened-in-virginia-and-how-to-prevent-the-same-disaster-in-your-state

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Lawyers in Jersey, Smooth Talking Aliens on TV

post from Taylor Marsh on 03 November 2009 05:51:38 PM. © Taylor Marsh

Christie to Sean Hannity earlier today: “I’ve got 300 lawyers” ready and waiting, so Gov. Corzine better beware. TPMMuckaker’s Zachary Roth sets it up perfectly: Another election, another boatload of evidence-free Republican[...]

Read The Full Article:
http://www.taylormarsh.com/2009/11/03/lawyers-in-new-jersey-smooth-talking-aliens
-on-tv/

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Jay Norris Video Commentary November 3, 2009

post from Jutia Group on 03 November 2009 05:45:00 PM. © Jutia Group

Welcome to Jay Norris’ Forex Trend Maps, a recap of the Forex markets daily, posted after 4:30 P.M. (CDT). For more information, please contact Jay at…

Read The Full Article:
http://jutiagroup.com/2009/11/03/jay-norris-video-commentary-november-3-2009/

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Beck witch hunt for socialists, communists,
Marxists moves on to SEIU's Stern

post from Media Matters for America - Latest Items on 03 November 2009 05:41:51 PM. © Media Matters for America - Latest Items

Continuing his pattern, Glenn Beck suggested during the November 3 edition of his radio program that SEIU's Andy Stern is a communist, socialist, and Marxist because he said in an interview that "workers of the world unite, it's not just a slogan anymore. It's the way we're going to have to do our work." However, when asked in a separate interview why he uses the slogan, Stern replied that it's "good news" that "communism's dead"; further, numerous conservatives, including Newt Gingrich and John McCain, have approvingly cited quotes or tactics from communist and socialist dictators -- yet those conservatives have seemed to escape Beck's witch hunt.

Beck: "That is communist, Marxist, propaganda ... we don't want to become a socialist nation"

Beck suggests SEIU's Stern is a communist, socialist, Marxist. On his November 3 radio program, Beck played a clip of SEIU president Andy Stern stating on the June 15, 2007, edition of PBS' Bill Moyers Journal that SEIU has "offices now in Australia and in Switzerland and London, in South America and Africa. We've been working with unions around the world. And what we're working towards is building a global organization. Because comp-- you know, workers of the world unite, it's not just a slogan anymore. It's the way we're going to have to do our work." Based on Stern's quotation of "workers of the world unite," Beck suggested that Stern is a communist, Marxist and socialist.

From the November 3 edition of Premiere Radio Networks' The Glenn Beck Program:

BECK: Now listen to Andy Stern. This is the most frequent visitor to the White House, the most frequent -- the guy who helped design cap-and-trade. The guy who is helping design immigration policy, the guy who is helping design the stimulus package, and the guy who, most importantly, is designing the mother of all beasts, the health care. Listen to what he is saying in this interview.
STERN [audio clip]: And we are beginning -- we have offices now in Australia and Switzerland and London, in South America and Africa. We've been working with unions around the world. And what we're working towards is building a global organization. Because comp-- you know, workers of the world unite, it's not just a slogan anymore. It's the way we're going to have to do our work.
BECK: Do you understand this? Workers of the world unite. That is communist, Marxist propaganda. Communist -- they for years -- workers of the world unite. This is SEIU, the Services Employees Union International. Got it? Or whatever it is. International union. Service Employees International Union. OK? They're going international -- workers of the world unite. But there's more. The most frequent visitor to the White House, and the guy Barack Obama says he turns to -- not Mao, that's another one of his advisers -- most often, if he needs to know what to do, he turns to SEIU. Here it is.
STERN [audio clip]: We're trying to use the power of persuasion. And if that doesn't work, we're going to use the persuasion of power. Because there are governments and there are opportunities to change laws that affect these companies. I'm not naïve. We're ready to strike.
BECK: He's not naive. He's ready to strike.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE [audio clip]: It started last summer with the so called big box ordinance.
BECK: Listen to this.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE [audio clip]: Labor wanted it; business didn't.
STERN [audio clip]: We took names. We watched how they voted. We know where they live.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE [audio clip]: In October Andy Stern, the president of the Service Employees International Union --
BECK: We took names.
STERN [audio clip]: There are opportunities in America to share better in the wealth, to rebalance the power, and unions and government are part of the solution.
BECK: To rebalance the power and to share the wealth. Workers of the world unite; we can help you share the wealth, if you combine government and unions. Well, what the hell are we doing?
STEVE "STU" BURGUIERE (executive producer): Can I have one request real quick for you to say again that he's the most -- the person who's visited the White House the most?
PAT GRAY (co-host): Twenty-two times.
BURGUIERE: Twenty-two times.
BECK: Twenty-two times.
GRAY: Except we'll probably hear, it's not that Andy Stern. Uh, that's a different Andy Stern.
BECK: No, we've -- we've checked.
BURGUIERE: Is it possible he's going on tours -- he just really likes the history.
BECK: He is -- he is -- he has weekly meetings with the president. Weekly meetings.
GRAY: He almost lives there. In fact, it was described that way. He practically lives in the White House.
BECK: He has unfettered access to the Oval Office. Now you tell me, America, what is it going to take? What is it going to take? You know, yesterday I drew, if you saw on the TV show, I drew a picture of a building and all of us just jumping off of this building, because the building is so tall you just don't feel the consequences. Well, we're facing the pavement here, gang. Prepare for impact. And we have people now, and where are your damn representatives in Washington standing up and saying "Hold it, we don't want to become a socialist nation"?

Stern while discussing use of "workers of the world unite" slogan: "the good news is communism's dead"

Stern: "the good news is communism's dead." During the May 14, 2006, edition of CBS's 60 Minutes, reporter Lesley Stahl said to Stern: "You like to say, 'Workers of the world unite,' which sounds, it is Karl Marx. But that's your, that's your kind of slogan now." Stern replied: "Well, the good news is communism's dead, but the truth is, the phrase means a lot because all of a sudden workers in London and workers in the United States are working for the same employer and the same owners."

Numerous conservatives have approvingly cited Mao's and other communists' tactics, rhetoric

As Media Matters for America has documented, numerous conservatives, including Newt Gingrich and John McCain, have approvingly cited the quotes and tactics from communist and socialist dictators, and stated that they had used those tactics in their political work, or have otherwise highlighted their philosophies.

Beck frequently targets progressives and Democrats as communist, Maoist, socialist lovers

Beck cropped Dunn quote to falsely claim she said Mao was "the man she turns to most." Continuing Fox News' witch hunt against members of the Obama administration, both Beck and Special Report misleadingly cropped White House communicators director Anita Dunn's remarks at a high school graduation ceremony to falsely claim that she was, in Beck's words, "proclaiming Mao [Zedong] as ... the man that she turns to most." In fact, Dunn actually said that Mao and Mother Teresa were "the two people that I turn to most to basically deliver a simple point, which is, you're going to make choices."

Beck falsely claimed Dunn "worships" "her hero" Mao Zedong. Throughout most of his October 15 Fox News program, Beck falsely claimed that Dunn "worships" and "idolizes" "her hero" Mao Zedong. In fact, in the video that Beck aired as evidence to support his claims, Dunn offered no endorsement of Mao's ideology or atrocities -- rather, she commented that Mao and Mother Teresa were two of her "favorite political philosophers," and based on short quotes from them, she offered the advice that "you don't have to follow other people's choices and paths" or "let external definition define how good you are internally."

Beck smears net neutrality as a Marxist plot to take over the Internet. Beck argued that the Obama administration's support for net neutrality amounted to a Marxist takeover of the Internet that would stifle innovation, when in fact net neutrality -- which was the law of the land from the creation of the Internet until 2005, and which ensured that Internet service providers were not able to control content -- has been cited by numerous Internet pioneers as the guiding principle in Internet development and innovation. Moreover, in smearing supporters of net neutrality, Beck esentially included groups such as the Gun Owners of America, the Christian Coalition, and Media Research Center founder Brent Bozell's Parents Television Council in what he described as a plot "design[ed]" by "Marxists."

Beck attacks "manufacturing czar" Bloom for citing Mao. Beck seized on "manufacturing czar" Ron Bloom's February 2008 statement that he agrees "with Mao that political power comes largely from the barrel of a gun."

Beck: Obama so clearly" a socialist, "He's surrounded himself with Marxists his whole life." On the March 9 edition of Fox News' Your World with Neil Cavuto, Beck claimed that Obama "is so clearly" a socialist because "[h]e's surrounded himself with Marxists his whole life."