The DNC Credentials Committee Overturned the ADP Election because of alleged "voting irregularities"

Fighting Voter Suppression

Let that sink in.

The Alabama Democratic Party has 90 days to hold an election for its chairman and vice chairman positions.
That’s according to the Democratic National Committee (DNC), which has vacated the state party’s 2018 officer elections following a vote by the credentials committee on Thursday afternoon.
Current Party Chair Nancy Worley and her Vice Chair Randy Kelley will also be allowed to continue serving in their respective roles until the election, which will be overseen by the DNC, takes places.
The DNC’s decisions follows an evidentiary hearing held Monday regarding two complaints lodged against the 2018 officer elections.
“With (Worley) and (Kelley) presiding over the meeting,” one complaint read. “The elections were conducted in a sloppy and haphazard manner that was easily susceptible to manipulation. The elections were deliberately manipulated in order to favor Worley, Kelley and all other incumbent SDEC officers.”
Worley had won re-election in August by a narrow margin of 101-89 against a challenger who was backed by U.S. Sen. Doug Jones. According to the AP, one challenge alleges that, while these 190 votes were recorded only 142 state committee members signed in to the meeting.

That's right (pun intended) the party that Booed Representative Maxine Waters and mocked members of the House of Representatives who were trying to tell them there were voting irregularities not once but twice, overturned an election over alleged voting irregularities. 

“Is there one United States senator who will join me in this letter of objection?” Waters said to boos from Republicans. None did.
As Waters began to speak, House Speaker Paul Ryan was seen seated behind Biden laughing at the overture.
After the vote, Biden told some of the House Democrats who tried to object why he had cut them off.
“Basically, it was the rules and we understand that,” said Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Texas, who led the effort to object to Trump’s election.
Trump received 304 electoral votes, compared with the 227 won by his Democratic challenger, Hillary Clinton, according to the official vote tally.

Although the white male dominated media claims the DNC (Democratic National Committee) overturned the ADP it was the DNC Credentials Committee who did the dirty deed.  There is just one problem...EYE can't find where the DNC Credential Committee has the authority to overturn and supervise a state party election.

Credentials Committee:
The Credentials Committee is responsible for resolving any questions regarding the seating of delegates and alternates to the Convention. This committee is expected to meet sometime prior to the Convention.
Responsibilities:
Assumes jurisdiction over any credentials challenges not resolved by the DNC Rules and Bylaws Committee 57 days before the Convention, or challenges filed after that date.
Recommends final resolution of any outstanding challenge or dispute related to the seating of delegates and alternates.
Issues a report that is considered as the first item of business at the National Convention.

The DNC Credentials Committee made a recommendation but the DNC has the final say so it's not over. 

HOW IS BUSINESS BROUGHT BEFORE THE NATIONAL COMMITTEE?

DNC members often make proposals on national issues, Party policies, and procedures. Before a matter is considered by the full membership, it is reviewed by one of the DNC’s standing committees. Each of the DNC’s standing committees have about 30 members who represent a cross-section of the membership of the full committee. These committees report their recommendations on the matters before them to the full DNC, which in turn debates and votes on the recommendations.

The Credentials Committee is responsible for hearing disputes about the credentials of National Committee members, and making a recommendation about whom the DNC should seat. 

So time will tell if the DNC is going to overthrow the election of Nancy Worley and Randy Kelly and supervise a new election.  And if they do vote to overturn the election, who is going to supervise the DNC Credentials Committee?   If the recommendation to overturn the election due to alleged voting irregularities is upheld by the DNC it will set the ADP on a course of no return.

And what do you have if you get rid of Reed and his bunch of people?

The Dixiecrats were a political party organized in the summer of 1948 by conservative white southern Democrats committed to states' rights and the maintenance of segregation and opposed to federal intervention into race, and to a lesser degree, labor relations. The Dixiecrats, formally known as the States' Rights Democratic Party, were disturbed by their region's declining influence within the national Democratic Party. The Dixiecrats held their one and only convention in Birmingham.

Be careful what you ask for. 

Artur Davis vs Joe Reed Round 2

Poor Artur Davis is a man without a party , and according to him, it's all Joe Reed's fault. Sigh

Yep,  Joe Reed told him to pander to the right at the expense of his constituents for his personal political gain.

The endorsement of these groups is not about who has the best position on health care, or bingo or ethics reform, or unemployment, or jobs — New South endorsed Earl Hilliard, Jr. over Davis in both 2000 and 2002 and they've never given him more than token support in the years since. These endorsements are about kow-towing to the power brokers and Artur Davis has never been willing to do that. Bottom line, history tells us Joe Reed would move heaven and earth to keep ADC from endorsing Artur Davis. Ditto Hank Sanders and New South Coalition. It's the status quo vs. a new way of doing business in Alabama, and the folks who wield power with the current system aren't going to give it up quietly.
Ron Sparks will happily kow-tow and they'll endorse him. No surprise there.

Joe Reed made him throw President Obama and the Democratic Party under the bus 

Joe Reed is the reason he accused African American Alabamians of wholesale voter fraud.

Former Alabama Rep. Artur Davis is either trying to out-Harold Ford Harold Ford by being a Democratic turn-coat, or he's auditioning for a slot on Fox News. Or maybe this is all just sour grapes because he lost in a Democratic primary to Ron Sparks when he ran in 2010.
Anyway, Davis made news last week (the only news he's made since losing in the primary) bywriting an editorial in the Montgomery Advertiser alleging that voter suppression laws were perfectly reasonable. That's because, he says, "the most aggressive contemporary voter suppression in the African American community, at least in Alabama, is the wholesale manufacture of ballots, at the polls and absentee, in parts of the Black Belt."

It's all Joe Reed's fault.

It would be easy to look at yesterday's defeat for Artur Davis as simply a case of Joe Reed's ADC (Alabama Democratic Conference) having its way, but it would be as wrong to assume that, as it was to assume that black voters would automatically vote FOR Davis because he is black.
The fact is, that after punching the ADC in the mouth, which I'm glad he did, Davis didn't seem to have a real plan for connecting with black voters, which was still possible, despite the rift with the ADC. Believe it or not, there's no overwhelming love for Mr. Reed or the ADC in the black community, of which I'm aware.

Not.  But don't let the facts get in the way of the truth.  

Even IF Artur is elected he will not replace the so called aging black political establishment that isn’t ready to give up its out sized role in political affairs. As a matter of fact it will energize the so called aging black political establishment because they know Artur Davis will throw black folks under the bus in a New York minuet. IF Davis is elected he will not be the so called new leader of black folks. Black folks don't follow leaders that will lead them off a cliff. 

Here is another painful truth, if the Alabama Democratic Party can forgive Parker Griffin they have to forgive Artur Davis too.  Note EYE said forgive, not forget.  And trust me, voters have a long memory for traitors, ask Parker Griffin.

Party-switching Rep. Parker Griffith (R-Ala.) on Tuesday became the fourth congressional incumbent this year to be defeated in a primary, losing decisively in his first test before voters in his new party.
With his loss, Griffith became the second party switcher to fall short in as many weeks, following the May 18 defeat of Sen. Arlen Specter (D-Pa.), a former Republican who lost the seat he had held for three decades in a Democratic primary.

Here is a modest proposal, allow Artur Davis back into the party, but don't let his name appear on the ballot until we are sure he's learned his lesson.  Until then, EYE don't want to hear another word about Artur Davis.  Not one.

Artur, you lost--and you were wrong. Do us all a favor: Find a comfy place to live in Virginia, lick your wounds, and stay the hell away from Alabama--at least our political world. We have plenty of corporate suck-ups down here. We don't need another one.

RedEye Over and Out 

EYE owe Rep. Terri Sewell, the NAACP, the Congressional Black Caucus and others, an apology

U.S. Rep. Terri Sewell

Never,  EYE repeat, Never, let it be said EYE won't admit when EYE make a mistake, or,  that EYE refuse to correct factually incorrect information . That said,  EYE owe Congresswoman Terri Sewell, the NAACP, and the Congressional Black Caucus , a mega apology for accusing them wasting time/resources requesting a DOJ investigation into the DMV closings in Alabama. Without an investigation, we the taxpayers, would have never known  Alabama faces a lawsuit from the Department of Justice because it is not in compliance with the National Voter Registration Act – and never has been.

What is the National Voter Registration Act Alabama is not in compliance with you ask?

According to the National Voter Registration Act, also known as the “motor voter” law, citizens must be given the opportunity to register to vote when they renew their drivers license, apply for Medicaid or have other interactions with the state government. States across the old Confederacy have run afoul of this law in recent years, withNorth Carolina and Texas failing to process voter registrations in their DMVs and leading many eligible voters to be denied ballot access.
According to the Star, Alabama hasn’t completely ignored the law for 22 years. Rather, they had been implementing the law incorrectly, and in a way that has almost certainly led to fewer Alabamans registering to vote. Rather than allowing citizens to fill out one form, which served as both their drivers license application and voter registration, the state had been giving citizens a separate card that they were supposed to fill out and mail in, rather than submitting it to the DMV on site.

EYE guess EYE should also thank the Red, Republican, controlled state Legislature for making photo ID mandatory for voting then close  then DMV offices in the Black Belt, your plan almost worked.

Via Charles Thomas at Demos "Actually, this helps clarify why Alabama closed Driver's License offices in 31 counties. If getting your driver's license automatically triggers voter registration (provided that you are of age to vote), then Alabama doesn't want it to be easy to get a driver's license in counties with large African-American populations -- which is the case in the 31 counties where the offices were closed. That would enable more Black folks to vote. Shenanigans like this and many others are what prompted adoption of the Voting Rights Act in the first place. Will this cause the Supreme Court to revise its finding that the prior review provision of the VRA is no longer necessary? We shall see. If not, that will make it even clearer the the Court is now willing to connive in racist policies." #RestoreTheVRA

Please accept my humble and sincere apologies.  Thank you for requesting an investigation, and a mega thank you to the Department of Justice for granting the request.

The National Voter Registration Act is more than 20 years old and allows voter registration at the same office people can receive or renew their drive licenses or other public assistance. But, according to AL.com, Alabama has never been compliant with the Motor Voter Act.

You done good, but you might want to check on this while you're at it.

RedEye

#SweetHomeAlabama Governor Robert Bentley (r. Tuscaloosa) says the "outcry" over the racism of closing the DVM offices is "race politics at it's worse."

Alabama one of the most corrupt states in the country

Project much Governor?    EYE think balancing the budget on the backs of Alabama's Black Belt, refusing to expand Medicaid, signing a Voter ID Bill , closing DVM offices in the Black Belt, robbing the public education budget, and cutting off state funding to planned parenthood, preventing poor /black women from having access to a safe legal abortion is playing race politics at it's worst, but that' s just me.

"Alabama is not George Wallace's state. I don't want it to be George Wallace's state." said Bentley. "I want us to be inclusive. I don't want us to look at the color of people's skin. I don't want us to look at whether they are male or female. We are all Alabamians and I'm their governor. I know most of them (blacks in the affected counties losing driver's license offices) are not going to vote Republican. But you are not going to win people over by not being inclusive."

Psst Governor Bentley.....look in the mirror and say that so you can see how race politics at it's worse looks.   

Blaming the victim is so GOP.

Dale Jackson calls for investigation of voter fraud story, say's it doesn't pass the "smell test"

Question to @shellyhaskins & @anthonycook: Does this @aldotcom "Voter Fraud?" story pass the smell test? https://t.co/hwOOmEFDvb #alpolitics
— Dale Jackson (@TheDaleJackson) June 4, 2014

I will let you read the details for yourself, but please note Jackson is not questioning if the story is true,  he is accusing  Al.com of.......... orchestrating this story.

Wow… AL.com writer writes how voter ID isn’t necessary and viola his wife finds a old woman who is denied the right to vote. AL.com then writes the story WITHOUT talking to the woman?
Good job.

There is one small problem with this scenario:

 The voter, a great-grandmother to five, was deeply embarrassed by the whole incident and declined to talk directly with AL.com, but she gave her go-ahead for her neighbor, who took her to the polls, to relay the incident, with the provision that her name not be used.

It ought to be against the law to turn people away from the polls in the United States of America.  That's what  doesn't pass the smell test.

  "What purpose did turning her away from the polls serve?"

I wonder how many of cases of "suspected voter fraud" were turned in to the GOP?

Tweet of the Week & RedEye's Week in Review

A FREE PRESS would have Investigated WHO got the Website Contract, and who they are linked to. And how it got Sabotaged. Instead "OMGOBAMA"
— Ina (@InaMaziarcz) November 8, 2013

Fellow blogger Rodger Shuler, aka Legal Schnauzer, is still behind bars in the Shelby County, Alabama jail for being the kind of journalist we wish we had instead of the kind of journalist we have.  But then again, seeing how being the kind of journalist we wish had lands them in jail, we can understand why we have the kind of journalist we have.  According to Rodgers wife Carol lots of organizations are stepping up to help so hopefully we will see and hear from Rodger Shuler again, but then again this is AmeriBama.

What's that you say?  President Obama hates the Congressional Black Caucus just as much as he hates the Tea Party?  I'm shocked !  Shocked I tell you.   Not.

The mainstream media and the Talking TeeVee Pundit Heads are calling President Obama a liar and making him apologize because he said he had proof of tons and tons of WMD in Iraq and Saddam was about to use them on us.

If you are a black person in America  and you happen to find yourself in danger, do not go to a random white person for help. Especially if you have to go to their home. You are better off taking your chances with the elements.  It is open season on black people in America.

RedEye over and out for now.

Is there a voter fraud expert in the Blogosphere?

Texas  Voter ID Law is Blocked Fist Dap Washington Post.com

Question: If you show up to vote on election day, cast a vote, and don't use your real name, is that voter fraud?

Question:  IF you show up to vote on election day and your photo ID doesn't match your name and you cast a vote, is that voter fraud?

Question: How many people cast votes on election day and didn't use their real name?

Question:  How many people show up on election day and present a photo ID that doesn't match the name they are registered to with?

Question:  Do voters who cast absentee ballots have to present photo ID?  If so how to they know the person submitting the absentee ballot is the same person in the photo?

Question:  What party is more likely to caste an absentee ballot?

Question:  How many cases of absentee fraud have been tried and convicted within the past 12 years?

Anybody know?

Today's must read
Stealing Ohio

"Voter Fraud is rarer than Shark Attacks" So what's the problem?

How ridiculous are the republicans getting over Voter ID laws?

This ridiculous

Just two weeks ago a Rasmussen poll showed that 64 percent of Americans believe voter fraud exists. Thatpoll was a major hit with the folks at the pro–voter ID True the Vote conference held over the weekend in Houston. No less than three speakers mentioned it to the crowd of roughly 200 attendees. According to conference host and True the Vote president Catherine Engelbrecht, thirty-two states were represented here for their third national summit, but it was clear most in the room were from Texas. Many appeared to be part of one Tea Party group or another (True the Vote is the 501c3 arm of the King Street Patriots, a Texas Tea Party group), and none seemed to be aware that they were far from losing the war on voting.
And this:

The card pictured above was good enough for voters in Texas to use to elect George W. Bush governor of Texas, Kay Bailey Hutchinson to the U.S. Senate and other elected officials for decades. During the last legislative session, republicans passed a new Voter ID law requiring a photo ID in addition to this card before voters can vote, claiming there is massive voter fraud in the state.  However when asked for proof of the magical voter fraud the best they could provide was 51 cases since 2002.

Everybody knows this is about state-sanctioned Voter Suppression.  Republicans couldn't believe an African American was elected President of the United States of America in 2008 and they are determined to correct that mistake and make sure it doesn't happen again.  They know black voter turnout was the key in 2008, and black voter turnout is the key in 2012.

How ridiculous is it to believe gun laws won't stop real gun violence, but Voter ID cards will stop imagined Voter Fraud?

Today's Must Reads
Guns, Gun Rights and Black People

Gun Laws and the Myth of the Slippery Slope

The NRA--A Cancer on the Soul of America

People Kill People, and guns make it easier for them

Today's Must See YouTube 
Bowling for Columbine-A brief history of the USA

It's Time for Dale Jackson to Put Up or Shut Up

I pledge to use my time and my money to help anyone who wants and ID and doesn't have one to get one.~Dale Jackson July 13,2012 

I will not quit.  I will continue to fight to get people the ID they need to vote because this is the most important issue of our time.~Dale Jackson July 13, 2012

Graphic by  mooncat @LeftinAlabama

In an obvious attempt to gain publicity for himself, and mock voters who will be negatively impacted by the new Voter ID laws being passed by red, republican, controlled legislators and governors in key swing states, including Sweet Home Alabama, WVNN radio talk show host Dale Jackson challenged liberals to stop whining about the Voter ID laws and do something about it. by offering to single-handedly (sic) solve this problem by not only picking up "the poor", taking them to the appropriate agency, paying for their ID and buying them a sandwich..

There was only one problem, Dale needed help identifying the poor and destitute who couldn't obtain an ID, so he enlisted the help of the Alabama Democratic Party, The Alabama Federation of Democratic Women, Limestone County Democrats, and the Madison County Democrats via Facebook.

Refusing to give up Dale even suckered LiA blogger and commentor Dragontide into posting his appeal for help on the font page of Left in Alabama promising to ask Congress Critter Mo Brooks (r), and Alabama Senators Richard Shelby(r) and Jeff Sessions(r) about a nationwide federal program to issue ID's, which Dale reneged on.

Well Dale, you don't have to beg for help identifying the poor, destitute people you claim you are trying to help because the Brennan Center for Justice has done the work for you in a report that list the number of Alabamians who need to be picked up, taken to the appropriate agency so you can to buy them a voter ID card.  

Psst Dale!  Get out your checkbook and write a check for the total cost of the ID card, transportation, and a sandwich  for the number of people in the Tennessee Valley listening area, identified for you in the report, and send it the Brennan Center for Justice so they can help you win the fight to get people the ID they need to vote because this is the most important fight of our time.


32.7%, or 1,137,724, voting age Alabama citizens live more than 10 miles from the nearest state ID-issuing office which is open more than 2 days a week

6.1% of voting age Alabama citizens (213,386) have no vehicle access. 

26.8% of those voting age Alabama citizens with no vehicle access (57,285) also live 10 miles or more from the nearest state ID-issuing office that's open more than 2 days a week

Alabama has the lowest per capita investment in public transportation of any state in the study -- zero dollars.

Today's Must Reads

Voter Fraud rarer than Shark Attacks. 'True the Vote' Still Out to Screw the Vote 

Countering the Conspiracy to Disenfranchise Black Voters

Texas GOP has a new Voter Suppression Plan

NAACP President says Voter ID Laws must be fought

"Fast and Furious" Saturday Open Thread~Updated

H/T Jobsanger

Zimmerman Audio Tapes Bring Into Question Credibility.  Again.

• I hope people know the reason why he's saying Trayvon Martin said those words and the way he said it right? It's because he want to make Trayvon sound like a thug and he know white people will back him(Zimmerman) if Trayvon is labeled as a thug

• No what it does is try to make Trayvon Martin look like a hood or a a hoodlum. Because black people don't say "homey" no more and also when he got shot ain't nobody going to say "all man you got me" but see white people still think black people still talk like that. So now they like its more believable for white people because most of them have that kind of stereotype upon black people

Making a living off of Government Contracts coming to a school district near you!

Race Baiting for Votes goes on and on....

It's tough to stop Voter Fraud when there is none. 

Did we see the republican playbook for  2012?  Steal the November Election?!?!

Report:  Issa Staffer offered to stop Holder Contempt vote in exchange for the resignation of Assistant Attorney General Lanny Beurer. 

During a phone call last week with a senior Justice official, Issa's chief investigative counsel, Stephen Castor, broached a possible settlement. As the conversation began, according to two sources familiar with the conversation, Castor asked the official where things stood on "accountability." By that, Castor meant would any heads roll at Justice. Castor mentioned Lanny Breuer, the head of the department's Criminal Division, whom Republicans had been gunning for because of his knowledge of gun-walking techniques that had been used during the Bush administration. (Their theory was that Breuer should have taken aggressive steps to ensure that such measures were not repeated in future operations.) According to these sources, Castor said that if Breuer resigned, they could head off the looming constitutional clash. 

New Pressures on Corbett's Failure to Prosecute Sandusky When He Had the Chance 

They are not Happy in Happy Valley

CD-5 Crossing Over Dems being Punk'd again?

U.S. Representative Mo Brooks and Madison County Commissioner Dale Strong

Let's recap.

Former Democrat, turned republican, Alabama Congress Critter Parker "Flipper" Griffin will square off against present republican Congress Critter Mo "anything short of shooting them" Brooks, in the REPUBLICAN primary on Tuesday.

Enter the democratic, circular, firing squad who helped Mo Brooks defeat Parker Griffin in the first place IMHO.

Democrats try to right a wrong (pun intended), asking why should they vote in the democratic primary, with some saying they will cross over and vote for the lessor of the two evils.  And they say black democrats engage in wholesale voter fraud?

Punk me once.........can't punk me again.

President Obama, as well as some fine democratic delegates to the Democratic National Convention, are on the democratic ballot.  Support President Obama now by casting your vote for them.  We don't have a dog in the gop dog fight.

In many respects, these GOP contests are not between light and darkness, but between darker shades of pitch. We should be as careful of rooting for a “moderate” in these races, as we would be of rooting for a “less extreme” mullah in an Iranian “election.” 

Democrats will never achieve the CHANGE we want if democrats keep doing the same thing over and over again,  HOPING for a different result.

RedEye's Monday Must Reads in "Perfect Context"

Voting:  A privilege guaranteed by the Founding Fathers to Conservative White Christians-h/t What Would Jack Do

The Real Voter Fraud Culprits

No, Alabama is NOT Nazi Germany.  There Are No Gas Chambers There.

Following former republican  Mississippi Governor Haley Barbours'  breadcrumbs to Alabama.  What the heck was he thinking? Good question.

Onward Backwards Soldiers!  Shadrock, I mean,  Shadrack McGill soldiers on

Susan G. Komen Puts Romney's  'Not Concerned About the Poor' in Perfect Context

Race and Death Penalty Juries

Starting off the New Year with a RedEye Rant

 This system cannot stand.  Despite what the Talking TeeVee Pundit Heads and Talk Radio Hate Jocks tell you, the Iowa Primary is a JOKE that is so not funny.

Let's stop beating around the bush (no pun) with nice code words like fiscal conservatives, Evangelical Christians, Religious Right, Blue Collar voters, Values Voters, Moderates, Undecided and Independents to describe the electorate.

If you vote for and elect a racist, you are a racist.

If you vote for and elect a homophobic, you re a homophobic.

If you vote for and elect a bigot, you are a bigot.

If you vote against your self-interest you are a Sucker.

It's not about Black Voter Fraud.  It's about keeping blacks from voting because republicans know that is the only way they can steal, I mean to win  the election and kick President Obama's African American Donkey out of the White House.  But first, they had to get rid of ACORN so they could stop them there voter registration drives. Yep, when republicans change the rules it's for freedom and democracy. Snark

republicans can't handle the truth.  They would RATHER believe a lie.


My resolution for 2012 and beyond- I will not vote for any candidate who can't come out in support of health care, gay marriage, public education, or any other issues I care about.

Rant over.

For now.

Why Artur Davis is singing the gop black voter fraud song

H/T The Black Commentator

Flush with two real victories and one imagined triumph, the authors of the Hard Right's New Black Strategy have doubtless kicked the campaign into higher gear than initially planned. In addition to the usual centers of intrigue (the DLC, for example) and the on- and off-line publications of the Right, it will be necessary to monitor regional and local media and newsletters to determine who is being courted by whom. Again, when the cash actually arrives, it will be too late to nip the Trojan Horse candidacy in the bud.

In case you were wondering why Artur Davis flipped the script on the Voter ID laws..

H/T DownWithTyranny!

Davis isn't done with politics. He'd like to run for the Senate next... if former Democrat (turned Republican conservative) Richard Shelby retires. Will Davis first follow Shelby's path into the Republican Party? Jordan Bloom at the Daily Caller discovered that he's been doing more than undercutting Democratic policies. Now he's contributing to Republican candidates as well!

republican candidates in Mississippi and New Mexico no less

Artur Davis’s new tune on voter ID laws isn’t his only recent right turn. According to third-quarter Federal Election Commission filings, Davis — a former Democratic congressman from Alabama, donated $500 in September to the campaign of Heather Wilson, New Mexico’s Republican candidate for U.S. Senate. Davis also contributed to the Republican front-runner in the Mississippi governor’s race.

Psst Artur! Heather Wilson might have some *ahem* problems.

Now that former Rep. Heather Wilson (R-N.M.) is throwing her hat into the ring for the U.S. Senate seat now held by Sen. Jeff Bingaman (D-NM), expect a nasty, bitter race and plenty of ghosts turning up from Wilson’s decade-long Washington career.

Wilson, a former Air Force officer and director at the National Security Council, was a rising GOP star and a standout on defense and intelligence matters post-9/11. But her Washington career ended in 2008 when she lost a GOP Senate primary to Rep. Steve Pearce, who then lost the general election to Democrat Tom Udall.

In the lead up to that primary, Wilson suffered a series of public relations blows for her role in the U.S. attorneys’ scandal, improperly politicized firings of U.S. prosecutors by the Bush administration, which Democrats spent months investigating in 2007 and 2008. A lot of information about Wilson’s role wasn’t ever really scrutinized to the extent it could have been because she lost her first Senate bid.

Would a party switch work for Davis as smoothly as it did for Shelby-- and scores of other white ex-Democrats in Alabama?

Time will tell the truth.

"Money is speech in American politics,"

Republican legislatures just can’t help themselves from diluting minority voting power.

"Black voter fraud must be why democrats win so many elections in Alabama"

So says Daily Kos commenter Paleo in response to Artur Davis' Flip on Voter ID and his refusal to say who he saw committing voter fraud. You see, Davis made some serious allegations in his editorial in the Montgomery Advertiser.

Voting the names of the dead, and the nonexistent, and the too-mentally-impaired to function, cancels out the votes of citizens who are exercising their rights — that’s suppression by any light. If you doubt it exists, I don’t; I’ve heard the peddlers of these ballots brag about it, I’ve been asked to provide the funds for it, and I am confident it has changed at least a few close local election results

For the record, there was ONE case of ABSENTEE BALLOT FRAUD prosecuted in Alabama's black belt, and I'm not so sure it wasn't racially motivated.

Tinker, Rosie Lyles and Valada Paige Banks, all black, have been charged with crimes stemming from alleged voter fraud. The indictments come after a tumultuous decade during which thousands of the county's absentee ballots became the deciding votes in municipal and county elections.

In that time, a bank where absentee ballots had been stored for the district attorney burned in an arson that remains unsolved and the Greensboro mayoral election was overturned by the courts. A judge issued an arrest warrant for the probate judge and an attorney general's investigator looking into voter fraud allegations was thrown in jail.

Artur must have forgotten about what they do to voting rights activist in Sweet Home Alabama.

Back in the spring of 1986, after having successfully appointed scores and scores of conservative judges to serve on courts across the country, President Ronald Reagan went too far. He picked a federal prosecutor to a fill a vacancy on the U.S. District Court in Alabama whose nomination was so controversial that it got quashed by the Republican-controlled Senate Judiciary Committee.

That prosecutor was Jeff Sessions, the senator who, in all likelihood will serve as that committee's most powerful Republican for the next year and a half.

But back to 1986. During the debate over his nomination, committee Democrats questioned Sessions' prosecutorial discretion, focusing in particular on a case he pursued against three Marion, AL civil rights workers--Albert Turner, Turner's wife Evelyn, and Spencer Hogue, Jr.--whom he accused of voter fraud. Sessions was unconcerned with claims of fraud outside the so-called Black Belt, but he alleged that the trio had falsified absentee ballots in Perry County during the 1984 election. After conducting an exhaustive investigation, though, he was able to account for only a small handful of questionable examples, and even those he couldn't pin on his defendants, who were acquitted after only a few hours' deliberation.

Artur Davis takes being a sore loser to different level.

Back in February, I wrote a Cliff Note about a Black South Carolina State Senator who, while considering a run for Governor, felt the need to strengthen his White support by celebrating the Confederacy. Well a few weeks ago, another post-racial Dixie Governor wannabe decided to go the same Confederate lovin’ route. Artur Davis, candidate for Alabama Governor, recently criticized an Auburn City Councilman for removing confederate flags from a local cemetery.

If there were massive black voter fraud in Alabama why didn't Artur Davis win the democratic gubernatorial primary? And why did the republicans take over the Legislature, the Governors office, the Supreme Court and the Attorney Generals office? I mean, really?

Mr. Davis, Harvard on line 1. They want their degrees back. You obviously aren't doing anything useful with them. H/T Egalitare

Artur Davis, this post is for Y-O-U!

The Attack on Voting Rights Isn’t Racist—Just Ask Artur Davis

25% of Black folks Don't Have ID...and it's not because they are lazy..it's because they are black, old, and or poor. Republicans know they can't win elections fair and square, so they have to steal them fair and square.

Read all about the 96-year-old African American woman who can't vote because she can't produce her marriage license in the red, Confederate, Slave, state of Tennessee.

Read all about how threatening letters blanket black neighborhoods warning that creditors and police officers will check would-be voters at the polls, or that elections are taking place on a wrong day.

What part of Voter ID is a Poll Tax by another name don't you and your republican pals understand?

Who is going to pay for the cost of the Voter ID? We the people? I thought Republicans wanted to cut federal spending?

Why is it everybody but you and your republican pals can see the ugly parallels between Jim Crow and modern voter suppression laws? Or is it that you don't want to see the ugly parallels?

"You are either with us or against us" Artur Davis

Attention Cats and Critters at Left in Alabama and Over the Mountain Dems! Our ex Congress Critter Artur Davis (DINO) say's he should have supported the Voter ID law. Yep. You read it right (pun intended). Do you think maybe this is his application for a party switch? If so he will fit right (another pun) in with the other republican Flip Flopper's. Artur Davis in his own words;

I think Alabama did the right thing in passing one -- and I wish I had gotten it right when I was in political office.

When I was a congressman, I took the path of least resistance on this subject for an African American politician. Without any evidence to back it up, I lapsed into the rhetoric of various partisans and activists who contend that requiring photo identification to vote is a suppression tactic aimed at thwarting black voter participation.

Yep without that there black voter participation he might have been the democratic nominee for Governor since the majority of blacks voted for Ron Sparks instead of him. You see Artur and Company thought black folks were going to believe he was the second coming of Barack Obama and vote for him out of racial pride at seeing one of their own running for office. The fact he voted against the Affordable Health Care Act with the republicans and against the Hate Crimes Bill with the republicans didn't have anything to do with it. Nope. This is the truth according to Artur.

The truth is that the most aggressive contemporary voter suppression in the African American community, at least in Alabama, is the wholesale manufacture of ballots, at the polls and absentee, in parts of the Black Belt.

Voting the names of the dead, and the nonexistent, and the too-mentally-impaired to function, cancels out the votes of citizens who are exercising their rights -- that's suppression by any light. If you doubt it exists, I don't; I've heard the peddlers of these ballots brag about it, I've been asked to provide the funds for it, and I am confident it has changed at least a few close local election results.

Psst Artur! How many cases of voting in the names of the dead and the nonexistent, and the too-mentally-impaired to function have been proven in a court a law? I'll tell you, less than 2%. The real case of voter fraud is the absentee ballots and you you know who votes absentee ballots don't you? White, affluent republicans who have homes in several states and countries.

According to Artur It's all that stupid Sen. Hank Sanders fault!

The fact that a law that is unlikely to impede a single good faith voter -- and that only gives voting the same elements of security as writing a check at the store, or obtaining a library card -- is controversial does say much about the raw feelings in our current politics. The ugliest, hardest forms of disfranchisement were practiced in our lifetimes, and its still conventional rhetoric in black political circles to say those times are on the way back. Witness a last-minute automated call to black voters in the 2010 general election by state Sen. Hank Sanders, an ingenious lawyer and a skillful legislator who knew better, but who also knew the attack would resonate.

When/what/how the heck did Hank Sanders attack Artur? Are you sure you aren't still mad at him for not endorsing you over Ron Sparks? I mean, really?

According to Artur, Bill Clinton is skeering folks too!

I was disappointed to see Bill Clinton, a very good president and an even greater ex-president, compare voter ID to Jim Crow, and it is chilling to see the intimidation tactics brought to bear on African American, Democratic legislators in Rhode Island who had the nerve to support a voter ID law in that very liberal state.

What these folks say all the damn way!

yet, ANOTHER reason why he's FORMER Congressman. good riddance.

This looks like the essay portion of Davis' application to the Republican Party.

up, sure is.

and he will not get any further with the Thugs than his buddy Harold Ford did.

If he thinks the ReThug party is the way back into DC, I got beachfront property in Arizona I'd like to sell him.

What RedEye says; Artur Davis is putting a black face on racist racism.

The truth is that racism is typically most effective when you put a black face on it, and Herman Cain (Artur Davis) has volunteered to become the cute little political puppet which allows white America to say the things that they are afraid to say out loud.

Artur Davis is gone and we HOPE he's never coming back.

A Texas Election Judges opinion of the Voter ID laws

I am sharing an email I received from a Texas Election Judge in response to my post, I sure do miss the good old days when we had fair and free elections in America too. I would like to thank the Judge for reading and their informative response.~Redeye

Let me preface this by saying that here in Texas, there has recently been passed a new "Voter ID" law ( :-( ) and I don't know yet how the courts will handle that, or how the details will work. So I'm basing what I'm saying below on the prior law and interpretation.

First of all, at least here in Texas, you DO have to provide SOME kind of identification in order to vote (at least to vote normally).

That said, there is a WIDE variety of identification you can provide. What we are trying to determine is that you are who you say you are, and that you are a registered voter in Dallas County (during early voting) and/or the precinct corresponding to the polling place to you are at (on election day proper). You can use a voter registration card (the preferred ID), Texas Drivers License, active duty military ID, pilots license, passport, concealed carry permit, or more. It's not limited to government issued identification: if it shows your photo and your name (and preferably also your signature) that's cool. I have accepted a Sam's Club card, or even a Six Flags season pass.

The one that bothers ME is that we can (must!) also accept a utility bill... and that has neither a photo NOR a signature. That has the further problem that if the utility bill is in the husband's name, the wife can't vote with it, even though she is also covered by that bill. (Theoretically, someone could go down the street and pull utility bills out of the mailboxes on the day they're being delivered, and then use that as ID to vote for all their neighbors!)

Personally, I'm (not surprisingly) an election integrity advocate (and that's a big part of why I work as an election judge).

I want to make sure that the voter presenting themselves at the poll to vote IS the person who they claim to be. Obviously, we check on the computer (during early voting) or in the poll book (on election day) to verify that the person is registered and their voter egistration is active. If the voter has not yet signed their voter registration card, I ask them to sign it in front of me, and I verify that signature against the signature on their driver's license (which
of course is always signed). After the voter signs the application for voting (during early voting) or the combination form (on election day) I check to make sure that the signature appears to be signed by the same hand as that which signed their reference ID.

Personally, I think a photo ID is much less good than a signature
verification... if I were to cut off my beard and long hair, I wouldn't look anything like my previous picture, but my signature would still match... or if someone had an identical twin, they might look EXACTLY the same, but their signature won't match. So I qualify the voters by always confirming their signature, if possible (again, under current law, I have to accept a utility bill, which doesn't have a signature on it). The important thing is that I as election judge am convinced that the person IS who they claim to be.

I will point out that I've been working as an election judge for more than ten years, and the supposed problem of people trying to vote as someone else simply DOES NOT OCCUR (or at least not in the numbers that would ever change an election's results). This whole Voter ID law initiative, I think, is an attempt to divert attention away from where the real problems are (or MIGHT be), to where they are not.

As I understand things, the new Texas Voter ID law requires that the name on the Drivers License or other official voting ID presented matches the name on the voter registration. Very often (and more often for women than men) the names on the two databases (drivers license database vs. voter registration database) are not styled the same way. It remains to be seen what allowances we will make for that.

Here in Texas, at least, if you do not adequately identify yourself (whatever that involves) you can still vote (if you insist) but that will be a "provisional" ballot, and if you did not present a satisfactory ID, it is safe to predict that your vote WILL NOT BE COUNTED. (The actual determination is officially made by the Ballot Board, but the rule is that voters not presenting proper ID is one sufficient cause for not counting their ballot).

There is some feeling that the newly passed Texas Voter ID law will be thrown out by the courts. That remains to be seen, too.

There are other things that we need to change to make the voting more reliable, auditable, and trustworthy. I've discussed those here before, but that would be off topic for THIS reply, at least.

Monday Talking Points

Where oh where is The Birmingham Skews?

Here is a budget we can believe in.

There is nothing wrong with Medicare, that's why republicans want to mess it up too.

Guess how much the first week of Operation Intervention Libya cost.

Want Voter Fraud?