None dare call it conspiracy

If you doubt that there has been a systematic effort on the part of the Bush administration to disenfranchise voters most likely to line up on the Democratic side of the fence, read this report by Greg Gordon of the McClatchy Newspaper group. It is an eye opener.


"For six years, the Bush administration, aided by Justice Department political appointees, has pursued an aggressive legal effort to restrict voter turnout in key battleground states in ways that favor Republican political candidates.

"The administration intensified its efforts last year as President Bush's popularity and Republican support eroded heading into a midterm battle for control of Congress, which the Democrats won."

Now, as to the Republican mantra about "voter fraud," what do the real statistics have to say about its prevalence? Read "The Myth Of Voter Fraud" by Washington Post reporters Michael Waldman and Justin Levitt to find out just what a smokescreen this claim is, hatched by febrile brain of Machiavellian and sociopathic pudgemeister Karl Rove.

"As Congress probes the firing of eight U.S. attorneys, attention is centering on who knew what, and when. It's just as important to focus on 'why,' such as the reason given for the firing of at least one of the U.S. attorneys, John McKay of Washington state: failure to prosecute the phantom of individual voter fraud.

"Allegations of voter fraud -- someone sneaking into the polls to cast an illicit vote -- have been pushed in recent years by partisans seeking to justify proof-of-citizenship and other restrictive ID requirements as a condition of voting. Scare stories abound on the Internet and on editorial pages, and they quickly become accepted wisdom.

"But the notion of widespread voter fraud, as these prosecutors found out, is itself a fraud. Firing a prosecutor for failing to find wide voter fraud is like firing a park ranger for failing to find Sasquatch."