Between 70% and 80% of Minnesota voters favor the Voter ID proposal.
Some of us favor it because it’s the first step in a series of election reforms that will help us ensure that our election system in fact has integrity; there are increasingly strong suspicions that the election system in Minnesota, with its reports of fraudulent election-day un-identified vouched registrations (among other abuses), lacks that integrity.
Others have the common sense to know that 32 states currently require some degree of voter ID, and elections work just fine; the elderly and students register and vote, just like adults (significantly, most of the non-ID states are Democrat, including states renowned for dirty elections, like Illinois, New York, New Jersey and California)
But for whatever reason, Minnesota voters overwhelmingly favor the measure. Even in the most “conservative” poll on the subject, the Survey USA poll which showed a 71-23 margin of support overall, the measure even wins among declared liberals, 35-32.
So the anti-ID crowd is getting desperate.
And to paraphrase Gandhi, when you’re fighting the DFL machine on a subject like this, first they ignore you.
Then they mock you.
And then they call you a racist.
The site was sponsored – apparently – by “Take Action Minnesota”, an astroturf group thats is basically what all of the various non-profit Wellstone cults became over the last decade or so.
And – oboy. A black guy in a striped suit. Not good. Tone deaf. Politically-incorrect.
And, in the special little world of the liberal astroturf group, I suppose it, all by itself, invalidates the entire move to bring integrity back to our voting system.
BAD MN Majority.
MN Majority came out with another – which also aroused TakeAction’s drearily predictable ire:
Lest you think all TakeActionMN does is do screenshots, there was some writing and stuff too:
This image is on a Minnesota Majority website. It is trying to scare us into changing our state constitution to require a photo ID to vote. Photo ID would restrict voting rights for over half a million Minnesotans – especially people of color. Photo ID is voter suppression. And it stops here.
I’m always puzzled by the notion that requiring an ID to vote – like we require them for lesser “rights” like cashing a check, using a credit card, setting up a bank account, getting a Social Security Card, getting a copy of your birth certificate, buying Sudafed, getting into a bar, buying a firearm or ammunition, buying a car, taking out a loan, dropping your kids off and picking them up at drop-in daycare, buy alcohol or cigarettes, apply for welfare, food stamps or any sort of medical assistance, rent an apartment, get admitted to a hospital, or get a marriage license – “disenfranchises” anyone, much less ten percent of all Minnesotans, as “Take Action MN” claims. Or, for that matter, that VoterID infringes, in and of itself, on the right to vote. It doesn’t; it merely means you need an ID to do it.
Indeed, once you get past cartoon pratfalls, it’s TakeAction that makes the genuinely racist claim – the ludicrous and frankly offensive notion that ten percent of Minneostans – apparently, all minorities, students and the elderly, although nobody has any idea where they got that number, and next month it could very well be “eleventy-teen percent” and nobody will say “boo”. But to me, their claims sound a lot like “minorities and people of color are too dumb to keep track of their paperwork and ID cards”.
I’m sure that’s not what they meant.
At any rate – we know how Gandhi’s bromide ends; “Then you win”.
TakeAction and the rest of the Minnesota astroturf cult are getting increasingly desperate on this issue, as well as the other big wedge issue likely headed for the ballot this fall, an amendment to make Minnesota a Right to Work state. Without fraudulent votes and endless union money, the DFL’s position in Minnesota will get a lot weaker.
And that’s a big win for everyone, no matter what your race, ethnicity, or relentless political correctness.
Is there any survey data on ID possession by race? If not, how do we know minorities lack IDs?
Or does “minority” mean “Latin American illegial alien” in which case, yeah, I suppose they lack valid IDs entitling them to vote. Which is kind of the point.
If it were actually true that 10% of Minnesotans have no photo ID, then it should be easy enough for Fake Action MN to trot out a couple hundred such individuals (with explanations of why they don’t have ID) and make their point with actual proof.
Instead, the lefty bloggers are still trotting out one seasoned citizen from Tennessee as their poster child for the disenfranchised.
Last time I started a new job, they asked for a drivers license and social security card before they would allow me to start my first day.
Racist, homophobe, Nazi. Learn to deflect those labels because all of those and more will be hung on us in the upcoming election season. This will be the most massive, uninterupted mud storm of modern times.
Let’s list ALL the possibilities….”A black guy in a striped suit. Not good. Tone deaf. Politically-incorrect. Racist.” Because we really don’t know the motivation behind the ad.
Ears,
So let’s presume the unlikely – that you have a point.
So what?
A private organization posted an image that some presume is racist. Bad organization!
What is that supposed to say about Voter ID? That Voter ID is racist?
Why?
Because black people don’t carry IDs? So you’re saying the right to vote, for which their grandparents fought so hard, isn’t worth carrying an ID if you’re black?
Who’s the racist, Ears?
(Rhetorical question. Democrats are vastly more likely to be racist than Republicans).
Racist, homophobe, Nazi.
TBS, Dennis Prager came up with a term along those lines that liberals go to call conservatives when they are losing or make good points, ‘sixhirb’ (sexist, intolerant, xenophobic, homophobic, islamophobic, racist, bigoted)
Allow me to get in ahead of DG’s inevitable tl;dr comment with one of my own comparing our national pastimes in the steroid era.
It was all very exciting when Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa were in a tight race to break Babe Ruth’s single-season homerun record, and when Barry Bonds sledge-hammered his way toward Hank Aaron’s career record. Many people cheered as the dramatic numbers climbed higher and if anyone scratched his head and wondered outloud at the unusual displays of power and hat-size they were repeatedly assured that the game was clean and these were merely exceptional athletes plying their trade at the highest levels. After all, we were told repeatedly that Sosa, McGwire, Bonds and other sluggers of the era had never tested positive for steroids. Of course, that spotless record was likely the result that they had never been effectively tested for steroids. In fact, for a number of years Performance Enhancing Drugs weren’t even specifically against the rules in a game that has long winked at “gamesmanship”
Similarly, cheating in politics is as American as apple pie. Recently we’ve seen a series of extremely close political elections with enough curious counts and results that you’d of had to have botox injections to keep from raising an eyebrow. And as the Minnesota legislature debates a voter-ID bill requiring a state-authorized photo ID in order to vote, we again have those who claim the process is clean and that large-scale fraud has never been proven. As was the case with baseball, though, there has barely been an effort made to try to prevent it.
“Well, that’s just baseball,” you might say. “That doesn’t mean politics is like that.” Of course not. Baseball players might be willing to cheat in order to gain fame, glory and riches, but politicians are above such tawdry motivations and designs. Baseball players cheat because a slugger can pull down $20 million a year or more, but that amount is bush league when you consider the amount of money that can be gained in furthering an agenda, feathering a nest and favoring your friends. Influence is much more valuable than an MVP.
If you doubt that, look at the amount of money generated just to gain the influence in the first place. The recent Wisconsin Supreme Court election – a race that would normally be reported in box-score agate type – generated some $3.6 million in outside political contributions. In baseball, $3.6 million barely gets you an average outfielder, or a good lefty set-up man. In politics, a good lefty set-up men may arguably be an even more valuable commodity to some.
The rest is at http://thenightwriterblog.com/2011/05/22/elections-in-the-steroid-era/
Wanna see the opposition to the MN ID law ? Go to YouTube, and check out “TakeAction” Dan McGrath (as opposed to MN. Majority’s Dan McGrath). He claims that the eeevil, racist, anti-elderly 1% bankers are pushing Voter ID……wow…..wow…………..just…wow…………….
You can also find a clip from a Dan McGrath vs. Dan McGrath debate on YouTube. (It was televised last week).
Night Writer, still too short to be compared to DG’s comments
Wow, with debating skills as finely honed as yours, it’s no wonder this little blog is such small potatoes. I made one simple point. We don’t know why they decided to portray the convict as black. That, in addition to your explanations, they COULD just be racist.
Of course, because you can’t get out of that box, you go off on a Voter ID rant, which I never even raised or addressed. How pathetic. If that’s your rebuttal, you need to reserve the phrases like “need to mock” or “getting desperate” for the guy in the mirror.
Ears,
I’ll rephrase your argument for you: “I got nothing, so I’m going to insult you and your blog”.
And if my blog is so little (which, among MN blogs, it’s really not), please ask yourself why it seems to so obsess you?
If it’s “to try to hone your argument and logic skills”, it’s not working.
The more I study the issue, the more I am convinced that the anti-ID people are motivated by the idea of getting felons into the voting booth. They vote about 69% Democrat. There are over half a million people in Florida that are not permitted to vote due to their status as a felon.
In Minnesota, felons are not allowed to vote until they have completed parole and probation.
Earsall, not clear on your logic. Would it be fairly rephrased:
Showing a Black guy as a convict is racist because it’s a stereotype; not all Black men are convicts. In fact, very few Black men are convicts, despite the hype of various social justice organizations deploring Black imprisonment rates. Since one image on one ad is racist, it is fair to conclude the entire ad campaign is motivated by racism and from that, to condemn the very concept of Voter ID as motivated solely by racism.
There seem to be logical flaws in that chain of reasoning. Can you enlighten us why dislike for the ad leads you to oppose Voter ID?
Aww, Mitch give Earsall (sic) a break. He co-opted the name of a black man for his handle here in the SitD comment lounge, so you know he’s down for the struggle. Some comedian joked that race relations would be so good under Obama that home security company’s could start using black actors to portray burglars in their commercials. According to the lilly white Liberals – not so much.
It is rather sad that the lilly whites have such a dim view of people of color that they would think people of color don’t have the same abilities to get ID’s as well or as easily as the 75% of the population who are people of pallor. I’m not surprised. Growing up in an integrated neighborhood in Detroit then going off to a small Liberal Arts college that was >95% white opened my eyes to the fact that too many Liberal whites treat adult people of color like children.
PS: Earsall – Aren’t you overdue on a response requested here: http://www.shotinthedark.info/wp/?p=26196#comments
If we use the baseball analogy argued by NW, we should place asterisks behind the names of McGuire, Sosa, Bonds as well as Governor Valium and Senator Smalley. Better yet, their records ought to be purged from history.
Ears, you gonna post a link to an article that doesn’t say what you state it does to support your point?
According to this website, http://felonvoting.procon.org/view.answers.php?questionID=000667, Blacks make up 39% of the prison population, Hispanics 21%, and whites 32%.
It is entirely reasonable to depict a convict as being black, more so than Hispanic or white.
But since we all live in liberal reverse-o-world, we must never, ever, even hint that it is reasonable to depict blacks as generic convicts.
Earsall, Otis Taylor just called. He wants to know if you can come out and play.
I do have to say that MN Majority’s second cartoon is funnier, TakeAction thought they had trapped them and MNM’s response was essentially oh yea, fuck you! props to whoever did the second one.
The poor also have to show an ID to get welfare checks, and if that wasn’t enough theres ALREADY A FREAKING LAW (I believe, or it would become law if voter ID is passed) that you can get a state issued ID/Drivers License FREE if you are too poor to pay the like $25 it costs to get one. I swear these people think it must cost like a couple hundred bucks to get an ID or something. If you can’t get down to the DMV to get a damn ID you probably shouldn’t be voting anyway. I say lets keep this topic going, it can only play to our benefit.
with voter ID we’d still have Senator Coleman and probably a Governor Emmer
Mitch, apparently your lapdogs sense your dilemma and feel compelled to come to your defense.
Now go back to MY original post (which was not at all insulting). I made one simple point…….that, in listing all the possible reasons for portraying the convict as black, you excluded one possible reason, racism. That’s the ONLY point I made. Every feeble attaack by you and your minions thereafter just looks sad.
So the fact that I comment on a number of blogs 3-4 times a month makes ME “obessed?” I’m not the guy with a puny little soapbox and an infomercial on a 5,000 watt radio station. But if you need to keep deluding your self-importance to justify your existance, have at it. We all get boosts to our self-confidence from different sources. Mine comes from distinguishing myself from the rest of your crowd.
Ears,
Dilemma? You flatter yourself.
“that, in listing all the possible reasons for portraying the convict as black, you excluded one possible reason, racism”
Possible? Perhaps. Knowing the people involved as I so, I know it’s not the case. But feel free to prove it. The burden of proof is on you.
I’ll stick with tone-deaf.
So the fact that I comment on a number of blogs 3-4 times a month makes ME “obessed?”
It’s 3-4 more times a month I waste on blogs I don’t consider worth my time – MN Progressive, Dump Bachmann, et al. I don’t do ’em at all. But you’re here a lot more than 3-4x a month. Also, you’ve left comments under a couple of different handles.
Not obsessed? Okey doke.
I’m not the guy with a puny little soapbox
You keep saying that, as if it’s supposed to faze me in any way. I wouldn’t care if my audience was just me, I’d still have fun with it. As it happens, I get around 3,000 visitors a day, which is more than enough. The audience has rewarded me by making me a lot more prominent than I likely deserve, but I”ll run with it.
and an infomercial on a 5,000 watt radio station.
Wow. You really are unhinged! Not an informercial; I don’t pay for it.
Look, I’m all for not letting the fact that you know nothing about a subject get in the way of stating your case, such as it is. But you just sound ignorant and motivated by…
…well, who knows? Or cares?
But if you need to keep deluding your self-importance
I’m not important. You’re the deluded one.
to justify your existance, have at it.
God justifies my existence. I try to deserve it. What’s your excuse?
We all get boosts to our self-confidence from different sources. Mine comes from distinguishing myself from the rest of your crowd.
You certainly do, Ears.
You certainly do.
Earsall Mackbee said:
“you go off on a Voter ID rant, which I never even raised or addressed. How pathetic”
Some would call the reference to “Voter ID” something like “pertinant”, “relevant”, or “on topic”.
Calling it “pathetic” certainly does distinguish you, Earsall Mackbee, but it does so from people who pay attention.
So if the generic convict drawing showed a white person, it couldn’t possibly have been because of racism?
I don’t like it here in liberal reverse-o-world.
“Mackbee” loves the place. And he insists that you love it, too.
“We don’t know why they decided to portray the convict as black.”
Hmmm, I didn’t even notice the color of the convict’s skin. 😎
Ears denigrates Mitch’s “puny little soapbox” but comes back regularly to try and dance in its shadow. That is, I’ll charitably refer to whatever it is he’s doing with his hand in his pockets as “dancing”. He could just be polishing his self-esteem.
“Mitch, apparently your lapdogs sense your dilemma and feel compelled to come to your defense.”
Nope. Conservatives just like chew toys. Which you definitely are.
“We all get boosts to our self-confidence from different sources. Mine comes from distinguishing myself from the rest of your crowd.”
Didn’t anyone tell you that your kind of self-confidence boost makes you go blind? But nice try.
“We all get boosts to our self-confidence from different sources. Mine comes from distinguishing myself from the rest of your crowd.”
Actually, from the comments Mackbee has made here and at his blog, it is obvious that Mackbee gets his boost of self-confidence by believing that conservatives only come to their beliefs through bigotry, selfishness, and greed.
it is obvious that Mackbee gets his boost of self-confidence by believing that conservatives only come to their beliefs through bigotry, selfishness, and greed.
to be fair I think you can replace Mackbee with liberals and his with their. Remember conservatives think liberals are wrong. Liberals think conservatives are evil.
Ben, I’ve had dealings with “Mackbee” for years. He can not be engaged because he is morally vain. If he tells that you are wrong about the 2nd amendment protecting the individual’s right to bear arms, and you realize that he has confused the 2nd amendment with Federalist #2, setting him straight won’t change anything because the issue really wasn’t about gun rights, it was about you being greedy, or selfish, or bigoted.
All right, I want the lapdogs to line up on the left, and the minions to line up on the right. Puny soapbox in the middle.
That’s better. Now we can all obsess in our little subgroups.
Of course what Ears is doing is at least somewhat successful. By focusing on the “black man as a convict”, he deflects attention from the real debate- do we need voter i.d.? The fact that he can’t debate the issue tells us all we need to know of Mr. Ears.
Only white males can be accepted for advertisments involving criminals. Any member of another ethnic group should be disqualified from getting that job because the PC police think it racist that anybody other than a white person can depict a felon.
TakeAction MN. = OWS. You look at their website, and you see the same insufferable arrogance, as they automatically presume that everyone hates ‘the 1%.’
‘It the 1% AGAINST Minnesota.’ these jacka$$es say, as they try to amp up actual HATRED against the achievers. Also, they use the Alinsky tactic of separating a segment of our society, and marking them.
But I go back to the accusation that TakeAction MN. makes against the ‘1%’, that it’s those eeevil, rich bankers who are behind the effort to suppress the vote. This is just plain rotten demagoguery.
Since the leftists like to play the dogwhistle/code word game-Let’s play along. Each time they yap about the 1%, lets accuse them of being anti-Semitic.
Okay, I get it now.
Ears doesn’t actually have a point to make, he’s just a nit-picking pedant.
“You didn’t list EVERY SINGLE POSSIBILITY.” Of course not, idiot, this is a blog post about Voter ID, not a comprehensive compendium of every conceivable motivation in the multi-verse for advertising decisions.
I’m sorry I wasted my time trying to figure out Earsall’s point because in the end, he didn’t have one. And now that he’s repeatedly posted about it, we’re all dumber for having read them. There are several minutes of my life I’ll never get back.
I suggest a new abbreviation: “np;dr” for “no point; didn’t read.”
.
accuse? I’m pretty sure being anti-semitic is practically a qualification in lib credentials. When was the last time you heard support of the Israelis over the Palestinians by a liberal? Not to mention the whole undercurrent of Jews being rich bankers that control the world, although thats more of a OWS/conspiracy meme
remember also the old courtroom tactic, If you have facts that support you use them, if you have the evidence that can help you win a case use it, if you have neither pound the table. This is simply tablepounding by the Left.
According to this website, http://felonvoting.procon.org/view.answers.php?questionID=000667, Blacks make up 39% of the prison population, Hispanics 21%, and whites 32%.
Here’s a crazy, whacked out idea…
If you want to end the practice of portraying the “generic criminal” as black, maybe you should work towards changing the fact that a plurality of convicts are black.
How do we do that?
(hint: the answer is NOT “give them more free money from the government”)
why by letting more black prisoners out on parole and make sure whitey gets harsher sentences, you know affirmative action prison style?