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PoliGAF 2013 |OT2| Worth 77% of OT1

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G

Gallbaro

Banned
Coordinated Voter Fraud in NYC?
They wont be prosecuted because they are voting for the Brooklyn DA who protects them.

What appears to be an orchestrated pattern of voter fraud is being reported at a pivotal precinct in South Williamsburg. According to a Board of Elections poll worker and another poll watcher, groups of young Hasidic men attempted to enter the polling station at IS 71 and vote under the names of other citizens who have yet to vote. "They're signing signatures, but the ID they show doesn't match the signature on the forms. Yes, there's been some illegal stuff going on," BOE poll worker Antoinette Reaves said.

An NYPD officer standing outside IS 71 told us he had witnessed four men attempting to vote under the wrong name in the two hours he had been posted there.

While some of the attempts were made by men who looked to be of voting age, others struck poll workers as obviously fraudulent. "They're fourteen, fifteen years old, walking in here with a crowd of people. We stopped them and asked for ID—we know they're too young to go in there. They've been trying it all day," Reaves said. "The same faces are appearing."

While Reaves could not say whether or not any of them have been successful, David Greenberg, a poll watcher for city council candidate Stephen Pierson, said the sheer number of attempts suggested that the problem was more widespread.

"I would definitely expect there are more, it's got to be closer to 20 or two dozen," Greenberg said. "[The BOE workers] are seeing a lot of fraudulent stuff, people are trying to sneak in, so they're aggravated as all hell."

Greenberg added, "There was a period of time when we weren't able to come in [to observe] because we didn't have the proper credentials, or so they said. I wouldn't question that there are more people trying this than we can see."

IS 71 is the same polling place where we found potentially illegal raffles that displayed campaign literature promoting preferred candidates, and promised voters a chance at a $250 cash prize or a gift certificate, so long as you cast a vote.

According to a member of the ultra-Orthodox community who claimed intimate knowledge of the faction's electioneering processes, the raffles serve a greater purpose than just enticing voters to cast ballots for their preferred candidates.

"Your name goes into a raffle if you put in that you voted. And they have access constantly to this data so they know who's voted from that," said the source, referring to leaders of Williamsburg's Satmar Ahronim sect. The raffle allegedly provides a list of names that cannot be used by fraudulent voters. At IS 71 earlier today, community members were seen picking up a stack of raffle cards every 20 minutes or so and scanning their barcodes.

The source, who declined to be named for fear of retribution, told us the fraud operation is run out of an ultra-Orthodox wedding hall at the intersection of Franklin Avenue and Flushing Avenue in Williamsburg. Volunteers are allegedly given free food and then "driven to four or five places" to vote under false names. "They have copies of the voter rolls, I don't know how they get them, but they get the names and the signatures," the source alleged.

Approached by a reporter this afternoon, a group of men inside the wedding hall denied any involvement with a voting fraud operation.

Failed Messiah, a blog that closely monitors Brooklyn's ultra-Orthodox community, has also received tips about dirty tricks in South Williiamsburg today. Yeshiva World News reporter Jacob Kornluth was in the voting precinct today and reports similar allegations of voter fraud.




A poster for DA Charles Hynes seen in South Williamsburg today. (Gothamist)
A spokesman for the Brooklyn DA's office confirmed that they haven't received any complaints of voter fraud referred from the BOE yet, and pointed out that the polls hadn't closed when we called. Long-serving Brooklyn DA Charles Hynes has faced an unusually stiff challenge for reelection this year, in part due to criticism that he's failed to aggressively prosecute sex-offenders in the ultra-Orthodox community.

An NYPD spokesman confirmed that additional officers were sent to IS 71 earlier this evening to control a "large voting crowd," but added that allegations of voting fraud weren't under the department's purview.

Moses, a 19-year-old Hasid who said he voted for Charles Hynes, said that while he didn't personally know anyone who committed voter fraud, he'd heard that it happens. "It gives us a bad name, it's not a nice thing," he said, adding that he didn't think people did it for money or prizes. "They're just doing it for the community. I just follow the community, I know they want my best, and I trust them."

Simon, a 24-year-old Hasid with a baby girl, expressed an even stronger bond with his community. "I don't know the meaning of democracy, I just vote what they tell me to do, because maybe they've made deals with the politicians," he told us. "If people voted more than once or voted for other people, I don't know if that happened, but it doesn't matter to me, because I know they're voting for the right people."

"Who's going to prosecute them?" asks our concerned source in the ultra-Orthodox community. "Morality is not the thing that guides them... Soon the government won't even be able to control them. They have their own judges, they have their own police, they do whatever they want."
Click to expand...

http://gothamist.com/2013/09/11/voter_fraud_attempts.php
 
O

Oblivion

Fetishing muscular manly men in skintight hosery
Well, this is the dumbest "Democratic" strategist I've ever seen:

Dave "Mudcat" Saunders, a veteran smash-mouth Democratic strategist, says he is supporting Republican Ken Cuccinelli for governor, branding Democrat Terry McAuliffe a "corporatist."

"What these corporatists have done to us in rural America and in urban America ..." Saunders said in a telephone interview. "I can't support a corporatist. I just can't. This guy is not my kind of Democrat."

... Saunders, from the mountains outside Roanoke, is a colorful operative who has urged his party to make a play for the increasingly Republican rural vote....
Click to expand...
 
B

B-Dubs

No Scrubs
Lhota just won the GOP primary. Not quite the comedy option Cats was, but he did say he'd have killed the kittens on the tracks the other day so there's that.

de Blasio is .5% away from avoiding a run-off.

EDIT: A NY1 reporter says she sees Weiner giving a Ch 4 reporter the finger.
 
G

Gallbaro

Banned
B-Dubs said:
Lhota just won the GOP primary. Not quite the comedy option Cats was, but he did say he'd have killed the kittens on the tracks the other day so there's that.

de Blasio is .5% away from avoiding a run-off.
Click to expand...

Does anyone really think that shutting down a line for 2 hours is worth it for kittens?
 
B

B-Dubs

No Scrubs
Gallbaro said:
Does anyone really think that shutting down a line for 2 hours is worth it for kittens?
Click to expand...

Are you anti-kittens?

Which is what he got asked in the recent debate.

EDIT: Are you kidding me? de Blasio is at 39.8% with 91% of the vote reporting in.
 
O

Owzers

Member
Fox hires just the dumbest people alive. One of the ladies just said that although Obama has taken out a lot of terrorists, he hasn't taken out the terrorists that mattered. (Benghazi related of course)
 
B

B-Dubs

No Scrubs
Anthony Weiner in last place has 30K votes. Joe Lhota in first place for the GOP has 29K votes.
Click to expand...

via Andrew Kaczynski ‏@BuzzFeedAndrew

I don't see how Lhota wins with those kind of numbers, then again it's just a primary but it goes to show what an uphill battle he'll have.
 
K

kingkitty

Member
Only 97 percent of precincts reporting?

Time for a Carlos comeback.
I think he's done with politics, which is a shame, but sometimes you gotta keep your sausage on hold.
 
Link

Link

The Autumn Wind
Samarecarm said:
So how did McConnell get to be so unpopular? He always seemed like "generic Republican" to me.

Obviously, Democrats aren't gonna like the guy, but why he is unpopular even in a red state like Kentucky?
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"Generic Republican" is no longer good enough for Tea Partiers.
 
O

Oblivion

Fetishing muscular manly men in skintight hosery
Some douchebag writer for the Daily Caller absolutely loses his shit on Stephanie Cutter:

http://www.mediaite.com/columnists/...-howleys-attack-on-cnns-cutter-reprehensible/

Leaving aside that this guy really needs to buy a goldfish or something to take his mind off such things, there were two things I learned from that:

1. Cutter is 44.
2. Cutter will be working along with S.E. Cupp on that Crossfire reboot.

Imagine that. Cutter + Cupp.

Not implying anything, just throwing that out there.
 
B

Bam Bam Baklava

Member
Regardless of what happens in Syria this is probably the first and last time the fringe left, the fringe right, and whatever libertarians are will all be on the same side.
 
B

besada

Banned
I think Weiner and Spitzer should team up to form a private detective agency called Weinerspitzers. Or Spitzerweiners. I'm not sure which is funnier.
 
W

Wilsongt

Member
Can we get a reset button of the GOP, please?


U.S. Republicans seek Obamacare delay for debt limit hike


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Floating a strategy for thwarting "Obamacare" in autumn fiscal debates, House Republican leaders on Tuesday pledged to demand a one-year delay to the health reform law in any deal to raise the federal debt limit.

They also unveiled a strategy to withhold money to implement Obamacare in connection with a stop-gap funding measure that would keep government agencies open from October 1 to December 15.

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor told House Republicans in a closed-door meeting that delaying all or part of Obamacare would be a key goal in the debt limit debate, party aides said. Reuters first reported that the delay strategy was under consideration in August.

Cantor is planning to hold a House vote this week, likely on Thursday, on his plan to deny funds to the healthcare law while extending government spending authority. But House Republican conservatives are resisting the effort, saying that it is too weak to stop the healthcare reforms.

The House plan for a stop-gap funding measure known as a continuing resolution, or CR, would be split into two parts, allowing the Senate to reject the portion defunding Obamacare while passing and sending the stop-gap funding measure to President Barack Obama.

The plan would reduce chances of a government shutdown.

Cantor's and House Speaker John Boehner's logic is that the Senate would be forced to take a difficult vote to provide funding to launch Obamacare health insurance exchanges, which Republicans believe will be unpopular with voters.

While the House has voted 40 times to repeal, defund or limit Obamacare since its passage in 2010, the Democratic-controlled Senate has chosen to simply ignore most of these measures.

"We will send to the Senate the provision which says 'Up or down, are you for defunding Obamacare or not?'" Cantor said of his plan. "The House has taken a stand numerous times on its opinion of Obamacare. It's time for the Senate to stand up and tell their constituents where they stand on this atrocity of a law."

WASTED LEVERAGE

But conservatives expressed dissatisfaction with the plan, saying it would fail to take advantage of the leverage associated with the September 30 deadline for a new government spending authority and would amount to little more than another symbolic vote.

They would prefer a simpler funding measure that simply excludes appropriations for Obamacare and threatens an October 1 government shutdown if the Senate fails to pass it.

House Republican leaders "are trying to avoid actually having a vote to defund Obamacare in the House that counts," said Representative Tim Huelskamp of Kansas.

Republican moderates argue that withholding appropriations won't stop Obamacare because most of its funding comes through mandatory spending on programs such as the Medicaid healthcare program for the poor.

The funding measure introduced on Tuesday by House Appropriations Committee Chairman Hal Rogers would extend funding for 11 weeks at the current annual rate of $988 billion - a level that keeps automatic, "sequester" spending cuts in place.

Rogers called for a broader budget deal that ends the "draconian" sequester cuts set in motion by a 2011 debt limit agreement, with another round of deeper cuts set to launch in January.

"It is my hope that this stop-gap legislation will provide time for all sides to come together to reach this essential goal," he said in a statement.

The House strategy to tie a debt limit to an Obamacare delay complicates a fiscal deadline over which President Barack Obama has vowed not to negotiate. House Republicans also want to use the debt limit as leverage to demand deeper spending cuts on expensive federal benefits programs.

DEFAULT BY OCT 18? The U.S. Treasury has said that an increase in the $16.7 trillion debt limit is needed by mid-October to ensure that the U.S. government can meet all of its obligations, including debt payments.

The Bi-Partisan Policy Center, a Washington think-tank, estimated on Tuesday that without an increase in the borrowing cap, a default could come as early as October 18. Previously, the group had estimated that the government could likely pay its bills through mid-November.

The group also projected that a $1.1 trillion debt limit increase would be necessary to meet U.S. obligations through the end of 2014, a date that would cover the next congressional election cycle.

The Republican plan to add Obamacare to the party's debt limit demands drew swift criticism from Democrats, who want a "clean" increase that avoids the drama of an August 2011 hike that caused financial market turmoil and prompted Standard and Poor's to strip the United States of its top-tier credit rating

"We had hoped our colleagues across the aisle had learned that they should not put the full faith and credit of the United States at risk. They are now threatening our entire economy if we don't hand control of Americans' healthcare back to the insurance industry," said Representative Chris Van Hollen, the top Democrat on the House Budget Committee.
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These people...

tumblr_mldqpyYMKg1rdutw3o1_400.gif
 
mckmas8808

mckmas8808

Mckmaster uses MasterCard to buy Slave drives
Snake said:
Absolutely, whether it meant a possible diplomatic solution or growing international support for intervention, Obama's move was clearly an attempt to stall a military strike until conditions became more favorable for the US or until a strike became moot. That doesn't mean we have to call it 11-dimensional chess. Rather, it's a President realizing the potential hazards of quick and overzealous action in this situation (to the point of overriding his more hawkish or interventionist advisers), while keeping the US' threats credible. And while internet people were pretty quick to jump on this as "accidental diplomacy" at first, I'll bet my account that we'll see genuine sources leak/surface regarding secret diplomatic activity between the US and Russia on this front. To both countries' credit.

Of course this all might fall through, but after watching Obama's interviews touching on the subject it's pretty clear to me that he's going to make this happen. It's in his (and our country's) best interests after all.
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WOW! Snake is looking like a prophet here.
 
C

cartoon_soldier

Member
haven't posted much in Poligaf but this is a good point:

http://dish.andrewsullivan.com/2013/09/11/the-card-obama-didnt-play/

There are few more reliable ways to sell Americans on military action than to tell them that they’re in danger. That’s not a dig on Americans; people of all nationalities are naturally self-interested. Perhaps that was a lesson Obama learned in the Iraq War, when the Bush administration’s over-sell of Iraq’s alleged threat made the public easier to convince but also badly distorted the debate in ways that still impact U.S. credibility. It’s still much easier to argue that the United States has to fight the enemy abroad so it doesn’t have to defend against them at home. And, almost 12 years to the day after September 11, 2001, it would have been awfully convenient for Obama to tell Americans that strikes are necessary to prevent terrorism.
Click to expand...
 
E

East Lake

Member
Tamanon said:
I don't understand the "calculater" sign at all. It hurts me because I'm usually pretty good at them.
Click to expand...
I think he's trying to say that the strikes should be recognized as a war as simply as we recognize basic arithmetic but politicians define it as something else. That's my best guess.
 
R

ridethepiggy

Banned
BOOM goes the LULZ
Republicans are losing the battle with ultraconservatives over defunding Obamacare — for now.

House GOP leaders decided Wednesday to postpone consideration of their plan to defund Obamacare, which would have called for a Senate vote on defunding the law but also would have stopped short of threatening a government shutdown over the issue.

GOP leaders’ original strategy was to approve the rule in committee Wednesday for a full House vote on Thursday. But with a mutiny on their right flank and no help from Democrats, they have now concluded that they lack the votes to pass the plan and have put it off. The new strategy, aides say, is to take more time to build support and bring up the measure next week.

“It’s complicated stuff and Members and staff have had very little time to process it,” said a House Republican leadership aide. “Most people who think through all the moves in the legislative chess game realize this plan is likeliest to yield the best result — but it takes a while to think and talk it through.”

Conservative groups were furious Tuesday when the plan was unveiled and immediately organized against it, demanding that Republicans go the distance and threaten a government shutdown if Democrats don’t blink. FreedomWorks, Club For Growth and Heritage Action vowed to punish lawmakers who support the GOP proposal. Republican leaders, on the other hand, recognize they’d probably be blamed for a shutdown and don’t want to risk it.

“Rather than spend time whipping a plan that will only serve to alienate their constituents, they could easily pass a CR that defunds Obamacare,” Dan Holler, a spokesman for Heritage Action, told TPM in response to the GOP’s latest move.

Republican House leaders are in an extraordinarily difficult position. Given sweeping Democratic opposition, they have few votes to spare, and are caught between an all-out assault from conservative groups and their responsibility to keep the government running.

But they remain confident of success.

“This was just announced yesterday and we always anticipated 72 hours would likely not be enough time to work on this complicated plan, especially with the Syria issue unresolved,” said a second GOP leadership aide. “So we’ll take a couple extra days to work on it.”

If the plan eventually crashes, like prior Republican proposals facing conservative opposition, it would empower Democrats to have a greater say over the spending levels in the continuing resolution that will fund the federal government after Sept. 30. That is where failure of this plan could hurt the GOP most.

Democrats were immediately skeptical Tuesday that GOP leaders could get the plan through the chamber. A House Democratic leadership said Wednesday that Democrats would be “very unified” against the plan. “It seems the GOP may have a tough road ahead,” quipped a second Democratic leadership aide.

“Once again, House Republicans are in disarray, unable to govern as a result of division and dysfunction,” said House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-MD). “Even when promising a continuation of their policy of sequester and another defunding of the Affordable Care Act — gifts to the extreme wing of their party — Republicans lacked sufficient support and were unable to bring their bill to the Floor. Their my-way-or-the-highway strategy continues to fail because they are deeply divided and continue to balk at the prospect of working across the aisle to achieve results.”
Click to expand...
 
B

Black Mamba

Member
Remember how steadfast I was about Obama winning the election?

Or the Fiscal Cliff where I knew the GOP would cave?

I've been pretty confident the last couple months the GOP would cave on the debt ceiling and gov't shutdown. But I'm starting to waver on that confidence for the first time.

The leadership seems to have no control of the party. The party has gotten desperate and in a crazy form. We might have a disaster just because the party can't do anything to avert it.

I'm worried for once. I still side on the belief that cooler heads will prevail, even if it costs Boehner his political future, but really I'm worried we might do something catastrophic because of the idiocy of the GOP conservatives who have become fruit loops.
 
R

ridethepiggy

Banned
Black Mamba said:
Remember how steadfast I was about Obama winning the election?

Or the Fiscal Cliff where I knew the GOP would cave?

I've been pretty confident the last couple months the GOP would cave on the debt ceiling and gov't shutdown. But I'm starting to waver on that confidence for the first time.

The leadership seems to have no control of the party. The party has gotten desperate and in a crazy form. We might have a disaster just because the party can't do anything to avert it.

I'm worried for once. I still side on the belief that cooler heads will prevail, even if it costs Boehner his political future, but really I'm worried we might do something catastrophic because of the idiocy of the GOP conservatives who have become fruit loops.
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Boehner won't let it get to that point. He's resigning at the end of the year and will ignore the Hastert rule if need be. Boehner will do whatever it takes for us to not default on his watch even if it means getting the Dems to help.
 
G

gcubed

Member
ridethepiggy said:
Boehner won't let it get to that point. He's resigning at the end of the year and will ignore the Hastert rule if need be. Boehner will do whatever it takes for us to not default on his watch even if it means getting the Dems to help.
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if he doesn't his party won't have to worry about who they elect as speaker, since it would only be a one year post
 
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