Voter Fraud, Motor Voter, Spitzer, And the Democrats

An interesting, but alas, not particularly shocking article appeared over at Q&O yesterday under the headline 8 of the 19 9/11 hijackers were registered to vote.

We all saw or are now familiar with the recent dust-up in the latest Democratic debate concerning Hillary Clinton and her support/non-support of NY Governor Eliot Spitzer’s desire to allow illegal immigrants to get a driver’s licence.

The party line for such a move is it enhances security by bringing illegals out of the shadows and making it easier to track them. Frankly, that’s a pile of cow cookies.

Using info from a John Fund article in the Wall Street Journal, let me show you why:

The background here is the National Voter Registration Act, commonly known as “Motor Voter,” that President Bill Clinton signed into law in 1993. It required all states to offer voter registration to anyone getting a driver’s license. One simply fills out a form and checks a box stating he is a citizen; he is then registered and in most states does not have to show any ID to vote.

The key to the rest of this is found in the emboldened line. From there, this:

But no one checks if the person registering to vote is indeed a citizen. That greatly concerns New York election officials, who processed 245,000 voter registrations at DMV offices last year. “It would be [tough to catch] if someone wanted to . . . get a number of people registered who aren’t citizens and went ahead and got them drivers’ licenses,” says Lee Daghlian, spokesman for New York’s Board of Elections. Assemblywoman Ginny Fields, a Long Island Democrat, warns that the state’s “Board of Elections has no voter police” and that the state probably has upwards of 500,000 illegal immigrants old enough to drive.

So? So show up with a social security number (something else they don’t check to see if it is valid), lie about being a citizen, and you can both drive and vote. Simple as that. No one is going to check. In fact, they’re not staffed to check, nor is there any procedure in place to do so even if bureaucrats wanted to0. (sic)

McQ points out that the system upon which Mr. Spitzer claims to be depending for it’s integrity as regards prevention of abuse of his proposed illegal alien drivers licenses, is with those 8 hikackers, fully exposed as not HAVING any integrity.  This begs question of why he feels the need to march off into the sunset waving the flag of illegals and their “rights”… ad by extension, why, as Bruce points out, 6 out of the 7 Democrat candidates for Preident at lest tacitly if not openly support Spitzer in this. Clearly, not a one of them are concerned a whit about the integrity of the system. They’re not worried about illegals voting…. indeed they’re DEPENDING on illegals voting… for Democrats.

I call that corruption.

So does John Fund:

Despite her muddled comments this week, there’s no doubt where Mrs. Clinton stands on ballot integrity. She opposes photo ID laws, even though they enjoy over 80% support in the polls. She has also introduced a bill to force every state to offer no-excuse absentee voting as well as Election Day registration–easy avenues for election chicanery. The bill requires that every state restore voting rights to all criminals who have completed their prison terms, parole or probation.

Pollster Scott Rasmussen notes that Mrs. Clinton is such a polarizing figure that she attracts between 46% and 49% support no matter which Republican candidate she’s pitted against–even libertarian Ron Paul. She knows she may have trouble winning next year. Maybe that’s why she’s thrown herself in with those who will look the other way as a new electoral majority is formed–even if that includes non-citizens, felons and those who suddenly cross a state line on Election Day and decide they want to vote someplace new.

And you know what? All of this puts into a slightly new perspective all the loud and long complaints for the last eight years from the Democrats about electronic voting, and makes clear that their concern wasn’t that it opened up new chances for fraud, but that it eliminated Democrat chances to create fraud.

Rasmussen Reports:

Tuesday night’s debate was not Hillary Clinton’s finest moment of the campaign season, but there has been little or no immediate damage to her standing in the national polls. In fact, if anything, support for Clinton has ticked up a bit since she stumbled on an answer to questions about drivers licenses for illegal aliens.

Data from the Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll shows that on the two nights following the debate (Wednesday and Thursday) Clinton held a 45% to 18% lead over Barack Obama. For Clinton, that’s an improvement from Monday and Tuesday nights when her lead over Obama had been 40% to 24%.

John Edwards was at 10% on the first two nights and 12% on Wednesday and Thursday. Bill Richardson went from 5% to 7% during the same time frames.

Well, several points, first of all as Rasmussen admits, the sample size would fit in a teacup. Secondly even the margin for error they’re admitting to, large as it is, may be what they call statistical noise.

But you know, that still leaves us with a fairly small shift in numbers.  The obvious conclusion to draw is that nothing, no amount of scandal, no amount of threats of tax hikes, no amount of freedoms lost is going to push Hillary Clinton out of the race altogether… something we surmized here quite a while ago. Which in turn is why we never joined the cat calls about how she was out of the race because of the other night.

The fact of the matter is, Hillary Clinton’s supporters don’t base their support on her positions, or on any other fact.  They never have… and if there’s one thing this polling data proves, it’s that. If they did base their support on the facts of the case,  she’d have been removed from the Democrat party 8 years ago.

She could have pictures taken of her, with dead mangled puppies and kittens, bloodied axe in hand and covered with blood herself, and she’d not take any political hurt from it, from the mindless drones she has supporting her, regardless of where those pictures were published. All she’d need to do is say the magic words… “For The Children”, and all would be well in her world.

The question becomes, then, are there enough voting Americans with working braincells, to vote against her?

Addeundum:   (David L)

Agreed, but.     John Kerry’s statement that he was for the war before he was against it, didn’t drive down his poll numbers,  but it did kill his campaign.  Mrs.  Clinton committed four Kerry’s in but one debacle, debate.

The John “I Feel Pettty” Edwards campaign has issued what an ad that Markos Moulitsas calls devastating.    Think Daisy.  Think the Bear

It now wabbit season and Mrs. Clinton has been flushed.   She fair game and an easy target.  

Hat Tips:  Jim Geraghty, National Review; Memeorandum.

CONCERNED LOCAL CITIZENS LEAD COALITION FORCES TO CACHE LOCATION

Posted: 30 Oct 2007 03:41 PM CDT

CONCERNED LOCAL CITIZENS LEAD COALITION FORCES TO CACHE LOCATION

With a Nod to Billy Beck for the link:

(The Telegraph) Brigadier-General Paul Tibbets, who died on Thursday aged 92, commanded the USAAF bomber Enola Gay, which dropped the atom bomb on Hiroshima on August 6 1945.

In September 1944 Tibbets, who had completed a tour of bombing operations in Europe, was briefed on the Manhattan Project, the codename for the development of the atom bomb. He was ordered to form a special unit of B-29 Super Fortress bombers, the 393rd Bombardment Squadron, and train it to deliver these weapons in combat operations.

He requisitioned 15 new B-29s and supervised the modifications necessary to make them capable of delivering the weapons. This included fitting fuel-injected engines, a re-configured bomb bay and changes to the aircraft’s armour plating.

The reason for fuel injection of course was  to allow for a higher flying altitude. Enola Gay, in case you don’t know was named for Tibbits’ mother.

 Amazingly, the echo of the announcement of Tibbits death hadn’t faded yet when the left started in… Rusty Shakleford says:

Kay in Maine comments on the death of Paul Tibbetts, the man who flew the Enola Gay.

Paul Tibbetts died a coward today at the age of 92…I spit on him….

Coward! …

Not only was a he a typical reich winger throughout his life, meaning he had zero compassion for the people of our planet, but he managed to be the typical reich winger upon his death by being a coward….

Typical reich wing coward ole Tibbetts was.

Not surprised. Rest in peace if you can Paul! Spit. Good riddance.

But don’t question her patriotism!H/T: Mike

UPDATE: Bozoer Rebbe remarks on Tibbets in the comments:

The irony of calling Paul Tibbets a “coward” is that Tibbets was assigned the Hiroshima mission in great part because he was considered the finest bomber pilot in the US Army Air Force. He piloted the lead B-17 in the first daylight bombing raid by an American squadron over Nazi occupied Europe in Aug. 1942 and later flew combat in the Mediterranean theater of operations. He personally shuttled Gen. Eisenhower from England to Gibralter prior to Operation Torch, the Allied invasion of North Africa.Tibbets’ commendations:

* Distinguished Service Cross
* Distinguished Flying Cross
* Air Medal
* Purple Heart
* Legion of Merit
* Commendation Medal
* European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal
* Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal
* American Defense Service Medal
* American Campaign Medal
* World War II Victory Medal

 The trouble, Rusty, is that mere facts don’t matter to such idiots.

For my part, I will express my respects to the General, and thank him for a job well done.

More information the University of Delaware indoctrination scandal.  Byran, Hot Air, posts an audio interview which would have been perfect for Hallooween had it not been but a day late and sadly all true.

If you have a child in college or planning on college, get scared.

Says Fred Thompson, on Red State via Conservative Grapevine:

While Hillary Clinton was speaking out both sides of her mouth at last night’s debate over the issue of drivers licenses for illegal aliens, what went unsaid is that this is a recipe for increased voter fraud. Under the federal “Motor Voter” law (the National Voter Registration Act of 1993), states must provide applicants for drivers licenses with the opportunity to register to vote.

Giving legal drivers licenses to illegal immigrants is wrong and would provide them the opportunity to register to vote in our country. People who are not citizens of the United States should not be encouraged by pandering politicians to further break our laws and risk the health of our political system.

And out health systems, and our health and our economy and just about anything which will suffer ill effects when a plane flies into it, or when subjected to high explosives.

Addendum: (David L)

Not only does Fred get it.  He gives it.  Allah Pundit, Hot Air, posts a Thompson campaign video which is similar to Fred rebutal to Michael Moore, but this time all so much gentler.  Fred is so soft spoken that it would seem difficult for Mrs. Clinton to complain of Fred being a bully.  Let us see.

On the subject of a biased press, comes Investor’s Business Daily:

Just like so many reports before it, a joint survey by the Project for Excellence in Journalism and Harvard’s Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy — hardly a bastion of conservative orthodoxy — found that in covering the current presidential race, the media are sympathetic to Democrats and hostile to Republicans.

Democrats are not only favored in the tone of the coverage. They get more coverage period. This is particularly evident on morning news shows, which “produced almost twice as many stories (51% to 27%) focused on Democratic candidates than on Republicans.”

The most flagrant bias, however, was found in newspapers. In reviewing front-page coverage in 11 newspapers, the study found the tone positive in nearly six times as many stories about Democrats as it was negative.

Harvard? Amazing. Harvard ITSELF has a history of left-leaning bias. When even THEY notice….

And as the IBD article concludes…

 The media, of course, insist they are careful to keep personal opinions out of their coverage. But the facts tell another story — one that can’t be edited or spiked.

Manu Raju at The Hill:

 Senate Republicans said Thursday they would invoke new ethics rules to block Democratic efforts to send to President Bush the first appropriations package of the 110th Congress.

Do you understand the impact of what’s being said here? The FIRST appropriations package of this congress. And even this they can’t get right…

Despite Republican grumbling, House and Senate negotiators on Thursday agreed to tack a $65 billion bill funding the Department of Veterans Affairs and military construction onto a $151 billion bill for the Labor, Health and Human Services (HHS) and Education departments. The Veterans Affairs measure is about $4 billion more than Bush’s budget request, and the Labor-HHS-Education bill would add $10 billion to the president’s proposal.

… theseARE Democrats, after all.

Peg Noonan at the Wall Street Journal…

(Yes, owned by him who must not be named…)

….has come up withwhat has to be the line of the week, as regards Hillary Clinton’s deer in the headlights dance, the other night:

I spent a day going over the transcripts so I could quote at length, but her exchanges are all over, it’s a real Google-fest. Here, boiled down, is what she said.

Giving illegal immigrants drivers licenses makes sense because it makes sense, but she may not be for it, but undocumented workers should come out of the shadows, and it makes sense. Maybe she will increase the payroll tax on Social Security beyond its current $97,500 limit, to $200,000. Maybe not. Everybody knows what the possibilities are. She may or may not back a 4% federal surcharge on singles making $150,000 a year and couples making $200,000. She suggested she backed it, said she didn’t back it, she then called it a good start, or rather “I support and admire” the person proposing such a tax for his “willingness to take this on.”

She has been accused of doubletalk and she has denied it. And she is right. It was triple talk, quadruple talk, Olympic level nonresponsiveness. And it was, even for her, rather heavy and smug. Her husband would have had the sense to look embarrassed as he bobbed and weaved. It was part of his charm. But he was light on his feet. She turns every dance into the polka. And it is that amazing thing, a grim polka.

My freinds, it’s an interesting thing, when the conclusions I draw, particularly the ones I make public, are confirmed by so talented a writer.

One more comment:

What Mrs. Clinton revealed the other night was more than an unfortunate persona. What I think she revealed was that her baseline thinking has perhaps not changed that much since the 1990s, when she was a headband wearing, power suited, leftist-who-hadn’t-been-wounded-yet. It seemed to me she made it quite possible to assume you know who she’ll be making war on. And this–much more than the latest scandal, the Chinatown funny money and the bundling–could, and I think would, engender real opposition down the road. The big chink in her armor is not stylistic, it is about policy. It is about the great baseline question in all political life: Whose ox is being gored?

Hmmm. It’s a sad state of affairs when political support is decided by the the answer to the statement “As long as you’re not taking MY money to pay for everyone’s healthcare.” Still, Peg’s correct; that’s the kind of atmosphere engendered by redistributionist policies that Hillary has so well associated herself with.

Go RTWT.

The Jerusalem Post, plays (or parrots like) Rosie O’Donnell:

‘USAF struck Syrian nuclear site’

Confederate Yankee plays the role of Popular Mechanics.

Kevin Hayden, American Street, proves the advantage of posting while sober(PWS).   The British rag, Guardian, has been publishing her list the the top one hundred most influencial conservatives and liberals all week.   The Guardian is trolling for American hits and I refuse to give the rag any more.

Hayden posts his lists of the most influencial, conservative, moderate, and liberal leaders.   They are reasonable lists. headed respectively by Rush Limbaugh, B.J. Clinton and Keith Olbermann.

Hat tip:  Memeorandum.

Doctor Charles Krauthammer, this morning, over at Real Clear Politics, by way of Memeorandum:

The problem is Bill. But not the way it is usually understood, i.e., the sex scandal waiting to happen. There is that, of course. But there are deeper, more subtle considerations that would arise even if the man — do the thought experiment — were as self-disciplined as Nestor Kirchner.

First, for all of their worship of Diana and the Kennedys, Americans are instinctively republican and suspicious of dynastic politics. A vote for Hillary is a vote for the last entry of a Bush-Clinton-Bush-Clinton quarter-century.

We’ve had just two father-son presidencies in the 230 years of the republic, and the first (the Adams family) had the son taking over 24 years after the father, and just one year before the father’s death. The Bush succession is more anomalous with only eight years separating the two presidencies, a proximity that has launched a thousand Maureen Dowd ruminations on the hidden furies driving Oedipus Prez.

But the father-son connection is nothing compared to husband-wife. The relationship between a father and an adult son is psychological and abstract; the connection between husband and wife, concrete and quotidian. Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife. George Bush, pere, didn’t move back into the White House in January 2001.

Which is why Hillary’s problem goes beyond discomfort with dynastic succession. It’s deep unease about a shared presidency.

Indeed.. and that unease was only breifly touched on during the first go round, all of which is brought to mind by the title, as spoken by Hillary Clinton.

Back when Ronald Reagan was shot, Alexander Haig basically ended his career by claiming he was running things, for a while. Arguably, Haig’s heart was in the right place, even if his facts were amiss.  The American people apparently never forgave him that error… mostly because they mistrust someone who will claim power not rightfully theirs.  That someone who was in his position wouldn’t know the proper succession of power transfer didn’t help matters, either, but one thing the American people apparently decided at the time was that his actions were not out of a need for attaining power. He was ever after regarded as a well- meaning buffoon.

So along comes Hillary Clinton, who makes a claim to presidential power, saying ‘WE are the President’. The issue at the time, recall was releasing papers to the press, as regards the government healthcare plan she was pushing.

I’m not going to have some reporters pawing through our papers. We are the president.

So, not only was she claiming power she didn’t have, by law, and was not empowered by the people to claim, by means of election, but she was doing it to exempt herself from public scrutiny. Certainly, a less acceptable situation than Alexander Haig gave us.  Hers was a power grab, and using power she didn’t legally have to protect herself from a hostile public. Comparisons were made at the time, rightly to Eva Peron, though as the good Doctor points out, the comparison is today perhaps more correctly Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner. The names change, the facts remain.

So, here she comes again, with her Government healthcare plans in her grip, and Bill Clinton in tow. What he brings to the table other then bimbo eruptions, is unclear. But what IS clear is we’re dealing with the prospect of yet another shared presidency, and someone who is willing to abuse power to maintain it.

Sorry about the display problems, earlier this evening.

Some changes I made to the sidebar blew up. Basically, I inserted the line of code into the PHP one line too high.

Should be OK now.

BBCT to Bluto for catching it.

Update 11/2/07 08:16 (Bit)

Yecch. It never rains…

IX Webhosting says they lost our web server at some point during the night. No idea on the cause, but I doubt it was the minor PHP changes we did. My guess is it’s unrelated. What annoys me is my automatics didn’t pick up on it. On the other hand it would have meant me being up at 3am, so perhaps it’s just as well.

I can’t complaint about IX… this is the first out we’ve had in a year with them, that wasn’t something that was MY fault. They’ve always been helpful, and got us back up as soon as I noticed it.

 Anyway, we’re good to go, now.

TPM Muckraker says:

Over the past several months, the U.S. attorney’s office in New Jersey has issued two grand jury subpoenas to former clients of Kay LiCausi, a lobbyist and former aide to Sen. Robert Menendez (D-NJ). The investigation, of course, is no secret, but after a controversy raged over subpoenas issued shortly before the 2006 election, the investigation has shifted direction entirely. Now the focus seems to be whether Menendez steered lobbying contracts to his former girlfriend and then delivered government funds to those client once they’d hired her.

…

LiCausi started work for Menendez back when he was in the House in 1998. She was 26. Four years later she left with the title of chief of staff of his New Jersey office, a position that the Times called “midlevel” — she supervised six people. But immediately she began raking in some hefty contracts, not only as a lobbyist, but also as a fundraiser for Menendez and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. Menendez admitted to the Times that he’d “encouraged” the DCCC to hire her for the $10,000 a month spot. And no doubt he was responsible for the work on his political committees, where she was also making another $10,000 a month fundraising for both his political action committee and his campaign. And then there were the lobbying contracts which also rolled in.

Ho-hum. Just another day with Democrats.  And isn’t it interesting that the mainstream media isn’t saying anything about this?

IRAQI SPECIAL OPERATIONS FORCES DETAIN AQI COMMANDER, THREE OTHERS

Posted: 31 Oct 2007 08:39 AM CDT

IRAQI SPECIAL OPERATIONS FORCES DETAIN AQI COMMANDER, THREE OTHERS