And It All Falls Into Place....

[Joanne98]

I'm not a conspiracy nut. I don't buy into them largely because they give the supposed conspirators far too much credit. I did not buy into the "9/11 was an inside job" story because to do so demands that I believe that the people who brought us the "intelligence" on Iraqi WMDs, the Mission Accomplished speech, a never ending war in Afghanistan, deregulation of the mortgage industry, and the FEMA response to Hurricane Katrina could possibly have the skill to pull off the biggest conspiracy in American history.

No, they are not that skilled. But they are opportunistic, as the fallout of the September 11th attack proves. And now with the economy swirling in the bowl and foreclosures occurring left and right, the Republican party has found a way to turn this to their advantage.

From The Michigan Messenger:

The chairman of the Republican Party in Macomb County, Michigan, a key swing county in a key swing state, is planning to use a list of foreclosed homes to block people from voting in the upcoming election as part of the state GOP’s effort to challenge some voters on Election Day.

“We will have a list of foreclosed homes and will make sure people aren’t voting from those addresses,” party chairman James Carabelli told Michigan Messenger in a telephone interview earlier this week. He said the local party wanted to make sure that proper electoral procedures were followed.

State election rules allow parties to assign “election challengers” to polls to monitor the election. In addition to observing the poll workers, these volunteers can challenge the eligibility of any voter provided they “have a good reason to believe” that the person is not eligible to vote. One allowable reason is that the person is not a “true resident of the city or township.”

The Michigan Republicans’ planned use of foreclosure lists is apparently an attempt to challenge ineligible voters as not being “true residents.”


The result here is pretty obvious. Many who have lost their homes come from poor or less affluent neighborhoods, which tend to vote Democrat. And anyone who has lost their home is likely to show some rage at the the incumbent political party, so they are also likely to vote against the Republicans.

Like I said, I'm not a conspiracy theorist. I would not dream of suggesting that the Republicans used deregulation to deliberately sabotage the housing market and disenfranchise Democratic voters while passing tax cuts to the wealthiest members of society and giving their friends and donors in the oil lobby incentives that resulted in the biggest profits in history. That would be crazy talk.

But it sure seems as though the Republicans are doing their best to make it look that way.

http://nathanwardinski.blogspot.com/2008/09/and-it-all-falls-into-place.html

[boomerbust]

1. A new phrase has been created

Conservative Socialism

[shraby]

2. Can't some of the Obama people in those areas

get the names also and urge those people to re-register from their current address? If they can't do that, make sure ads and news articles make people aware that they will need to register from their new address. A concerted effort should reach a lot of them.

[EV_Ares]

3. Well, I don't think they deliberately used deregulation to sabotage the housing market. I think

that is just their incompetence and their helping out their corporate friends and donors in their big business view. However, I think all of these bailouts and everything else they are doing in their spending might fall into your conspiracy theory in a "starve the beast" theory where our government is going to be broke, no money for the medicare, Medicaid and social security programs which they desperately want to get rid of and away from the democrats. Those programs along with any other government programs.

[catbyte]

4. Coincidence?

Not only that, according to the Michigan Messenger, McCain's campaign headquarters in Macomb County is housed in the offices of Trotter & Trotter. Trotter & Trotter is a law firm specializing in evictions--the most in the state. I know someone has to do it, but does McCain have to have his campaign headquarters in the same place that's helping to toss folks out of their homes? :mad:

We were on the receiving end of Trotter & Trotter last year when we lost our home of 23 years. Husband's career-ending work injury + shitty Workmen's Comp + 4.5 years waiting for SSD to be approved + only my income (college support staff--no megabucks)+ mortgage company unwilling to negotiate + we owe more than the SS retroactive payments = FORECLOSURE!!!!!!!!! Actually I sort of have the last laugh--our ex-home has been vacant for a year & Deutchbank has been unable to sell it. Yeah, this is how I saw my life going...

Diane

"Tales of the hunt will glorify the hunter until lions have their own historians." African proverb

[crickets]

5. "McCain's campaign headquarters in Macomb County is housed in the offices of Trotter & Trotter"

So all they have to do is walk across the hall to get a comprehensive list of foreclosure evictions. If they were to take advantage of this (*gasp* would they really do that? you betcha.) I wonder if there's a privacy or disclosure statute being broken.

I'm so sorry you lost your home. :hug:

[crickets]

6. "planning to use a list of foreclosed homes to block people from voting"

Is it legal to have a premeditated plan for targeting a specific group of people this way? Does this not jump over 'making sure the rules are followed' into discrimination and political repression?

Where is Carabelli getting his list? Aren't there laws about financial privacy that would prevent a mortgage lender or law office involved in the evictions from disclosing this information, particularly to someone who has no legal interest or legal need for said list?

The whole think stinks. Bastids.

edit: clarity