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Subscribe to RSSMaking intentionally misleading statements could land you in jail if some Democratic senators get their way. A bill proposed by Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., would impose up to a five-year prison sentence on anyone who deliberately misleads voters as to the time and place of voting, or misleads them on whether a candidate had been endorsed by a particular person, group or political party.
The Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing Tuesday on the bill, which also would make it a federal crime to pay someone to not vote and a crime to hinder a person who is helping someone to vote.
But are deliberately misleading statements protected by the First Amendment’s freedom of speech?
By coincidence the Supreme Court is likely to announce Thursday its ruling in a challenge to the Stolen Valor Act, a federal law which punishes a person for falsely claiming to have been awarded military medals. As with the Schumer bill, that case raises the question of whether there’s First Amendment protection for knowingly misleading people.
Schumer told the Judiciary Committee hearing Tuesday that “some of these practices are just despicable – sending out on what looks like an official letterhead (a letter stating that) the date of voting is changed to Wednesday, sending (the letter) to Democrats and not to Republicans.”
But Sen. Chuck Grassley, R–Iowa, the senior Republican on the Judiciary Committee, said “this bill represents a frontal attack on First Amendment freedom of speech…. Proponents of this bill seem to not understand the dangers of having the Justice Department inject itself at the behest of politicians into prosecuting other politicians,” he added.
Grassley said an especially dangerous provision in the Schumer bill is one that would allow a person to file a civil suit against the candidate or campaign manager who uses the deceptive tactics prohibited by the measure. If you’re the candidate filing such a suit against your rival candidate, Grassley said, it will “force your opponent to spend money on lawyers, rather than against you. The press will report the claim of dirty tricks on the eve of the election. The victim will be unable to respond effectively to refute the claims.”
Grassley also complained that the bill omits any provisions to punish candidates who lie or shade the truth. “Why doesn’t this bill criminalize intentionally deceptive statements made by candidates themselves such as whether or not they are Native Americans?” Grassley asked, in an apparent reference to Massachusetts Democratic Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren, whose claim to have Cherokee ancestors has become a pivotal issue in her Senate bid.
Jenny Rose Flanagan, the director of voting and elections at the nonprofit group Common Cause, testified to the committee that in Pueblo, Colo., in 2008 voters were falsely told by phone calls on the eve of Election Day about a sudden change in location of voting precincts.
Flanagan said that in the recent recall election in Wisconsin, voters reported having received calls that falsely told them that if they had signed the recall petition against Gov. Scott Walker they need not vote – that simply signing the petition was tantamount to voting to recall Walker.
The Schumer bill’s co-sponsor, Sen. Ben Cardin, D-Md., also testified that students at some universities had received text messages in 2008 telling them that the election had been postponed for a day.
Cardin mentioned that last year a jury found former Maryland Gov. Robert Ehrlich's campaign manager guilty on state fraud charges for approving Election Day 2010 robo-calls targeting voters in Baltimore and Prince George’s County, telling them Democratic Gov. Martin O’Malley had won re-election and that they could “relax.”
One answer to such practices is that no sensible person would be deceived by being told such blatantly false things -- voters do know that Election Day is the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November, and voters also know that signing a petition isn’t the same as voting in an election.
But Cardin spoke from first-hand experience to argue the need for what he called “deterrent” legislation.
Cardin won his seat in 2006 despite a flier that Maryland Republicans distributed on Election Day that claimed that his GOP opponent Michael Steele had been endorsed by three prominent African-American Democrats: former Prince George’s County executive Wayne Curry, former Rep. Kweisi Mfume and Prince George’s County Executive Jack Johnson. In fact, Mfume and Johnson had endorsed Cardin.
“There was a clear intent to confuse African-American voters,” Cardin said Tuesday.
Despite those Republican maneuvers, Cardin won. Steele went on to serve as chairman of the Republican National Committee and is now an MSNBC contributor.
Cardin said, “You’re not going to effectively be able to stop it if somebody wants to do it. But then you can hold that person accountable and that person ends up in jail and you deter other people from doing it.”
He added, “We tried to narrow this; because we know the burden is on us, on any restrictions on the First Amendment, so we’re narrowing it to a very narrow set of communications, it has to be intentionally aimed at disenfranchising voters,” Cardin said.
The Schumer bill does raise the specter of a post-election civil suit in which one candidate gets the strategy memos from the opposing side “I can’t understand why they wouldn’t be discoverable,” Cardin said, referring to the pre-trial discovery process in which parties to a lawsuit obtain certain documents from the other party to the suit.
Cardin added, “In one respect, I agree with Sen. Grassley: We think some of these actions would violate current federal criminal statutes. The attorney general would like to have it clarified; he would like to have stronger tools. That’s why we have the bill here.”
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The democrats would all be punished for what comes out of their mouths.
So they wont be able to say Mitt is responsible for things happening years after he left Bain?
The bill is about misleading people about the polling locations and dates and over who won. Did you really think they would go after distortions of a candidates record when doing so is the playbook?
I support the portions of the bill misleading people as to times and places where they can vote. If it were punishing all misleading political speech they could just turn the Republican National Headquaters into a maximum security prison. When Repugs, Tea Baggers, and Cons lie, they are speaking their native language.
Lets widen the bill so any speech given by a politician must be 100% backed by real fact and truth. Any mis speech will result in imprisonment.
Say good bye to the entire Democrat monologue.
Let us also include an reediting of video that misconstrues the true nature of the full video results in Media losing there right to publish.
Let us call it TRUTH IN INFORMATION ACT
Let us also include the immediate closing of any media outlet of any type that reports as a news item any information that cannot be proven 100% accurate.
Vince, Obama would have been in jail long ago if it applied to him. In just about every speech there are distortions, exaggerations, relevant facts omitted and sometimes false statements.
We almost never see a speech without distortions.
Elliot and DB can only act as true Republicans and misdirect the subject matter.
Gee.....goodbye Mitt....goodbye Fox.......lmao
No one of a liberal conscience (as opposed to politically liberal) could possibly support this restriction of free speech.
This is one time that I would surely agree with any conservative calling it a nanny-state bill.
Schumer is way off base on this.
Shucks, I thought this was going to be an article about the "Great Deception by Mr. Obama", instead Sen. Charles Schumer has just opened a "can of worms" for the Democratic Party......which is a good thing in some aspects, however his "idea" is blowing the lid off of FREE SPEECH.
Wow, first it was Mrs. Pelosi on her rant saying the "Fast and Furious" investigation is about States Voter I.D. legislation, then it was Mr. Biden on Romeny outsourcing wealth and nothing about this Administration sending jobs overseas, and now it is Senator Schumer concerning the "political" language used by HIS OWN PARTY.
The wheels are coming off the ObamaWagon.
Misleading someone about the time and place of voting should equate to voters fraud. It is deliberately attempting to violate or cause a persons civil right to be violated.
Hey - Green Timer - it's a tongue-in-cheek bill
And Grassley is the biggest offender remember when he jumped on to support "Sister Sarah's" allegations of DEATH PANELS? No I do
DON9876543 Vince, Obama would have been in jail long ago if it applied to him. In just about every speech there are distortions, exaggerations, relevant facts omitted and sometimes false statements.We almost never see a speech without distortions
Don, your post proves that you have not a clue, concerning facts, spoken by Obama. You are not basing your opinion on factual information, you are just repeating what has been fed to you by gop haters and fox lies and propaganda channel. President Obama is an honest person of high integrity, and speaks truth to power. Did you not hear what he said to the SCOTUS would be the result of citizens united, and Alito said "not true". Alito, the supreme court justice, was the one who was lying.
I don't see how Grassley can make these statements-it gives anyone the right to say anything-truthful or not. This is especially annoying because besides being a well known pederast, Grassley also takes farm animals to his bed. And he was born in France.
Here I go again - - You know, as a liberal, yeah, I want to stain folks like
Grassely with the TRUTH. But when my fellow libs take pages from the GOP playbook, all I can be is Embarassed!
Sleeping with farm animals? Really? You want to go there JUST so you can blow whatever credibility Libs own away? C'mon now - - -
There's already plenty wrong with Grassely without resorting to nonsense like this. How about the third of a mil he received each from Big Pharma, Big Ag and Big Energy? And that's just his past election of '10! He does the bidding of his masters rather than representing his constituents! I should know; I've been one of those constituents for the past 3 yrs. and I can't get anything but some inane form letter every time I call or write him. He could care less and is one of the lousiest senators we've ever had.
Who gives a sh*t if he was born in France? I'm more concerned as to what he does now, as an adult.
mhrjhn,
"The democrats would all be punished for what comes out of their mouths."
does it make any sense to you that a bill introduced by a democrat would place his own party in that kind of jeopardy?
look to what grassley said about "freedom of speech" somehow, I doubt the founding fathers definition of freedom of speech included lying through your teeth to deceive the public (see article about Josh Mandel, senate candidate Ohio, on his comments about Senator Brown - mandel basically admits lying about Brown and justifies it). Afterall, the founding fathers were trying to get the truth out - weren't they?
The entire article sited events of actual voter fraud from only republican operatives. Im sure that if the person who wrote this article had incidents that involved democrats doing these kids of things, the reporter would have added it to the article. but guess what... their aren't any. And all the republicans on here conveniently over looked the fact that only republicans engage in voter fraud. I dont see how this is not a bill that passes if we all take "very serious" the integrity of the vote as republican have been enacting legislation all across the country they claim is to prevent voter fraud. If this bill included all political speech, we would have to invent a new party to go up against democrats because every republican in this country would go to jail for the business as usual tactics of getting republicans to vote against their own interest
Republicans that post on this vine have to be about the most ignorant humans to ever live on earth.
The Obama depresion. What a stupid comment. Republicans just can't responsability for their on actions.
Another stupid proposal by Schumer. Where is the evidence for any need for something like this? But he's afraid to require ID checks of potential voters.
Leave it to Republicans to label deceptive speech as "Free Speech".
Go to politifact.com or factcheck.org and see for yourself who the liars are.
Once a lie has been proven a lie, there should be penalties for campaigns continuing to use them, whether Republican or Democrat.
Those of us who are conservative politicians have special access to the truth. The millions of regular people across the country - the farmers, laborers, factory workers and restaurant workers - will always be basically ignorant and will believe what politicians tell them, because they trust us to do what is best for them. The founding fathers knew that if those regular people had the same access to the truth, they would not vote in a way that is in their best interest. That is why we have the first amendment - so that we can tell these people whatever they need to hear to make them vote in a way that is best for them. That method will probably always be better than having to use military force or internment to keep them under control, and that is what we might eventually have to do if they don't vote for those who will speak for them right now.
Holly Crap the republicans would never win and election, if they could not mislead or mess with the voting process!!
I say yes, but good luck getting a single repub to vote for it!
.
News Flash from the top Republican leaders, "You can have my lies when you pry them from my cold, dead lips!"
While I really hate Rovian politics, I have to agree that this may be overstepping. What the Democrats really need is for people to educate themselves on how to evaluate an information source. Oh, it would also help if they grew a pair and stood up to the GOP lies once in a while.
This bill would never pass.
Our politicians(both sides of the aisle) are too smart to shoot themselves in the foot.
If this law were ever come to fruition, it would reduce the number of Newsvine comments by 90% because of all the ridiculous rantings and lies Liberal Progressives have to conjure up to try to keep themselves (and their fellow anti-Americans) motivated.
Plus, sites such as the Daily KOS, Crooks and Liars and AlterNet (just to name a few) would cease to exist ... and then where would they get all their material to seed?
Shummer acts like only the repubs mislead, remember accorn they are a left leaning community get out the vote at any costs..
this will never pass to many ethical rules !!!!! lol
News Flash from the top Republican leaders, "You can have my lies when you pry them from my cold, dead lips!"
Mike, why would you bring up Acorn? Acorn was investigated to death and it turns out they did nothing wrong. It was another Rovian smear job. Bringing up Acorn only gives fuel to why this bill should pass.
Bozobama, along with many, if not most, politicians from BOTH sides, would be doing nothing but defending them selves against lawsuits and challenges about nearly all they say, so it'll NEVER happen. It's just more whiney, demlib pandering in an election year!
Nice thought, don't see it passing though. Technically, we have laws covering free speech or so I thought. Lying should barred from free speech but it has never been enforced as far as politicians care concerned. If so, close to 100% of all politicians would be sued for liable(sp)!
Maybe this should be applied to the situation where a mandate isn't a tax because we promised you no new taxes, but it really is a tax because a mandate would be unconstitutional, but it wasn't really a tax because we promised you no new taxes, but......
Right! STFU with this BS attempt at any kind of ethical behavior from our gov't.
Won't pass constitutional scrutiny. Schumer should know better.
Actually, if they stick to speech that intentionally deceives voters as to the location of a polling place, the date of an election, or their need to vote*, yes, that should be interfering with an election and punished.
Telling whoppers about ones opponent? That's caveat emptor.
*Noting recent robocalls telling voters if they've signed a petition, then there's no need to go vote.
Republicans vote on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November, and Democrats vote on Wednesday.
I would whole heatedly endorse such a bill. Limited in scope to defend the voting public from intentional disenfranchisement.
Seems ANYTHING this Administration and it's flock does now-a-days is extremely highly controversial and any legislation like this they "ram through" will more than likely wind up on the doorstep of SCOTUS.
ANYTHING to deflect from the major issues facing our Nation today and the failed agenda of Mr. Obama during the last 3 1/2 years.
Ido: Of course it is nothing but a distraction. That's all the dems have to go with. As we've seen, Obama has said the "private sector is doing just fine," and we've seen where that has gotten him. Well, maybe it is fine in one of the 57 states that he has visited. Schumer wants to put Obama in jail for deliberately trying to deceive the people. Well, we can all picture a jury selection under this type of law. Their couldn't possibly be a jury selected. If one admits to being a dem then they would be excluded from being on a jury trying a repub, and vice-verse. And do you really want someone who has been living their life under a rock to sit on a jury? They wouldn't know the truth if it bit them in the butt. The fact is that when it comes to politicians and their statements, the only jury that counts occurs at the ballot box.
Why are you teapubs obsessed with things being "rammed through" and "shoved down your throats"? Have you seen a therapist about this shoving and ramming obsession?
I would think the GOP would be 100% behind trying to stop these verified attempts at voter fraud.... oh wait, never mind.
Talk about election year BS, all the Democrat ads against Romney have been misleading and Obama has contradicted himself so many times one loses count. Of course those would not be seen by Schumer as "intentionally misleading". Don't make me laugh Chuck.
Shaking my head, respectfully before making such a blanket statement try checking Factcheck.org regarding so called BS. The website uses researched facts to support it's findings. I might add that when anyone uses misleading information for personal gain I believe that is called "fraud."
You mean politicians might have to get real jobs where they couldn't just have irrational and unbelievable talking points while they spend other people's money? Never happen.
Bills like this would be unnecessary if politicians and their campaign staff just had some integrity. But who am I kidding? We all know that will never, never, never, ever happen.
Just about ALL politicians are corrupt. Whenever they have their mouth open, they are lying! Can't trust any of them with your life. All we can do is vote for the best of the worst, no matter what party!!
It's interesting that the same ones who bitch incessantly and have the greatest paranoia of the government are the same ones who claim the US is the best place on the planet. Kind of a contradiction isn't it.
You would think that deception is not freedom of speech. The party that cries the loudest against this bill, is the guilty party of deception.
I wish I could disagree, but I'm astonished that anyone would feel it necessary to block a law that would penalize those who play dirty political tricks.
Free Speech is a red herring here, folks.
Exactly, like Solomon and the baby.
I sure hope the upcoming debates include immediate fact checking so we can separate the facts from the Romney BS.
I sure hope the upcoming debates include immediate fact checking so we can separate the facts from the Obama BS.
@bgun2 & atlposter
The legislation targets attempts to deceive voters into not participating in elections through deceptive means such as telling them the election date has changed,the election has already been called whilst polls are still open,their precinct has been changed,etc...
It is NOT about candidates themselves inflating or distorting facts,or just plain outright lying for that matter,on policy issues and matters.
Do you have to work at being this dense or does it just come naturally to you?
They're going to have debates? How will that work when Romney won't say anything about anything!
Read the article Kenny or are you just that dense, it is not just about the polls.
Wouldn't the Democrats be targeting themselves?
Better hope Soros is sending the answers to Obama by teleprompter. If they are using them. Heaven forbid for Obama if they don't! Better have an ear plug in just in case.
Fine bgun2,point us all to the part of the article wherein it states that this law will be about making it illegal for politician's to lie or embellish as you seem to think it's about.
Oh and Anna and Brain,as usual your contributions teeter between the inane and the purely idiotic. Once again the comprehension skills of a rock.
Good on you two.
There is no Constitutional protection against fraud and if we're going to discuss voter fraud this election cycle,as the Republicans seem so Hell bent on doing,then let's also discuss election fraud,which is what I know,as a Maryland resident,for a FACT that the Ehrlich and Steele campaigns tried to do in 2006 and then the Ehrlich campaign again in 2010.
They DID bus blacks in from Pennsylvania in 2006 to hand out fliers in Prince Georges and Montgomery counties that stated (falsely) that local Democratic politicians had endorsed Mr. Steele (and by extension his former partner on the gubernatorial ticket Mr. Ehrlich) for the Senate. NO Democratic official mentioned,BY NAME and without their consent,had ever done any such thing.
That is fraud.
And the robo-calls that are alluded to in the article that took place in on Election Day 2010 in the Maryland Governor's race that told voters in overwhelmingly black precincts in Prince Georges and Montgomery counties and in Baltimore city to "stay home and relax. Martin O'Malley and President Obama have won..."(Obama,of course wasn't even up for election in 2010) not only DID happen but led to the conviction on four counts (including conspiracy to violate state election laws and attempting to influence a voters decision to go to the polls through the use of FRAUD...) for Mr. Ehrlich's top campaign aide Paul Schurick and also a conviction for conspiracy (with a 60 day jail sentence and 1 million dollar fine...) against Julius Henson,the individual that the Ehrlich campaign contracted to produce the call. (Given Mr. Henson's well deserved reputation around these parts that the Ehrlich people would choose to do business with him is damning in and of itself.)
I don't know how many people were presented with the bogus fliers in 2006 but estimations of registered voters whom received the 2010 robo-calls run from 110,00 to 175,000.
Compare those numbers to the paltry numbers of actual cases of individual voter fraud the the GOP Governors and state legislatures around the nation can produce when asked to justify their voter suppression agenda and it becomes pretty obvious who actually does care about fair elections and who is talking out of their asses.
But then the latter group does know their audience,and their non-relenting ignorance,pretty well.
Looks like MSNBC is predicting their own demise!
I would agree. If this law applied to them, they will be in jail.
MSNBC is not the one that can not broadcast from Canada because they knowingly lie, it's Fox News that is
Why? It's fox news who went to court and testified under oath that they are NOT a news organization and they had the right to lie to their audience. Keep in mind that disagreeing with you does not constitute a lie. I keep asking conservatives about specific examples and they never come up with any. All they can say is how the liberal news media says things the right does not WANT to be true. Big difference.
Agreed alverant. One personal example: my father was a preacher and superindentedent of a religious school in the conservative ag land of central valley California. The local press - as conservative as the community - called to ask my father whether he still used corporal punishment, and if he had fielded complaints by any parents. Yes, he used corporal punishment, and yes a couple parents had complained. Then he went on to justify the practice, quoting scripture and using lengthy apologetics, and argued his position on those complaints.
The press printed just the facts - that it was done and some had complained - and left out the lengthy justifications, quoting only my father's statement that it was biblically justified. He was very angry, and called the paper 'liberal' for not arguing his case for him. The nail in the coffin was that it also quoted a parent calling the punishment excessive - even after he had told the paper how wrong the parent was! Oh, the godless, liberal newspapers!
In the old days, when papers wanted to be impartial, they thought it would be unseemly to take sides. The conservative positions was, however, that if you aren't with us, you're against us. Thus began the devoutly held and long-standing myth of the liberal media.
Though they never liked to argue the matter in public, it is true that for many American conservatives, impartiality is opposition. This is how they can call a conservative advocacy outlet - Fox News - 'fair', and anything which tried to be impartial 'liberal'.
I see John Galt!
I hope it does pass then all the dirty little tricks the Democrats and the news media promote will back fire on them and we will see a few democrats and media people go to prison.
you defy reality
Please cite examples. Your empty statement holds no water. What dirty tricks would those be? The robo calls or the flyers? Which ones did the democrats do? Or are you just talking out of your ass without knowing at all what you're talking about?
As a Dem-leaning independent, I'd be fine with that. Throw out the crooks from BOTH sides.
What would all of the Fox Reporters do though?
As an Independent voter I am rooting for it's passage to bring real consequence to the numerous Republican legislators who perpetrated lies about our President, the Affordable Health Care Act as well as most other issues. They lie relentlessly. We currently have another massive abuse of legislative power perpetrated by the Republican's in the House of Representatives and their Issa driven witch hunt based on lies and false accusations on Fast and Furious. As an Independent voter I am outraged at these legislators using my tax dollars to score political party point. Shame on them. Had this law been in place each of them would be behind bars. The Republicans are eager to protect the profit margin of American gun manufacturers who are making a killing in the vicious drug war in Mexico. Republicans headed by Issa want Eric Holder out of the way because of his aggressive interference in the gun running operation fostered by the NRA and America's gun manufacturers. Sick!
The sole truth spoken by the Republicans was when Mitch Mc Connell publicly declared that the Republican legislators primary agenda is to prevent President Obama from succeeding in governing on behalf of the American people. With that admission they breached their Oath of Office to serve the people - all the people, not just their party. They chose to make this their top priority agenda when millions of Americans are out of work and the Republicans have obstructed every jobs bill put on the table by the Democrats and Independents that does not increase corporate tax cuts. All this while our government is sitting in a revenue deficit created by the unpaid Bush tax cuts, Big Pharma program and massive un-budgeted war expenditures.
What about saying they are involved daily in "secret meetings with kings/queens/prime ministers" ?????
So our Government needs to try to pass a bill to try to make politicians tell a not so bad lie? REALLY? WTF is wrong with this picture! NEVER MAKE IT!!!!!!!!
Grassley is saying loudly and clearly, we are going to mislead people. We are going to lie to them and we won't be held accountable for it.
Broadcasting misinformation on political issues has become a serious disservice to the public's interest. That became a problem only after the "Fairness Doctrine" was repealed during the Reagan Administration. The "Fairness Doctrine " required broadcasters to provide equal airtime to the opposing party once a statement was made. It kept sanity in an otherwise civil discussion. It was a Public Service Requirement. Without it, evidence has shown the relentless use of deliberate untruthful misinformation to destroy or enhance a position on political opponents and issues. It has been destructive enough to make our political system a corrupt sham. If you are sick and tired of the onslaught of deliberate misinformation please tell your representatives to bring back the "Fairness Doctrine" for the Public's Interest.
Were in the age of information. It is the voters responsibility to find out information about the candidates. I don't endorse sending out false information about election dates and places but if people can't seem to do anything on their own perhaps they shouldn't vote.
I love this reasoning: if people are so stupid as to fall for a republican attempt to deceive them, they are too stupid to vote anyway.
What a great justification for fraud! Wonder why democrats didn't come up with that? Must be because they are too stupid.
To you closed-minded people who can only point fingers at the other side, did it possibly occur to you that a law such as this just MIGHT apply to both sides?
I'd even prefer it applied to the media. Wouldn't that be funny? We'd then have a network that wouldn't be able to fill 24 hours with facts, just innuendos, twisted facts, and half truths.
Maybe that's not a bad idea, Presidential election campaigns could begin in June of the election year, Congress could meet in January and adjourn at the Fourth of July with the nation's business complete and the they all could go home and get a real job.
What a great idea. It should apply to candidates and broadcasters as well.
It would put Fox News and talk radio out of business.
You mean MS NBC for editing film several times and gave erroneous information. You people are short sighted and narrow minded when it comes to facts.
I suggest you visit the website newsbusters.org to see what absolute lies CNN, MSNBC, etc. spew everyday. Each lie is proven false with cited FACTS!
Brian and mhrjhn, I think you're confusing fox news with MSNBC. Fox news aired deceptively edited videos to get ACORN defunded as well as blantantly lying about President Obama.
I checked out the site you recommended. I dont know why I expected it to be something other than a conservative propaganda website, but as I probably should have guessed, it was just that. Kind of hard to take it seriously when the banner says its all about exposing the "liberal media".
My all time favorite Fox lie was the video they showed multiple times that was supposedly scenes of the Wisconsin protests, in the middle of winter, that showed all the people in short sleeves with palm trees in the back ground. We all know Wisconsin is a balmy 75 in the winter and the state is covered in palm trees. LOL The teapubs bought it though.
No, not so much. Yep, MSNBC got a bit busted, but Fox News would be in a WORLD of hurt. As biased as MSNBC is, Fox is flat-out GoPTV. How they aren't forced to declare the entirety of their business as RNC related, I have no idea. I have NEVER seen even a remotely balanced piece about Obama on that channel. NEVER.
MSNBC are rank amatures at deception. FOX NEWS and Limbaugh et. al. lie constantly, shamelessly, without regard to the harm they do to America.
They are lip service christians only, as they bare false witness as a way of life.
Only Fox was banned from Canadian broadcasting due to their inability to use the truth.
Once again to the majority of the people commenting on this article...did you even read it and if so have you enrolled in a remedial reading comprehension course?
Because if you haven't then you should.
This legislation targets attempts at willfully deceptive practices of voter suppression through fraudulent means---like telling them the election day or polling hours have changed,or their precinct has been moved or closed,or the polls have closed while they are still open---and seeks to hold those that would do this legally responsible.
It does NOT seek to reign in the time honored tradition of candidates from both sides to lie their collective asses off about the issues,their records,their opponent's records,etc...
You consider showing a ID when you vote a form of voter suppression?
I hate to break it to you but the Supreme Court doesn't. Unlike Democrats that seem to think they only have to enforce laws they agree with conservatives believe in the rule of law.
Lets take your logic leap
If I do not agree with a law then I can proceed to ignore the law.
Since I do not make lots of money and like money perhaps I could just help myself to the banks money. I disagree with the law of robbery. Besides we all know banks have a heck of a lot of money....
Clearly Aunt Anna doesn't have a clue what the article is about.
Excuse me Anna,but where do you see me mention showing an ID card? Or the article for that matter?
I hate to break it to YOU but either your post is a weak attempt at deflection or you're just a nitwit.
Mayhaps before you post such off-topic drivel in the future you could find a tall building and disagree with the law of gravity?
If people are dumb enough to believe the election day or hours were changed without checking for themselves they probably shouldn't vote.
Yes Anna, when you have to pay a fee for your right to vote, that's a poll tax and that is illegal. Not to mention how conservatives like Walker are putting up all sorts of roadblocks to keep people from getting their voter ID.
"If I do not agree with a law then I can proceed to ignore the law."
THAT is a very accurate description of the Republican mindset today.
When lying becomes a crime, Washington DC wil become a ghost town.
Not to worry as they will exclude themselves from the law. That's what they do when they pass a law they don't like.
Yep, remember all those "except when inconvenient to me" signing statements during the W reigeme?
IOKIYAR strikes again.
This law is designed to strengthen penalties for the kind of dirty tricks that Republicans have engaged in over and over again in the last two decades. Of course, it is supported by a Democrat and of course it is opposed by a Republican. But it will never pass because if it passes the Senate, it will be blocked by the House Republicans. If your organization's primary purpose is to protect and enhance the wealth of the richest 1%, which it is in the case of the Republican party, you are not going to want to give up one of your important weapons: political dirty tricks.
If you think Republicans know about any nasty tricks Democrats are unaware of or hesitate for one second to use, I believe you lack understanding of partisan politics.
That is a game played by two parties.
It is you who are unaware. The dirty tricks addressed by the bill have been used exclusively by Republicans to my knowledge. If you know of any examples of Democrats using such tricks, please let me know. Otherwise, we will assume that you have no idea what you are talking about.
Thats correct Zorro. The GOP are a bunch of low lifes and the Democrats have halos and wings. They do nothing wrong. Think you need to read your history about the Democrats the past 60 years. You are delusional as liberals go. The Democrats are cunning under handed garbage, and history tells you all about this marvelous party. They are the originators of the KKK and White Supremacy hate groups, just to name one as an example. Pelosi is another good example of trash, using her inside trading info to make her and her husband very wealthy. Just to name one thing about Pelosi. It goes on and on. Neither party are any good but the Dems take the cake.
Brian.
Give it a rest. That crap was back in the 50's before all the racists moved over to the Republican party and you know it. Why lie like that? Does it make you feel like a big man? Tell you what tough guy, give it a rest.
Delusional?? Brian, try to keep up and stay focused and stay away from ignorant, childish ranting. The subject is tricking voters into not voting. It's not the KKK or Pelosi. I don't know of a single example of Democrats doing that, do you? Speaking of delusional, since you don't know me, you don't know if I am a liberal or not.
@Zorro
People like Brian are all over the Vine tonight. It's like trolls night out. I don't know where they came from but they are out here tonight.
Maybe there's a full moon. In what other stories are they displaying their childish, mean-spirited ignorance? Are any of my favorite morons such as Canon, Valhalla Jim, BrianB, and Larry Robinson strutting their stuff?
You ignorant uneducated liberals, are showing you don't have an IQ above 50. You ought to learn how to read and comprehend what history has recorded. Senator Byrd, was a Grand Wizard of the KKK as well as the Dems starting the White Supremacy organizations. These were put in place to control the American blacks. You people are just thick headed and cannot handle the FACTS. Complain to the historians not me. Just because you don't want to accept it, doesn't change the truth. You are the lost morons that cannot support anything you say, because you don't have anything to refute the facts. All you know how to do is Blame Bush, talk ignorant and vulgar and try to belittle people. This makes you feel real big as you liberals are nothing more than pompous AS*'s. You aren't intelligent enough to talk civil, so talk trash. It is like watching a comedy show reading the garbage you list. It was the Democrats that came apart and some became republicans, some became independent and some went to the liberal extreme, like you idiots. So blame everyone but Obama. He is totally IRRESPONSIBLE and acts like a child, which his lost sheep follow in his footsteps. Grow up and get a life!!
Typical off-topic scree Brain.
Your usual forte is in evidence here---deflection,tenuous (at best) grasp of history,projecting as you proceed to call all Liberals crybaby name-callers as you yourself engage in nothing but crybaby,name-calling...yep,you checked off all your usual boxes.
Consider your work done little trooper. Maybe you're lucky and it's lime jello night tonight at the puzzle factory.
Are you saying that democrats are dumb since they would not verify information given to them?
Seems to me the Senate should be using their energy to pass a budget which they have NOT done for over a 1000 days!
Janet do try and keep up.
I don't know mhrjhn...are YOU saying that if they think potential voters will fall for fraud and deceptive practices by the GOP (and if anyone can produce any examples of the Democrats doing something like what the law is intended to go after,then please post them...I can provide more against the GOP than I did in post #9...)then it's OK for them to openly lie to LEGALLY REGISTERED voters about poll times ,their precincts having been changed or polling places moved (since polling sites in many urban locales DO get moved around quite a bit this is a particularly effective ruse...) and other logistical details in an effort to hold the vote down?
Interesting.
Let me ask you another question then...
Why is is that whenever we hear tell of an effort to make it more cumbersome and difficult for LEGALLY REGISTERED voters to vote that it's invariably the GOP that is behind the efforts,through means both legal and illegal?
What does it say about a party that openly and incessantly tries to limit the participation of the nation's citizenry in their most basic,fundamental and essential right?
And before you or anyone else responds that this is all to stop the Democrats efforts to have illegals vote provide some actual PROOF of illegals,or anyone else for that matter, VOTING illegally.
NOT voter registration errors,whether intentional or out of laziness or whatever,but actual VOTER fraud. The voter registration argument is a canard for the dullards who are too ignorant to understand that filling out a voter registration form and actually being issued a voter card (or having a provisional ballot be counted if that's the case...) are two entirely different things and that the protections against voter fraud happening are already in place and THEY WORK.
If you want to dispute that then please,provide evidence. NOT innuendo. NOT BS Right wing blog sites that openly lie to your faces on a daily basis (again,as I said in post #9---they know their audience and they count on your ignorance...). Actual evidence.
It's out there. You can find it. But here's the real truth---the amount of actual indictments and convictions you can find for actual casting of ballots by ineligible voters over the last 5-6 election cycles will number,at most,in the low hundreds.
Compare THAT to the number of people that are being unnecessarily targeted and burdened by these suppression efforts and also the money being wasted on this foolishness and then see if you can still defend these efforts.
Now they just need to do this for all politicians and all political events and harsher penalties. Politicians have enormous power over the people and with that power must come greater requirements of credibility. If a politician lies about something throw them in jail and destroy the key.
A few decades of that and we may just have a clean political system for the first time in a very long time (like 150 years long).
It needs to apply to the media like MSNBC also.
If this became law, the gop wouldn't be able to operate. Notice how in all the xamples given, they were all perpetrated by republicans? So what else is new?
Of course , with a Schumer sponsored bill and an article by MSNBC , I would expect nothing less than all blame on the GOP.
Don, you can set the record straight by providing examples of Democrats tricking voters into not voting. But you won't, because you can't, because THERE AREN'T ANY. So all the blame is on the GOP because THAT'S WHERE IT BELONGS.
Zorro - you are right. Democrats do everything they can to help every Democrat vote as many times as he/she/it can get away with it. They'll even drive the corpses to the polling place.
jerryb, another teapub who has nothing but idiocy to share. So jerry, show us your proof of all those corpses being driven to the polling places. Surely a cracker jack fact seeker such as yourself has some photos. Or were all those corpses snuck past you and the entire republican party without anyone noticing half the voters were dead? If that's the case I completely understand, since teapubs are quite familiar with the whole zombie thing. LOL
Gee, it seems to me the one of the people engaged in voter fraud is Mitt Romney... Lets see... lives in California for years and votes in Mass special election even though he's not allowed... hmmm
Are you being facetious and proving the Democrats point for them, or do you have a citable instance you are referring to?