PA Voter ID Law Upheld by Commonwealth Court

Pennsylvania's new Voter ID Suppression Law, which State House Majority Leader Mike Turzai admitted was passed to help Romney win and which the State stipulated about in court that there were no known cases of voter fraud, was upheld by the Commonwealth Court today.

So, basically, that's a big FUCK YOU to the nearly 1 million eligible voters in our state who do not possess the now needed ID.

If you can't win on the merits of your policies or candidates, then suppress the vote...

Time to drag your granny to PennDOT!

There is a meeting/training session today about the new law. Via Facebook from Celeste Taylor:

TODAY! WESTERN PA VOTER ID GATHERING: NAACP and PA Voter ID Coalition organizations based in western PA will hold an informal gathering and training session on Wednesday, August 15 at 3:00 p.m. to 7 p.m. at Freedom Unlimited located at 2201 Wylie Ave. in Pittsburgh (next door to the NAACP branch office). Representatives from Homer S. Brown Law Association, Black Political Empowerment Project, Rodman Street Missionary Baptist Church, Team Community College of Allegheny County and 10-20 western PA organizations will participate in strategizing for continued non-partisan voter registration, voter ID, Get Out The Vote and Election Protection. For details, contact Celeste Taylor at [info @ Facebook link]. On Twitter @PAVOTERID: https://twitter.com/#!/PAVoterID , On Facebook, our page: PAVoterIDCoalition: http://www.facebook.com/pages/PAVoterIDCoalition/403831659629393  

Daryl Metcalfe's Zombie Lie

Today, we start with this from the Tribune-Review's op-ed page:

Naughty: The contention of the Pittsburgh chapter of the NAACP that requiring voter identification at the polls will disenfranchise black voters is a red herring. Protecting the integrity of the franchise should be everyone's goal.

And that led us back to this Trib article:

The NAACP's Pittsburgh branch is mobilizing to oppose a bill that would require Pennsylvanians to show identification before voting.

The organization on Wednesday likened the importance of the effort to ones that resulted in the abolishment of poll taxes. Members called on city residents to sign and help circulate petitions. They called on ministers to shout it down from their pulpits.

"The African-American community across the country fought long and hard to be able to vote," said NAACP President M. Gayle Moss. "This is a tactic to reduce the number of senior citizen voters, African-American voters, who do not have cars or drive, and young voters."

And this one in the P-G:

Decades after the African-American community fought for the right to vote, a voter identification bill proposed for Pennsylvania could again disenfranchise black voters, members of the NAACP said Wednesday.

"We cannot let that happen," said M. Gayle Moss, president of the Pittsburgh branch of the NAACP.

Ms. Moss, joined by NAACP members and religious leaders, held a news conference in the Freedom Unlimited building in the Hill District Wednesday morning. Speakers urged the state Senate to halt progress of a voter identification bill and called the legislation a tactic to disenfranchise African-American, Latino, young and elderly voters.

Each points out that the legislation is from our good friend Daryl Metcalfe (R-Cranberry) and each offers up his defense. First the merely condescending response from the P-G:

In a phone interview Wednesday, Mr. Metcalfe called it a "laughable position" that people should not have to show identification before they vote. Showing a photo ID is already required for everything from getting a library card to flying on a plane, he said.

And he said it should be required to vote to prevent fraud, which he said does happen.

"It's really outrageous that anyone would claim that it is about anything but ensuring that we have integrity in our election process," he said.

To his far more insulting response in the Trib:

The legislation, he said, will protect those voters and ensure honest balloting. The Cranberry Republican said he was surprised at the NAACP's response.

"You have to question whether they want fair elections or want to have fraud continued to be perpetrated," he said.

There it is!  According to him, the NAACP does NOT want fair elections and they DO want continued voter fraud. Tucked in at the end of the Trib piece are the usual right wing suspects:

Metcalfe cited voter fraud arrests of ACORN workers in Pittsburgh and the submission by ACORN workers of 8,000 fraudulent voter registration forms in Philadelphia several years ago as evidence that the law is needed.

Too bad those arrests were not voter fraud - here's the Trib's own reporting of the Pittsburgh arrests:

A worker for a grassroots organization was so eager to fulfill a voter registration quota during the presidential campaign that she filed a fraudulent application in the name of a county elections employee, but got the Social Security number wrong, prosecutors said Thursday.

In all, seven canvassers for ACORN in Allegheny County are accused of forging 51 signatures and violating election laws in connection with last year's registration efforts, said District Attorney Stephen A. Zappala Jr.

Zappala said a six-month investigation by county police and the Pittsburgh FBI office found clear evidence of an illegal quota system in use by ACORN, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now. The investigation continues, and the arrests mark the end of only one phase, he said.

See that?  Nothing about voting.  And all about voter registration.  How would a photo ID at a polling place have stopped those ACORN canvassers?

It wouldn't.  And it's frankly dishonest of Metcalfe to use that evidence to support his legislation.

Hardly surprising, but only the P-G even gets close to calling Metcalfe out for his lie:

Although tales of voter fraud -- such as people voting more than once by impersonating others -- are common, verified instances of fraud are rare, Allegheny County Elections Division Manager Mark Wolosik said Wednesday.

But just how bad is this problem?  Well, there's this from State Representative Margo Davidson (D-Delaware):

In the 2008 presidential election, 5,995,137 Pennsylvanians cast ballots. Just four people have been prosecuted for voter fraud since the 2008 and subsequent Pennsylvania elections.

We saw this zombie lie bubble up last June.  Still a zombie, still no voter fraud.

Jack Kelly Sunday

Jack goes there.

In this week's column, Jack Kelly shows, yet again, how he's a master of misdirection and the strawman argument. This time it's about race, the NAACP and, of course, the Obama Administration.

He's also needs a remedial course in fact-checking.

Jack begins:

The race card. So useful to play when you're losing an argument. Democrats don't leave home without it.

The race card was played twice last week. At its convention in Kansas City, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People adopted a resolution condemning the tea party as "a threat to the pursuit of human rights, justice and equality for all" because of "the racist elements" within it (according to an early draft; the final text won't be released until October).

"NAACP President Ben Jealous looks at the modern tea party movement and sees the shadow of the White Citizens Council, that gentile breed of Southerners, rife with respectability, that served as the white glove wing of the Ku Klux Klan," wrote Newsweek columnist Ellis Close after interviewing Mr. Jealous.

Let me get the remedial stuff out of the way.

The man who wrote the article Jack quotes is named Ellis COSE, not Ellis CLOSE.

See?

Jack, if you're going to use the man's words you really should get the man's name right. It's simple respect.

And if he writes something disagreeing with the public figure you're criticizing you should probably include that as well, doncha think? You betcha.

Cose quotes Deneen Borelli, who he describes as "a Tea Party activist from Project 21, a Washington-based black-conservative public-policy group" who asserts the Tea Party Movement is too diffuse to repudiate the nasty elements within it. Cose then writes:

Her answer is not particularly satisfying, even if you don’t believe—and I don’t—that the Tea Party belongs in the same category as the White Citizens’ Council. The council, after all, waged war on blacks, turning a blind eye to (and sometimes actively supporting) the most brutal acts imaginable. That is not what the Tea Party does. [emphasis added.]

My guess is that Jack didn't want to show any element of the lib'rul media (in this case an African-American columnist for Newsweek) disagreeing with his argument that the left is playing the "race card." But that's just a guess.

Now here's Jack's strawman:

The tea party rallies have been an outpouring of public concern about runaway government spending and mammoth budget deficits. While Democrats reasonably could argue that such concern is overwrought, to claim that a racial motive underlies it is as preposterous as it is vile.

Who said anything about underlies Jack? Let's go back to Cose's column. He writes that the:

NAACP unanimously passed a resolution blasting the Tea Party for tolerating racism in its ranks. [emphasis added.]

No "underlies" there. Jack set up a strawman (that the NAACP resolution asserts that the Tea Party Movement is racist) and then argues against that point. All of it misdirection.

But perhaps Cose isn't close with his characterization of the resolution. What does the NAACP itself say about the resolution? Does it, you know, quote Ben Jealous in anyway?

Goshers, I am so glad you asked. Take a look:

Over 2,000 NAACP delegates today unanimously passed a resolution—as amended—called “The Tea Party Movement,” asking for the repudiation of racist Tea Party leaders.

The resolution condemns the bigoted elements within the Tea Party and asks for them to be repudiated. The NAACP delegates presented this resolution for debate and passage after a year of vitriolic Tea Party demonstrations during which participants used racial slurs and images. In March, members of the Congressional Black Caucus were accosted by Tea Party demonstrators and called racial epithets. Civil rights icon John Lewis was spit on, while Congressman Emanuel Cleaver was called the “N” word and openly gay Congressman Barney Frank was called an ugly anti-gay slur.

“We take no issue with the Tea Party movement. We believe in freedom of assembly and people raising their voices in a democracy. What we take issue with is the Tea Party’s continued tolerance for bigotry and bigoted statements. The time has come for them to accept the responsibility that comes with influence and make clear there is no place for racism & anti-Semitism, homophobia and other forms of bigotry in their movement,” stated NAACP President and CEO Benjamin Todd Jealous. [emphasis added.]

Now go reread Jack. How silly he's made himself look.

Again.

And in the event he's forgotten the racist elements found at Tea Party rallies, here's some reminders:

And:


And:

Yeppers - the Tea Party Movement is completely free of racists and racism.

Can't believe you went there, Jack.