GOP war on Voting: Nathan Sproul supervisor arrested for tossing Democratic voter registrations in Virginia

October 19, 2012

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

The Arizona Republic finally got around to reporting on Arizona's own GOP voter suppression specialist Nathan Sproul yesterday, and largely glossed over his misdeeds (frequent allegations, but never prosecuted by the Bush Injustice Department). Ariz. political operative in spotlight:

Sproul now finds himself making national political news again as another of his voter-registration companies, Strategic Allied Consulting, has been accused of submitting possible fraudulent voter-registration forms to a number of Florida counties.

Keith Kameg, spokesman for Florida's Department of Law Enforcement, declined to specify how many counties the allegations involve, saying the case is an active criminal investigation that "precludes us from providing further information."

Sproul was working on behalf of the Republican National Committee to register voters to help Romney in a key battleground state. The GOP committee last month fired Sproul, who said he's cooperating with Florida authorities and blames the problem on a few rogue employees. Sproul added the "number of counties and cards in question are contracting."

* * *

Sproul said his company hires temporary workers at $12 to $17 an hour to register Republicans by asking people outside libraries and other public places who they support in the election. If the person supports Romney, the worker asks if the person is registered to vote, and registers them if they are not.

If the person supports Obama, the worker moves on without offering to register the individual to vote, Sproul said.

Sproul said his employees are trained on campaign- finance laws, and he said his company has turned in employees who break the law.

After Sproul's firm was fired in Florida, it has continued to operate under new names, The BRAD BLOG : 'Fired' GOP Operative Sproul's Companies Appear Still Hard at Work for GOP; Members of Congress Seek Explanation in Election Fraud Investigation.

President Obama on The Daily Show

October 19, 2012

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

President Obama was in New York yesterday for the annual Al Smith Dinner, and while in the Big Apple he swung by The Daily Show with Jon Stewart for an interview.

The extended interview is below the fold.

Jeff Flake Appears to Agree with Cutting the Federal Government by 50%, And Weird Things About the Great Recession

October 19, 2012

By Michael Bryan

I had a close listen to the Carmona / Flake (and Victor) debate on KAET recently. It wasn't terribly interesting or enlightening, I'm afraid. Carmona did OK for a political debate neophyte, with just one major slip that I'll discuss in a later post.

I can't embed a clip of the C-SPAN feed, unfortunately, but I created a custom clip on their website that you can access here. The clip highlights Flake's ridiculous answer to moderator Ted Simons' question about lessons learned from the Great Recession.

But before even getting to that, it is interesting to listen closely to the end of Libertarian candidate Mark Victor's statement at the very beginning of the clip.

Victor said, "… we need to cut government by 50% just to get started." Immediately after, a voice says "That's right." It was rather faint, and not entirely clear who said it in the video. It's clear it wasn't Victor, and it certainly wasn't Carmona or Simons, so I assumed it was Flake, but I wasn't entirely sure.

So I wrote to the moderator, Ted Simons, who kindly responded to my inquiry as follows:

"Regarding your question regarding a 50% cut in govt comment during AZ Horizon's debate: I can't be sure about this but it appears it was Rep. Flake who said, "that's right," considering both Mr. Victor and I turned to him. But again, I'm not at all positive about that. And my impression is that the remark was in response to more of what Mr. Victor was saying about cutting govt and not just the 50% remark. Not much help, I know, but it's the best I can do for you…"

So the moderator at the table also thinks it was likely Flake who seconded Victor's rather radical notion that we need to cut government by 50% to start. Though, charitably, Simons interprets Flake's shout-out as more generalized agreement with Victor, not specifically the 50% cut. I don't need to be so charitable; nor do you.

Arizona Illustrated (PBS) LD 10 Senate Debate

October 19, 2012

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

KUAT’s Arizona Illustrated (PBS) hosted the LD 10 Senate debate between Sen. “Don’t make me angry” Frank Antenori (R) and the always calm, cool and collected former Rep. David Bradley (D).

Video below the fold.

Smart Women for Obama

October 18, 2012

Posted by AzBlueMeanie: You all are getting creative out there, i like it! The Maddow blog has this great pic from Arizona. 3-D binder full of something else. Christine Kaercher sends this pic of her friend's car in Phoenix.

Bill Clinton on ‘Mitt Math’ – ‘He thinks we’re dumb’

October 18, 2012

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

The 'Big Dog" Bill Clinton was also on the campaign trail in Ohio today. The "Secretary of explaining things" is still explaining arithmetic and how "Mitt Math" just doesn't add up. "He thinks we're dumb."

"This guy ran Bain Capital and is a business guy, and he's hiding his budget? That ought to tell you something. Well, he's hiding his taxes, too, but he's hiding his taxes in the years when he earned ordinary income. He's given us two years when he was just running for president. And, he's hiding whether he would have signed the Lilly Ledbetter act. He's hiding everything. He doesn't want you to think about him. He wants you to think, 'Oh this economy is terrible. I'm a jobs guy.' And as President Obama said in the debate, if I brought you a deal to Bain Capital and I said, fund my new business, I'll give you the budget sometime in the future, just trust me on that, you wouldn't give me one red cent, and we should not give him one vote on that."

Video below the fold.

The Boss campaigns for Obama in Ohio

October 18, 2012

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Rock legend Bruce Springsteen performed at an event for Obama's campaign in Parma, Ohio, where he debuted a new song he wrote for the president. CNN Blog: Springsteen's new ditty for Obama:

Before playing the new tune, Springsteen joked that President Obama had called him up and asked for help writing a campaign theme song.

"I said you called the right guy," Springsteen added.

The singer said he wanted to include the campaign's slogan, "Forward," in the song, but lamented at word's lyrical challenge.

"It's better than backward, a little better than sideward," he said. "You don't want sideward on no bumper stickers."

Saying it was his "duty as a man," however, Springsteen said he finished the song but asked that the audience shout "Forward" after every line.

Video below the fold.