TIME FOR SOME POLITICS THIS BLOGDATE

or GEARING UP TO SMASH THE POOR

Not only has Republican Party policy, beginning with Reagan, slowly and surely shrunk the numbers in the middle class and increased the disparity between the rich and the poor in America, now they are attempting to make sure that their newly-created poor will not be able to vote. If the poor can’t vote, the Republicans figure, they can’t replace Republican governments which are out to make America a theocracy of the rich ruled over by Gingrich and the very richest Christians. (Mitt Romney is only the toe-in-the-door beginning. In Utah, private charity is tied to membership in the Mormon Church, and, of course, one of the Republican Party’s primary goals is to privatize everything in America.)

The full story about voter suppression, you can find HERE.

[SNIPPET]
Efforts to stop voter fraud may have curbed legitimate voting

By Greg Gordon/McClatchy Newspapers

During four years as a Justice Department civil rights lawyer, Hans von Spakovsky went so far in a crusade against voter fraud as to warn of its dangers under a pseudonym in a law journal article.

Writing as "Publius," von Spakovsky contended that every voter should be required to produce a photo-identification card and that there was "no evidence" that such restrictions burden minority voters disproportionately.

Now, amid a scandal over politicization of the Justice Department, Congress is beginning to examine allegations that von Spakovsky was a key player in a Republican campaign to hang onto power in Washington by suppressing the votes of minority voters.
[PASTE-IT]

or HERE’S MORE OF SAME FROM LA TIMES

[CHOP]
WASHINGTON — Weeks before the 2006 midterm election, then-New Mexico U.S. Atty. David C. Iglesias was invited to dine with a well-connected Republican lawyer in Albuquerque who had been after him for years to prosecute allegations of voter fraud.

"I had a bad feeling about that lunch," said Iglesias, describing his meeting at Pappadeaux Seafood Kitchen with Patrick Rogers, a lawyer who provided occasional counsel to the New Mexico Republican Party.

When the voter fraud issue came up, Iglesias said, he explained to Rogers that in reviewing more than 100 complaints, he hadn't found any solid enough to justify criminal charges.

Iglesias recounted the episode in an interview with The Times after meeting behind closed doors with federal investigators this week to provide new details of the events leading up to his termination as U.S. attorney. He said he now believed he was targeted because he was seen as slow to bring criminal charges that would have helped GOP election prospects.
[GLUE]

or I WAS READING NEWSWEEK

Long before we invaded Iraq, I would read about the findings (introduced below) in Newsweek magazine. What I read there caused me to be out on the streets marching prior to Bushmaniac launching his invasion of Iraq. What I’m suggesting is that if you want the plain unvarnished truth, discussed calmly and intelligently, subscribe to Newsweek.

[CUT AND SLASH]
WASHINGTON — Two intelligence assessments from January 2003 predicted that the overthrow of Saddam Hussein and subsequent U.S. occupation of Iraq could lead to internal violence and provide a boost to Islamic extremists and terrorists, according to congressional sources and former intelligence officials familiar with the prewar studies.

The two assessments, titled "Principal Challenges in Post-Saddam Iraq" and "Regional Consequences of Regime Change in Iraq," were produced by the National Intelligence Council (NIC) and will be a major part of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence's long-awaited Phase II report on prewar intelligence assessments about Iraq. The assessments were delivered to the White House and to congressional intelligence committees before the war started.
[PUT BACK TOGETHER]