Internal Emails Show Obama Campaign Targeting Felons To Vote
The Wall Street Journal’s Washington Wire has obtained internal emails from the Michigan Department of Corrections which discusses a request from the Barack Obama campaign, which was denied, to enter the prison facility to register voters.
From the internal email, Cheryl Groves, 8/1/08- : “Hi Richard, Alice Corey, Field organizer for the Obama campaign, called ICF asking if she can come in and preregister prisoners who will be discharging prior to the election. Is this something we should or should not allow? I am sure other facilities will be contacted as well…”
An Obama spokesman in Michigan acknowledged that a new organizer made the request, but supervisors nixed the idea as soon as they found out about it. The campaign denied all association with a second request to the Department of Corrections. The emails say that a Theresa Collins, identified as the national coordinator of “Inmates to Support Barack Obama,” asked the prison to post information about how prisoners could make campaign contributions to Obama. That group doesn’t appear to have any Web site.
The email chain shows that Richard Stapleton, administrator of the department’s Office of Legal Affairs, told a colleague to deny the campaign’s request. The email, which Washington Wire received from Obama opponent, was verified by a Corrections Department spokesman.
“We’ve got to make sure they’re out first,” said John Cordell, the spokesman. “We could say you’re out on Oct. 31, but if they do something between now and Oct. 31 that would make us think they’re a danger to society, then we’ll rescind their parole.”
The second question referred to was from Cheryl Groves, subject :”Another election question,” which says “Richard- Carson City has now received information from Ms. Theresa Collins, National Coordinator of the ‘Inmates to support Barack Obama’ campaign. She wants us to post information detailing how inmates can be ‘part of the solution by helping to support Barack Obama through individual contributions.’ She has included a form for inmates to donate $2.00, $5.00, $10.00 or other amount.
Since you indicated below that we cannot facilitate campaign activities on state properties, I assume we should be denying this request as well…correct?
Let me know what you think. If you’d like me to fax you a copy of what was sent to Carson City, just let me know. Thanks Richard!.”
According to the Obama campaign, via AP, Obama has “co-sponsored a Senate measure that would allow all ex-felons to vote,” but they deny they are “directly targeting ex-felons for registration.”
Obama has co-sponsored a Senate measure that would allow all ex-felons to vote, but his campaign isn’t directly targeting ex-felons for registration. His campaign does include relevant info on its Web site and educates volunteers so they can explain state laws to those who may not realize they have the right to vote, said spokesman Kevin Griffis.
These internal emails obtained, linked above, shows those denials to be just more lies by the Obama campaign, because requesting a voter registration drive IN prisons, is directly targeting felons.
Obama, more lies we can believe in!!!
.
Scheutte Continues Campaigning For Attorney General
Bill Schuette makes another campaign stop today in the Detroit News. There, he makes the same arguments against medical marijuana that he's basically made everywhere else … medical marijuana leads to people getting high, and getting high is bad. Except that he couches it in much the same language that stumbled us into our wasteful approach to drug addiction, which is to say that getting high will eventually lead to societal collapse, with hordes of stoned hippies roaming the streets.
Proposal 1 allows one person to grow and provide marijuana for other people, as long as the marijuana is kept in a locked facility. In California, that has led to the distribution of the drug from everything from strip mall storefronts to garages in residential neighborhoods.
Drug use has become so pervasive that in North Hollywood it is easier to find marijuana than a hot cup of coffee. Pot shops outnumber Starbucks stores, and last week a security guard was gunned down outside a legal Los Angeles drug house. These are the scary consequences of passing a flawed law.
It's been like this, for — like — ever. Marijuana is a gateway. It leads to other, harder drugs; legalizing it also leads to widespread mayhem.
more…
Does it? Only an idiot thinks that. It's not like there wasn't easy access to drugs in California before medical marijuana was legalized; or that it prompted everyday, regular Californians who might otherwise be disinclined to use it suddenly to stampede storefront pot houses, where they were reduced lost their minds and were reduced to sex-crazed, slavering ghouls.
This, unfortunately, is what has passed as our approach to the very real problem of drug dependency in this state and in this nation. It's based on nonsensical thinking, and it's cost us billions and billions of dollars in law enforcement and unnecessary incarcerations, demonized people with the very real illness of addiction, and has filled our prisons to the point where it costs the state of Michigan more money to run them than what we spend on our public universities. At a time when we're touting education as the avenue to pulling ourselves out of the economic doldrums, it amounts to madness. And, this is not to even begin to address the way this has shaped our approach to law enforcement today, by assaulting basic Constitutional protections and allowing public agencies to seize private property without due process … all in the name of stopping people from getting high.
Prohibition has failed, and continues to fail, horribly. It will never work, especially since the most powerful tool available to support it is scaring the willies out of people. Pot is readily available in California? Color me shocked. It is readily available here, in Michigan, where it is illegal. I haven't purchased marijuana in probably five years, and I could probably track some down within 10 minutes. Chances are that many of you reading this right now smoke pot; and I can say without reservation that all of you reading this know someone who smokes pot … I don't care how old you are, or what your profession is. The only thing prohibition has succeeded in doing is driving the entire thing underground.
In doing so, we've also driven underground any reasonable dialogue on marijuana, or drug use in general. No one wants other people to think they engage in illegal activity, which is what happens when you advocate on behalf of legalizing medical marijuana, or ending Prohibition in general. The reason for that is because the issue has been framed that the only possible reason you could want to end Prohibition is because you want to get high. In the case of medical marijuana, that argument has been broadened to mean that only dirty hippies who want a license to get stoned support medical marijuana. What you get as a result is nonsense like this Op-Ed piece, which essentially argues that because a guy got shot last week in California, we should continue spending more on prisons than on our public universities.
Paulsen Should Win Cd3
As much as I hate to admit it, a reader just brought up a solid point — Eden Prairie has not reported yet. That’s Republican Erik Paulsen’s home base. To win at this point, Madia needs to run about 16-10-2 out of the remaining 28 percent. With Eden Prairie still out, the chances of that happening are extremely low.
Exit Polls
First taste: McCain’s edge among white men is 16% points less than Bush’s was in 2004…
Michael Bishop Is A Misunderstood Patriot To The Cause
Now, before anyone gets all mad at Michael Bishop for going and whining to the attorney general that a bipartisan bunch of conniving county clerk hooligans are working together to make it easier for college kids to vote, let's all remember that he's merely advocating on behalf of the law in the way that it was intended to work.
The state Legislature that Bishop has been a part of for the last decade has a history of trying to make it more difficult for people to vote. Until such time as the rest of the country sees the wisdom in repealing the 26th Amendment, it is the intent of Republicans like Michael Bishop to make it as difficult as possible for college kids to vote, since they traditionally vote Democratic. All he's doing in this case is trying to uphold that proud and storied tradition.
Translate And Die, Ctd.
Of Course John Mccain Will Lose
In his latest column for the New York Times, hyperpositive Bill Kristol argues that Sen. John McCain could very well win tomorrow. This while McCain is trailing in just about every single important poll in every single important state.
Although Kristol’s column may encourage some McCain supporters to stay home Tuesday to go vote nonetheless, I agree with Robert S. ‘the other’ McCain that he and people like Kristol are unlikely to help their own party and / or ideology and are living in a fantasy world.
Rationally, one will have to assume that Obama wins, unless God would suddenly intervene. In other words: Obama’s going to win this thing. If for nothing else, than because the numbers just don’t add up for John McCain. It does not take a genius to figure that one out.
The only question is whether Obama will win in a landslide or not. That is the question, and it should matter. If he wins in a massive landslide he and his fellow liberal democrats will claim to have a mandate, and they will pursue the most liberal policies one can imagine in the coming two to four years.
Blue Dog Democrats will give in, out of fear of being ‘left out’ later.
If, however, Obama will win by a reasonably small margin - with less than 50% of the popular vote and less than 300 electoral votes - Blue Dog Democrats may be willing and able to resist their more liberal colleagues. Obama, Pelosi, Frank and Reid will know that alienating Blue Dog Democrats means alienating a large and above all important part of the electorate, which will come back to punish them only a few years later.
So, your vote does matter. The outcome of the election matters. But kidding yourself by believing that John McCain could win tomorrow is useless and counterproductive. If the Republican Party and the American conservative movement want to recover and reinvent themselves, as they have to if they want to be able to compete in the coming years, they should be realistic.
Tags: Democrat, Republican
Dwindling Options For College Students
Due to the diving markets, prospective college students are opting for two-year and more affordable colleges over the prestigious schools, according to the Associated Press.
Most students won’t decide on their college plans for six months. But a recent survey of 2,500 users of the Web site meritaid.com found 57 percent of students were considering a less prestigious school for money reasons. In a similar study by Applywise.com and Next Step Magazine this week, 50 percent of families reported limiting their children’s college choices to less expensive options.
Because of plummeting housing prices, many families can no longer count on the equity in their homes to help them pay for tuition. Meanwhile, 529 college savings plans have been hit hard in the stock market. A year ago, they held a combined $110 billion. Preliminary figures from Financial Research Corp. show the value of 529s declined 9 percent last quarter even with new money coming in — and that was before last week’s slump on Wall Street.
“We’re revisiting their overall financial plans,” said Ivan Nalibotsky of Capital Solutions Group, a college financial planning service in Bethesda, Md. “In many cases folks are going to have to be dipping into some of their own personal resources, and reevaluating their personal retirement goals in order to get the kids the four or five years of education they planned.”
Here is a helpful tip: The article noted that many middle to upper middle class families do not apply for financial aid because they assume they won’t qualify. But the more expensive private schools are doling out money — even to families that appear to be doing well on paper.
When it comes to need-based aid, many middle-income families underestimate their chances and focus too much on the “list price.” A large number of schools have substantially expanded aid in the past few years. At many highly competitive colleges, families earning $80,000 typically pay no more than half price.
A few prestigious schools that cost $50,000 or more a year have made more aid available to families earning well into six figures. At Princeton, for instance, virtually all families earning as much as $200,000 qualify for grants covering half of tuition or more.
Of course, students would have to get into Princeton in the first place. No pressure or anything.
How are you parents of college-aged children holding up? Where are your children applying?
Today’s Polls, 10/25
With fewer than ten days to go until the election, John McCain is another day older and deeper in the polls:
It is hard to find any trend at all at the national level, although Barack Obama’s position improved has incrementally in a couple of the national trackers. Indeed, our model now perceives that the popular vote has been flat for roughly the past two weeks. It seems almost as though voters made their collective decision after the second presidential debate on October 7 — perhaps Obama’s clearest win of the series — and decided on behalf of the Democrat.
Meanwhile, John McCain is running into some further problems at the state level. In Colorado, a Rocky Mountain News poll now has Barack Obama 12 points ahead; McCain had led by 3 in the RMN poll in August. Obama also leads in two polls out of Ohio; PPP has him ahead by 7, and the University of Cincinnati / Ohio Newspapers Poll, which had shown him trailing by 2 earlier this month, now shows him ahead by 3.
Obama, at least, does not look to be competitive in South Dakota or Arkansas. It will be very difficult for Obama to win more than about 397 electoral votes, which is where he’d end up if he wins all the states where we currently have him favored, plus North Dakota, Montana, Georgia, and Nebraska’s 2nd Congressional District. Obama would have to win West Virginia to break the 400 barrier, and I don’t see that happening; the other long shot is Arizona, which hasn’t been polled in some time.
John McCain’s win percentage is now 4.3 percent, down from 5.1 percent yesterday.
Scenes From A Revolution
JOHN GIBBINS / Union-Tribune
A crowd estimated at 20,000 by police and 25,000 by organizers marched downtown Saturday to protest the passage of Proposition 8, with one arrest of a counter-protester reported during the otherwise peaceful event.
A man identified by police as a member of the anti-illegal immigration group San Diego Minutemen was arrested about 12:30 p.m. at Sixth Avenue and Ash Street following a fight, said San Diego police Capt. C.J. Ball.
The San Diego march was one of several held across the country Saturday – including one in Escondido – by same-sex marriage supporters angered over last week’s passage of Proposition 8, which banned same-sex marriage in California, defining marriage as between a man and a woman.
This is not going to go away.
keep looking »
-
Custom Search Translator
By N2H