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Boo! The House Majority PAC Is Watching You
An anonymous reader writes I received some interesting mail this week from the House Majority PAC. First, a "voter report card" postcard telling me my voting record was "excellent" (I'm a good citizen!), but also letting me know that they "plan to update this report card after the election to see whether you voted". OK, so one of the Democratic Party's super PACs want me to vote, but it seems to be something of an attempt at intimidation. Today, I received a letter in which they really put the pressure on. Here are some excerpts: "Who you vote for is secret. But whether or not you vote is public record. Our organization monitors turnout in your neighborhood, and we are disappointed that many of your neighbors do not always exercise their right to vote." So why contact me instead of them? Voting is a civic duty, but it isn't illegal to abstain. That's my neighbors' business, not mine. It's one way of expressing dissatisfaction, isn't it? And if there are no candidates you wish to vote for, then why should you vote for someone you don't want? But Big Brother PAC has other ideas: "We will be reviewing the Camden County [NJ] official voting records after the upcoming election to determine whether you joined your neighbors who voted in 2014. If you do not vote this year, we will be interested to hear why not." The letter is signed "Joe Fox Election day Coordinator". So what happens if I don't vote? Well, at least I got a scare this Halloween. Are PACs using similar tactics in other states?
I've gotten three of the same things from "American's for Prosperity"
I live in Louisiana.
"It only encourages them."
When asked which party I'm going to vote for, I usually ask what party they represent, then I state whichever party bothers me the least, including mailings and phone calls.
There's really only one good choice, vote for anyone who isn't a Democrap or a Republicunt.
Snowden for President!!
As with most of the Republican "outrages of the day", this isn't new. In 2012 a Republican PAC called Americans for Limited Growth was doing the same thing:
‘Vote history audit’ shows whether your neighbors voted
As usual, now that Democrats are doing it too, it's the worst thing ever.
Sounds like classic case of voter intimidation - but threatening voters *to* vote is new. Go vote for a third party or something.
"We'll be checking the voting records. It would be a real shame if you didn't vote. We would need to visit you personally."
I eat only the real part of complex carbohydrates.
Whether you show up to vote (not whether you actually vote) is recorded. However, given the trouble they are having with vote buying in both WV and KY I doubt they actually release the specific info.
BTW, they both (republican and democrat) got my info wrong because I moved to this district recently.
I consider this an attempt at intimidation and won't bow to it. I would join any lawsuit if they released any list of individuals whether they showed up to vote or not.
This is a sig. This is only a sig. Had this been an actual sig you would have been informed where to tune for more sigs.
As it turns out, in all 50 states, whether or not you voted is a matter of public record among other things besides.
In California for example, all of your voter registration information is transmitted to anyone, anyone who asks.
Real political change is brought about by lobbies. If someone wants to do something about the state of things, he either founds a lobby or supports an existing lobby that champions his cause (and by "supports" I mean "gives cold hard cash to.").
Voting does not have the same level of impact. This is obvious to everyone who is paying attention. All the candidates lie, and all wind up responding to political force rather than to what is right. So, those who pay attention simply apply the sort of political force that actually moves politicians, and they don't bother with voting.
Why are they so interested in voter turnout? Mostly because it perpetuates the illusion that voting actually matters, and keeps poor people like us from bothering with the lobbies.
As well as those "register to vote the day of the election" deals. If you can't be bothered to pre-register to vote, or need to be pestered to vote, then you probably get 100% of your info on candidate's and issues from the mailers and TV/radio commercials. In other words, you've just digested a load of garbage and have nothing with which to make an informed choice. Uninformed voters are assholes, keep them out of the voting booth.
I'm fine with you voting in a way I think is repugnant, as long as you've done a bit of research and actually have a reason for voting the way you do.
Something similar showed up in my mailbox a couple times.. dont recall which group sent it though.
Dems are doing it in Kings County, NY. See Jonathan Coultons tweeter
(Here's my response to something like this, and you may use it if you like...)
I have a right to vote or not, as I decide. It's entirely my business if I voted or not, and for whom or what I either did or didn't vote, when I voted, where I voted, etc.
My vote is MINE, and no one else'. If I vote for a "third" party or independent candidate, neither of the "two" parties' candidates has had a vote "stolen" from them. For example: in the last US Presidential election, I cast my vote for Gary Johnson. Mr. Johnson didn't "steal" a vote from Obama, nor did he "steal" it from Romney, as it didn't belong to either of those losers in the first place. It belonged to ME, and I cast it according to my will. No one is a "spoiler" in an election. My vote is MINE to bestow upon whomever or whatever I see fit. It is also mine to opt NOT TO BESTOW, AND MY REASONS ARE MY OWN. They are not subject to questioning by anyone, or for any reason.
If you don't like that, why...
YOU CAN GO FUCK YOURSELF IN THE ASS WITH A BROKEN WHISKEY BOTTLE SIDEWAYS, YOU GODDAMNED, MOTHERFUCKING, DICK-HEADED, PILE OF LIVING, BREATHING, HUMAN DOG SHIT!!!
Sincerely,
(Your name here--optional.)
Not voting isn't the same as expressing dissatisfaction with all of the candidates, it is the same as voting for the candidate who wins. In a real voting system, one of the options would be "none of these candidates should be allowed to hold office".
Seriously, why and how did this ever get posted? "I got political material in my mailbox in an election year", big deal. How is this stuff that matters or even news? Yeah if you vote is recorded, as is jury duty and car registrations. So what?
putting the 'B' in LGBTQ+
We should have an amendment that every ballot must contain the choice "none of the above". I would go voting every time.
... that they're interested to hear peoples' reasons for not voting?
Don't just stand there, get that other dog!
Not a day goes by when my wife, a registered dem, doesn't get a call.
Pestering people with junk mail, while not noble, is not the same as threatening people. Grow some balls and stop crying over every little thing (in the unlikely scenario you're a girl, you may skip the first part).
Using peer pressure to shame people into a preferred action common. E.g. "Did you know that 80% of the other visitors in the hotel choose to reuse their towels" or "Did you know your neighbors are using 50% less water than they were a year ago?" In politics, "vote shaming" is employed by representatives of both major parties.
More here: http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2012/11/02/peer-pressure-and-voting/1675019/
Which you can read about here. And his letter didn't come from a PAC, it came from the Democratic Party.
I've never gotten anything remotely like this letter from the Republican Party or a conservative PAC (and I probably get well over 200 begging direct-mail solicitations a year).
I don't see such intimidation tactics as paying off for them...
Lawrence Person (lawrencepersonh@gmailh.com (remove all "h"s to mail)
http://www.lawrenceperson.com/
So it's time for us to take over some new territories? Canada? Mexico? The Bahamas? After all that is traditional for the USA
Obligatory South Park reference (NSFW).
"So after all this, you make my case for me. To end this stalemate, you must die..."
That only Republicans use FUD to get votes?
Democrats: Vote or we’ll kick your ass
http://nypost.com/2014/10/30/d...
VP Biden Says Republicans Are ‘Going to Put Y’all Back in Chains’
http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/po...
Democrats ‘Shame’ Voters With Mailers
http://online.wsj.com/articles...
Submitter must be some uneducated PC technician fuckwit to live in that ghetto...
They want people who are easily swayed and don't look in to shit to go out and vote for their guys. They know an election could easily be swung if you can get people like that to vote for you.
Sometimes from the outside we foreigners receive reports on the aggressive voter shaking, like getting phoned automatically.
Also the problem that some of those campaingers try to conceal or obfuscate their true origin to use a reverse psychological reaction to their advantage.
This "House Majority PAC" actually from my POV reeks as such a reverse thingy.
- page design & clumsy argumentation for example
If I would project myself into your place and would have been more likely to vote democratic than republican previous. This could make me angry and I would change to either "fuck off" from all voting or reverse my voting tendency.
It would been anoying to be bombarded with this load of crap, thank PASTA we don't have to.
But there is only one solution to this, because voting really is important, but when politicians and supporters don't know where politics turns out to be nothing more than a joke, and every vote turns into a dumb sheep shoven it's mostly the time to start an alternative that really is an alternative in being none.
All within the ruleset but ridiculing the current campaigners by beating them with their own ridiculous nonsense.
Example from germany:
In germany we have the party that's calling itself "the Party"/"Die Partei".
A satiristic nonsense party that ridicules other politicians and parties not by harrasing them, instead by just throwing some of their slogans back against them.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D...
... Democracy is a sham in the US.
http://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-echochambers-27074746
Study link (paywall)
http://www.princeton.edu/~mgilens/Gilens%20homepage%20materials/Gilens%20and%20Page/Gilens%20and%20Page%202014-Testing%20Theories%203-7-14.pdf
Picture of document before it was paywalled.
http://i.imgur.com/xUYciGE.png
The reason for mass surveillance is just more part and parcel of state suppression of dissent against corporate interests. They're worried that the more people are going to wake up and corporate centers like the US and canada may be among those who also awaken. See this vid with Zbigniew Brzezinski, former United States National Security Advisor.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0kmUS--QCYY
Look at the following graphs:
http://www2.ucsc.edu/whorulesamerica/power/images/wealth/Actual_estimated_ideal_wealth_distribution.gif
http://www2.ucsc.edu/whorulesamerica/power/images/wealth/Net_worth_and_financial_wealth.gif
http://www2.ucsc.edu/whorulesamerica/power/wealth.html
WIKILEAKS: U.S. Fought To Lower Minimum Wage In Haiti So Hanes And Levis Would Stay Cheap
http://www.businessinsider.com/wikileaks-haiti-minimum-wage-the-nation-2011-6
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hnkNKipiiiM
Free markets?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WHj2GaPuEhY#t=349
http://www.amazon.com/Empire-Illusion-Literacy-Triumph-Spectacle/dp/1568586132/
"We now live in two Americas. One—now the minority—functions in a print-based, literate world that can cope with complexity and can separate illusion from truth. The other—the majority—is retreating from a reality-based world into one of false certainty and magic. To this majority—which crosses social class lines, though the poor are overwhelmingly affected—presidential debate and political rhetoric is pitched at a sixth-grade reading level. In this “other America,” serious film and theater, as well as newspapers and books, are being pushed to the margins of society.
In the tradition of Christopher Lasch’s The Culture of Narcissism and Neil Postman’s Amusing Ourselves to Death, Pulitzer Prize-winner Chris Hedges navigates this culture—attending WWF contests, the Adult Video News Awards in Las Vegas, and Ivy League graduation ceremonies—to expose an age of terrifying decline and heightened self-delusion."
Clearly this person registered as a Repub (which is a public record) and they want you to spread the word. The Repubs need recruits in NJ. I live in Virginia where you don't have to declare a party. They try to figure out who their friends are by sending out letters purporting to be a "survey". They have a bar coded serial number on them. It has questions that are the usual drivel such as "Do you believe in socialized medicine?" I just cut out the barcode and send back the post paid envelope with "FUCK YOU" written with a sharpie.
A house divided against itself cannot stand, but a democracy divided against itself cannot do further damage. Always vote for the minorities.
Ethics II Axiom 2. "Man thinks." B. Spinoza
Is whether it was really sent by whom it says it was sent by.
I know which party is the party of fear.
I got one of these (KY), and the only thing that struck me was it would be more effective if they were trying to draw more support for minority parties (I'm non-affiliated).
It at least confirmed the correct polling station (opportunity for some Atwater type shenanigans), and isn't nearly as annoying as the phone calls offering to drive me to the polling station.
Honestly, this is benign as two larger issues here are allowing felons to vote (several prisons here, and several people just end up staying) and early voting (poll hours almost guarantee people who do shift work, i.e.- the poor, can't make it to the polls on time).
If you don't like any of the choices, write your own name in there. That way, you at least voted for someone you trust.
Get all your friends to vote for you as well, and you might even get mentioned on the evening news.
Were I a greater sleazebag than I am, and were I, a democrat, willing to go way out on a limb, I'd try to make it look like the GOP was heavy handedly watching their votes with sleazy mailings like this to their loyal voters, to turn them off to their party. I couldn't do such a thing, but in my state, the GOP has been caught over and over pulling nasty scams. I have no doubt my party has it's share of underhanded tricksters too. I assume this is a piece of partisan sleaze.
Don't step on the baby.
The summary starts by mentioning the House Majority Pac, and then segues to a claim a Democratic Pac wants to push people to vote. The House is, of course, where the Republicans have the majority, not the Democrats. Both sides aren't doing it, one side is.
Who is John Cabal?
If there's no candidates that you want to vote for, there's almost always a candidate you want to vote against. If I don't like any candidate, I put my vote behind the least objectionable one to reduce the chances of the more objectionable ones getting in. It may not help, but at least I'm not just handing the keys over to the guy I hate most.
And in my book it might not be a bad thing to see a little peer pressure applied. I know a lot of loud complainers about how bad the government and politicians are who're also the proud of the fact that they skipped voting because the politicians are so bad. If you don't like the politicians, how do you propose to get rid of them if you stay away from the polls and leave the election in the hands of the people who want them to stay? I know I've seen the complainers shut up in a hurry when I point out that they had a chance to at least vote for someone not as bad as the guy they're complaining about and they passed on it, and once this fact got out the people listening to them started either ignoring their complaints or telling them to shut it until they'd done something about what they were complaining about.
There was a study done a few years ago where the researchers found that if they simply sent people a grade showing how their voting compared to their neighbors, and then assured them that they'd do a followup study afterwards, they could increase voter turnout by something like 30% I can't remember who it was or anything...
I never saw it amount to much until this year. There's a governors race here in Wisconsin and the Democratic challenger Marry Burk is specifically and very heavily targeting women. They're sending activists around to our house every other day or so where they ask "Can we speak to your wife please?" which gives me ample opportunity for one liners like "She's busy mopping the kitchen, she's not allowed to talk to other women until shes done, come back later."
Anyways, one other tactic has been them to send these "Grades" regarding her voting habits and veiled threats to tell her friends about her. The ironic thing is that there are apparently mutiple groups sending them and not communicating because her "patriotism grade" is floating all over the place.
Long story short, If you're voting (D) or (R) You're the problem.
The party of Jack asses is losing badly so it's time to pull out the port-o-potties and begin emptying them out on the voters. It is NONE of their business nor anyone's how any one votes, let alone publishing this information for every one to know. This is just plain wrong.
i used to agree with you. and i didn't vote. and then i got to middle age and said, you know what - i'm
going to make an informed vote
so i read the position statements on the initiatives from the various factions. read the initiative text.
looked at all the campaign literature from the Rs and Ds, plus the greens, the liberatarians, and
anyone who was able to get on my local ballot.
researched all the candidates for the non-party positions like sheriff, treasurer, etc
spent days each election for several years trying to construct an informed opinion
and it was all mealy mouthed meaningless nothing. i may as well have been
voting for the pet ferret of the teenage girl that lives next door. vote for a progressive
candidate, why are you giving the public parks to developers? vote for a conservative
candidate, why are you spending this huge hunk of public money for this business
to develop when they aren't even from here? why are you banning that?
its all pointlessly corrupt. if i'm even of median intelligence and willing to spend 300 hours
a year doing research, and i can't even begin to make an informed decision, then i
shit on your democracy
But I agree, there is really no substance to this post. Hell, in many countries, Australia for instance, voting is mandatory. It's a crime not to. (You don't have to vote for anyone, but you must turn your ballot in.)
But heaven forfend that anyone be asked why they didn't vote in an election, that's so.. so... so! A first-world problem to be truly outraged about.
This may backfire this time around.
It tells the voters that whether they voted can be checked - by ANYONE.
Whether they're citizens can ALSO be checked - by anyone.
If they voted and are not citizens, they've just committed a felony. ANYONE can create a database of that, and use it to bring pressure on law enforcement, employers, and so on.
Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
We should have an amendment that every ballot must contain the choice "none of the above".
With teeth:
If "none of the above" wins, the office is empty until filled by another election, and none of the candidates who lost to "none of the above" may run for that office in the next election for it.
Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
I don't see where the Constitution state that "fourteen Years a Resident within the United States" have to be the most recent years, or even consecutive. Where is relevant case law?
You don't mind choosing between a couple of extra bus fares and eating lunch, do you?
I don't know about Toronto's public transit, but even in Fort Wayne's underprovisioned system (60 minute headway and no service at all at night, on Saturday evenings, or on Sundays or major holidays), riders can buy a pass for unmetered rides within a four and a half week period.
What leftists? I haven't seen any of those since the '70s. They are all on Social Security and voting Republican to increase subsidies and welfare for the well-off seniors.
Learn to love Alaska
Is there any reason anyone here would be dumb enough to think that thinkprogress isn't just another FoxNews? Sure, it's "leftists" instead of "right wing" but the only reason anything on there resembles the truth is sheer laziness in the writing department.
Republican, Democrat. Doesn't matter, they're the problem.
They may not "know" how you vote, but rest assured they would not send you such a letter unless they thought you'd vote the way they'd like you to. If they can get you to influence other votes, all the better.
Well don't vote for someone you don't want.
But don't just stay at home. If you don't vote at all, you will be interpreted as lazy or disinterested or failing to uphold your civic duty. If you drop a blank ballot, and sign it, that sends a message.
When I vote I spoil ballots in my own way! Fuck them if they cant take a joke. Wait, they are the joke.
The only ones pressuring you to vote, or shaming you for not voting, are those who need your vote in order to further their parasitic cause. It is your patriotic duty to NOT vote in meaningless, pointless, rigged, moot elections, or those in which the only real effect is to grant credulity to scoundrels. It is a perversion of democracy to judge you by your participation in a sham. When the choice is amongst two (why is always two?) predatory a**holes, what is an honest man to do? As they say, if voting mattered, it would be illegal.
cunts. Come ask me why I didn't vote and I'll explain it all the way up your ass.
Anyone who works hard to "get everyone out to vote" is not trustworthy, because there are only NEFARIOUS reasons for trying to get everyone (when most people are dumb and uneducated and selfish) to vote. They are banking on the "people are stupid and easily persuaded, so we just need to get as many dummies voting as possible" trick.
Although I loath the right wing there really is no left wing to vote for at all. The US needs some radical changes and no politician is willing to do a single thing that really helps. For example we need to limit reproduction and stop immigration completely or we will suffer deep poverty and ruin. The very last thing we need is growth. We need quality and we need a highly educated population. My vote will do nothing to improve anything. The ignorant masses will continue to have babies they can not afford to have. People will not be educated, Corporations will not be held responsible. The legal system will remain an idiotic mess. We are in a spiral headed for the gulping sound at which our nation will be mixed with raw sewage. Our politicians care about their money and position and nothing else at all.
When your registered Democrat, they will go to any length to make sure you vote for them when they fear for losing their power over the country. Turning on your neighbors is something dictators tell people to do.
They're not actually monitoring your neighborhood, they have no idea of the voter turnout in your neighborhood, your ever read junk mail? It's written the same way, stop trying to scare people that, "someone's watching you, oooh"
I still remember vividly when the GOP called my house threatening me because I had failed to send in the contribution I had promised. After my initial confusion, I realized that they thought they were talking to my grandfather who had been dead for several years (he was Sr, I am the third, with the same name). At this point I asked them how and when I had made the promise to make a donation to them. The GOP scumbag told me that, while I might not remember it because of my advanced age, I had promised to send a $500 donation nearly two months earlier during a phone call with him personally. When I informed him that it would have been difficult for my grandfather to have made such a promise more than a year after he died, and asked for his identification information - he hung up immediately. Unfortunately there was no caller id available, so I could not track the scum down. Compared to that I don't see what you have to complain about.
While the annoying pressure to exercise your constitutional right/responsibility/duty to vote that you received is unpleasant, the only way you can combat it is to vote. You can support candidates who will rescind your rights and remove your civic duty to vote, like Adolph Hitler did. It is indeed a shame that there are Americans like you who find it an onerous chore to vote, and that reminders to do so are considered intimidation.
Perhaps you should relocate to a country where voting and civil rights are considered unnecessary.
If it's the House Majority PAC then I would suppose it's Republicans... they are the majority in the house at the moment.
yeah, I almost made that comment, but this particular PAC is Democrat - google it.
Nothing new here; University of Wisconsin law prof and blogger Ann Althouse related the (apparently quite similar) mailings she received during the 2012 campaign. Those apparently worked, so it isn't surprising that the Dems would try the same dirty tricks again.
I see what you're trying to do, but do we really want the incumbent deciding whether or not your review of his election is a legitimate use?
We already have tens of thousands of laws, including a great many concerning elections. I suspect a decent lawyer could argue that these letters violate a few laws.
I mean, would two non-gay roommates end up in a "common law" marriage now if they live together for long enough?
Common law marriages are idiotic to begin with. They shouldn't assume that just because you lived together with someone for X amount of time, that you're together.
That's a bit of an urban legend. The first requirement for common law marriage is that you hold yourself out as husband and wife over an extended period of time - that you go around introducing her as "my wife" and she says things like "my husband bought ...". This indicates that the couple has decided that they are married.
The second requirement is that they live together as husband and wife. Examples of living as husband and wife include things like having a joint checking account or filling taxes as "married".
Note that BOTH requirements have to be met - the couple has to go around saying they are married (proving they've decided to be married) AND they have to actually do so - actually do the things married people do.
If a couple decides to be married and they do so for a long time, the court will simply recognize what already is true. So for example when one dies, their spouse will have rights to the property, because they did in fact live their lives as a marriage - not as roommates.
Whoop-tee shit! It's a stupid and desperate strategy precisely because most people will react as you did but nobody is trying to threaten or intimidate you, though they may be trying to shame or coerce you into engaging with your friends and neighbours in order to encourage them to engage in the political system. I think they are frustrated and grasping at straws because political discourse in the US has deteriorated to such an extent that the process has become mostly dysfunctional.
You need to register once, that's it. I registered to vote when I was 18, and never again. That makes you valid for all elections.
Also, in most if not all counties, you can have your ballot mailed to you. That's what I do. I would much rather vote at home and mail it back than bother to go to a voting booth. There is no charge for this service, you just fill out and mail in a form, or call, or fill out a form online (which is what I did) and the county recorder mails you a ballot when an election happens. They also mail you all the official election materials listing candidates, propositions (short text, full text, and legislative analysis) and so on.
Really, it is dead easy to get to vote on your schedule. If you don't, that's on you.
The people that abstain from voting trend to be centrist. After all, if you lean strongly to one side, then you already know who you'll vote for. So, statistically a lower voter turnout means only the more extreme viewpoints are voting. That is one of the reasons why campaign tactics have moved more toward the extremes. Source: I did hear this recently, I promise, I think it was on NPR...
Take your political news to a political news website, we really don't give a damn about American politics. Returns Slashdot to its former glory, we want technology news!
If you don't want to carry out your duty as a citizen, that's fine, you just have to put up with the government chosen by those who did.
Of course with a few quirks like blatant Gerrymanders of course from the State level and other weirdness at the county level that strongly influence who gets in.
Compulsory voting run by an impartial nation wide body is likely to deliver more than two choices in some places and more than the single choice in others. People may actually end up with a government that listens to them instead of what Rupert Murdoch has decided will be on Fox News.
Hidden ballot voting systems beg for corruption. Open voting is the best way to deal with this. It's as simple as "everybody who votes for Johnny raise their hand."
Political correctness is really just herd psychology pushed by insecure people who desperately seek social conformity.
It is SOP for BOTH parties to check voting records, what ISN'T SOP is the implied THREAT at the end of the letter "If you don't vote in this election, WE will want to know WHY"
-- 73 de KG2V For the Children - RKBA! "You are what you do when it counts" - the Masso
I don't need to know if you have voted to send you two letters, one which says "You have a excellent voting record" and "You have a bad voting record". That's classic astrology stuff. Just send letters with something which applies to everyone. It's working, you have decided that the first one was a personalized letter and the second is one that they have send to everyone, while your neighbor that doesn't vote just think the opposite.
Is that voting records are public records. And ever since 2006 when the Help America Vote Act was passed - almost every state has a centralized database of all voters that they'll sell for a modest fee to anyone.
I've long had a copy of the voter database for my state on my computer. You just never know when it comes in handy.
They didn't bother sending anything out here in Kochs home-state. By all signs their puppy Mike Pompeo is already in place. On the other hand they are pouring funds into Roberts campaign against the Independent (clearly Democrat) Orman and I have a 3 lb pile of ads to prove it.
*Repent!Quit Your Job!Slack Off!The World Ends Tomorrow and You May Die!
Same as usual. Don't go with the flow. Don't swim against the current. Neither rule is a substitute for making choices.
"There are some people that if they don't know, you can't tell them." ~ Louis Armstrong
Right....I could tell them right now. Do they have a return address or a telephone number? They are even welcome to post it in their chicken shot newsletter.
i think it should be available to " people from each campaign" or even create judges of some sort whos only role in the election is to verify votes. The information should not be used for these types of bullshit mailers
have you seen my sig? there are many others like it but none that are the same
all I said was Boo, Hoo, its not about one of my favorite programming languages!
As the super PAC focused on holding Republicans accountable and helping Democrats win seats in the House, House Majority PAC combines innovative new approaches with time-tested strategies to do battle with Republican outside groups and make a difference.
Look at the people on their staff, most of them worked for Obama's 2012 campaign.
I donated about $50 to Ron Paul when he was running in 2008. Campaign laws require that to be a public record so since then I've received about 1000 letters from various GOP candidates saying I'm a valuable supporter and asking for money. I typically hate every single one of their positions so I just mail back their prepaid envelope.
I love Jesus, except for his foreign policy.
gay bashing,
union busting,
poll taxes.
deregulation of dangerous industries,
I can't wait for those good times to return.
I'm posting anonymously on purpose.
NJ is a "Pay to play" state, such that if you want to win there, you need to pay the locals to get the corpses to vote for you. Your Joe Fox is just another of the unofficical-semi-connected-bros-in-government who's job exists because he gets bodies to show up for whoever they need to win.
Is it illegal, probably--has anyone gone to jail for it? Nope, not in the 47 years I voted in NJ.
Republicans would love to get NJ to turn red, but it's not happening because of Demoperators like this guy who are connected enough in the system to make sure that the corpses show up on game day.
Sounds fictional? Ask around, and ask one of the old ladies at the polling place, how much they get paid to show up for each election...
I always vote... but its rare that I actually vote -for- anybody.
The lists have existed 'forever' and have been used in elections for decades. Where do you think campaigns get their lists if voters from?
Ken
And if there are no candidates you wish to vote for, then why should you vote for someone you don't want?
That is why there is a need for None of The Above to be introduced as an option.
Is sending around 'Election Violation Notice'-s to democrats that imply that if they vote for his opponent, they're committing a crime. Very official looking.
So don't tell me "voter fraud is nearly non-existent". We have plenty of existence proofs
And that's ONE reason why the Electorial College, rather than at-large election of the president, is important: It provides a firewall that limits the amount of voting power a single corrupt political machine can deliver in the presidential election. (The other elected officials are by region, which limits the number of them one corrupt machine can deliver.) With popular vote one big state with a corrupted election process can swamp the rest of the country and control the White House.
Remember the Florida recount? Imagine a close presidential election if the office were by popular vote. You'd have to recount the WHOLE COUNTRY.
Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
While I dislike the intimidating language, in general everyone who is allowed to vote should. There are countries, notably Australia, where voting is not a legal right, but everyone is in fact legally required to vote. I've never seen anything like the intimidating mailers mentioned in the summary, but perhaps this is due to, first, being in a very much non-swing state, second, having always voted once I was old enough, and third I'm not affiliated with any political party.
Now, there is such a thing as a protest vote. Just because you turn in a ballot, does not require that it be fully filled out. Personally, I generally leave unopposed positions blank unless the candidate has provided encouragement for me to vote for them. There are other forms of protest vote, but simply leaving portions blank is common.
Captcha: measure
They are sending out the addresses for up to 10 people that you 'know', and their voting record. Absolute bullshit!
There's some local variation, but not nearly as much as popular misconception would have you believe. It's called COMMON law for a reason, after all. This is the law as commonly applied by many courts over hundreds of years.
The other type of law is statutory law. Different jurisdictions have different statutes regarding controversial topics. (They tend to use codes and model statutes for non-controversial topics.) The statutes generally codifyan official way of getting married and registering that marriage with the state; a marriage license and such. The common law, including common law marriage, is concerned with fair ways of dealing with actual facts, using principles of fairness developed over hundreds of years. This is largely separate from the written statutes. Local statutes will specify how you can get an official piece of paper saying that you're married, and thatvaries from place to place. Common law deals with people who are _in_fact_ a family, regardless if what Abby piece if paper says. Much of common law was decided in thirteenth century England, so it was already decided before your city existed.
whether registered voters exercise the right is contained in every state's registration of voters. this open document is supplemented at political parties by canvassing each election in their own databases (in Minnesota at least, it's called the VAN.) every survey or doorknock you take, you update the VAN.
just like Amazon tracks your purchases and makes recommendations, and Facebook suggests new friends and a bunch of bogus ads for crap you want to shoot like skeet.
because the vote is secret, you can game the VAN if you so choose. the percentages of error are going to be really, really small, so it doesn't matter whether you do or not. a million won't for the prankster that does. it's thus a ton more accurate than anybody else's survey of 467 landline users in WAKO-TV land.
big data has been trained to slavery for politicians. to a very fine point. make of it what you will.
if this is supposed to be a new economy, how come they still want my old fashioned money?
And guess how they are watching you?
They are getting your information from google and facebook who volunteer the database of personal information they have compiled on you.
I've also been harrassed by democratic party activists in real life. They even used a few of my old friend's they converted.
I'll be honest, I might be receptive to a handful of their political ideas, but I feel like I live in a police state where I have had people I used to trust spy on me for soley political purposes.
If this wasn't bad, its the language some of these people use when on other social networking, and other sites with political discussion, they are the first to deviate from the issues. They use loaded language, and repeat claims that they want to lock up opposition. They are very suspicous, and even the slightest deviation from their platform they will attack, in every offense way up to, but exlcuding violence to punish people who step out of line. if you are to the "right" of their position, your a "republican agent", to the "left", a "dangerous extremist", of both which they openly declare their desire to arrest and harrass by any means neccary.
They are fairly comfortable with doublespeak, and have one set of values in public, another in private, and the two get further everytime I run into one.
I'm not a radical because I want to be, or because I think its cool, or any romantic notion. I am a radical because I have no other options really. I am not a radical because I encourage political violence, or spying, or malice, but because I am opposed to it. I am not a radical because I am an extremist, but because I'm not an extremist. I am a radical because its the only way I could really be honest about myself, and the political system of the United States of America. The system has failed. We have a paper democracy, but the net effect is at least one major party(potentially two, I never had any real run ins with the republicans), has their own private gestapo. They use language like war, spies, double agents, and most important "enemy" to describe the opposition in a supposedly democratic system. Most of these people are white privledged hipsters who never been to war, and many if not most would never hack in the army.(I have, I came back home to this.).
We are not free. We do not have in effect open elections. We don't have rights, we have privledges the government can wave at any time under either "homeland security", or "the war on drugs", even if we are not terrorists or drug dealers.
>And if there are no candidates you wish to vote for, then why should you vote for someone you don't want?
Your default choice, if you are dissatisfied with your options, should be to vote out the incumbent rather than abstain.
http://thinkprogress.org/elect...
The ad is a variation of a GOTV (Get Out The Vote) strategy called “vote shaming.” The tactic is employed by liberals and conservatives to use social psychology to increase the chances that people vote. In every state but Virginia, whether or not you participated in an election is public. “[I]f you publicize something, it has a very powerful effect on behavior,” Chris Larimer, an Iowa political scientist, told USA Today in 2012.
The Facebook ads at issue go beyond traditional “vote shaming” by strongly implying that their ballot will not be secret. Two Facebook users who posted screenshots of the ad on social media confirmed to ThinkProgress that they had seen the ads on their Facebook newsfeed.
Should say 'Your Neighbors Will Know If You Don’t Vote Republican' but /. accepts more chars in subject input then chops the end off.
Wonder if they'll be seeing how many people from the cemetaries voted for the Democrats. Mental capacity is about the same.
Hey it's funny, lighten up.
The Information on voting history (not who but when you voted, Primaries, Generals, Congressional, vs Presidential) are generally kept by the county clerks of each county. They even sell that information for a fee so you can send mailing to registered voters.
So I have no doubt they may know if you voted or not. You can always walk in and then cast an intentionally empty ballot in protest. Noone makes you vote in any race.
I got the same thing in the mail but for Wake County saying very similar things. I am registered unaffiliated. I was livid and emailed the NC Democratic Party how irritated I was. And I had already voted a week before. If I had gotten that letter before I would of not voted just out of spite. They had excerpts like " you let your community down by failing to vote", "our organization monitors turnout in your community and it would be an understatement to say we are disappointed by the inconsistent voting of many of your neighbors." I felt like I was getting the shake down.Grrr!
What the fuck? Intimidation? Because someone sent you a form letter asking you to vote? They sure seems to making some folks with awfully thin skin. And someone might come to your house/apartment to ask you to vote. I guess you could always tell them to go to hell or something.
But no... Da man must be harassing me.
That is all.
Publication 17, Part 2 covers the various filing statae.
http://www.irs.gov/publication...
Considered married. You are considered married for the whole year if, on the last day of your tax year, you and your spouse meet any one of the following tests.
You are married and living together as a married couple.
You are living together in a common law marriage recognized in the state where you now live or in the state where the common law marriage began.
You said "my girlfriend and I". You did not say "my wife and I". If you do not consider yourself to be married, do not lie on your tax forms and claim that you are. That would be tax fraud. File as married only if you consider yourself to be married, you tell other people you're married, and your state recognizes common-law marriage. (Even at that, if you're married, you may as well take a few minutes to file the paperwork with the state.)