more stuff

Mary Ann Akers at WaPo joins the echo chamber, notable for its low entry requirements. This post at firedoglake was the catalyst for the fact-free nature of Akers' stenography.

Greg Palast was on Randi Rhodes the other day. He should seriously have his own show. He's got a great manic energy, and he talks exactly how he writes, at least on the air. I don't know if he talks that way in daily life, but I'd like to think that he does. That would rock. Here's a couple grafs on the "voter fraud" the GOP tried (is still trying) to push:

There was a multi-state con in operation. But what was it? Each of these bogus claims of voter fraud was attached to a sales pitch for a state law to tighten voter ID requirements — to prevent these ne’er-do-wells from voting twice. In Arizona, one crack-pot Republican legislator, the Hon. Russell Pearce, claimed he had evidence that five million Mexicans had illegally crossed the border to vote.

The point: Rove knew that a “challenge” operation by the Republican Party, run from his office, knocked out 300,000 voters — mainly poor ones, voters of color. His crew wanted to hike that higher.

The notable thing about this crime of voter identity theft is that it doesn’t happen. You are more likely to encounter ballot boxes that spontaneously combust. I found cases of voters struck by lightening — but out of 120 million votes cast, I couldn’t find a dozen criminal cases of a bandit stealing someone’s identity to vote.

Here's a hint: if the GOP is talking about something, anything, assume the opposite is true. Like, if a GOP politician says "I am completely opposed to eating little children in salsa" start checking his garbage can for tiny fingerbones with the remnants of jabaneros on them. Bush is the master of this, "Mission Accomplished" "Healthy Forests" "No Child Left Behind" are just a few, and just big block-letter ones. I'm sure that's how things are in his head anyways. Go read Greg's bit, he's awesome.