I am beginning to become scared that Romney/Ryan will win. Can smart people please post here and say reassuring things to convince me that he won't?

since when have upstanding American citizens recognized the federal government?

xpost

we were probably all decked out in H-bomb gear, too

I had a gas station cashier in Portland, OR, reject my passport as valid ID to buy beer; I incredulously asked her why a valid US passport wasn't good enough to purchase a six-pack, then waved over a friend with an unexpired driver's license, gave him my money, had him buy it, picked up the six-pack and stormed out muttering about how asinine it was that a federally-issued ID was not recognized in America.

had a similar thing happen at a bar in Cleveland. except that instead of giving them our money in the end, we cancelled our food order and went somewhere that recognized Canadian passports.

we were desperate for beer by that point; we had rounds of asshole to play

you are lucky there isnt another you to comment on that post

strongo is slipping, I guess

(almost everyone DOES have an ID who will be voting on these measures) that it's hard to make the case that it's truly unfair.

Voter disenfranchisement is ALWAYS unfair, Mordy.

So after months of driving people to state offices to get IDs, enduring long lines at motor vehicle departments, and looking for elusive paperwork

http://inamerica.blogs.cnn.com/2012/10/07/latino-voter-registration-efforts-running-out-of-time-in-pennsylvania/

getting everyone ids in PA is not so easy either Mordy

Did either of you actually read my post???

yes and it was self contradictory

what do you mean by "mundane"?

the key to unlocking the contradiction is not the word mundane but the words "hard to make the case."

well the case that should be made is "this will cost a ton of money to fix a problem that does not exist, unless your version of the problem is too many poor people voting."

yes. in it you seemed to accept that, because your experience of obtaining ID was relatively simple and not very burdensome, that there is no particular problem with placing this burden on everyone FOR NO DISCERNABLE REASON!

Pardon my french, but this is a stupid and lazy approach to this issue, for the same reason that it is stupid and lazy when some whitebread middle class person says, "why should anyone object to having the police wiretap them whenever they want to, if they have nothing to hide" and forgetting that perhaps the experience of non-whitebread, non-middle class people with the police might be, shall we say, a tad bit different than their own.

Voting is a right, not a privilege, and putting undue obstacles between citizens and their rights is wrong. Period. No justifications. No rationalizations. No excuses. No special pleading.

A couple years ago my passport expired a few days after moving back to the states and for about a week I was using an expired license and a notarized copy of my birth certificate to buy beer.

This is such an evil ad, but I sickly admire its inaccurate insidiousness:

http://i1.nyt.com/images/2012/10/24/us/MESSAGE1/MESSAGE1-hpMedium-v2.jpg

it's a little too crass to appeal to anyone who isn't already a hardcore republican. would be a better ad w/o that picture.

xps Any time someone has challenged my passport as ID, I've bored them to death with how difficult it is to get one compared to state ID - plus Federal ID ought to be sacrosanct and if not in this bar, why? Nobody working at a bar has ever been able to answer this to my satisfaction, including my own sister. Back in the mists of time I was told the no-passports thing happens because of a hypothetical situation where an older sister with a DL gives younger sib her passport to use as fake ID, but that seems... convoluted. BTW if you did use a US passport as fake ID and got caught you/the holder are both in SRS TRBL.

it isn't hard to make the case, you made the case in that post. if it requires a bunch of specifically targeted outreach to get certain people the required ID to vote, that indicates a barrier to voting with a disparate impact

xp

that billboard ad, to the extent it is meant to do anything but gratify the nasty urges of the people who paid for it, is meant to mobilize the people on the sidelines who think politics are pure crap, by igniting some sort of anti-obama emotions strong enough to get them to vote at all. reactionary politics in its purest form.

Aimless, I don't disagree w/ anything you wrote.

Well, except for the "you seemed to accept" part, which is not true or accurate to what I wrote. But other than that I don't disagree w/ anything you wrote.

You seemed to accept it when you wrote:

"it's hard to make the case that it's truly unfair" and concluded:

"voter ID laws are going to become a reality for a lot of states, i think, but there's no reason they need to disenfranchise voters w/ enough preparation. there's nothing inherently impossible about making sure everyone has an ID afaik??"

This still seems to me a very passive acceptance of the issue, one that mirrors the idea that when you come right down to it, it is no big deal and whatever minor problems it causes aren't much worth fussing over.

You realize voter ID in PA is law now? It was deferred to give time for everyone to get IDs, but it is now law in my state.

It's a good thing it isn't truly unfair to anyone.

Well, it is and it isn't

Judge Simpson said in his Tuesday decision that the issuing of the new documents across the state had not been fast enough.

“I expected more photo IDs to have been issued by this time,” he wrote. “Under these circumstances, I am obliged to enter a preliminary injunction” preventing the law from being fully carried out. He said there might eventually be a full trial to determine whether the law could be put into effect in a way that did not burden voters.

xpost law in PA i mean

it is now law in my state

joke's on us, you live in a commonwealth

Apparently absentee ballot fraud is a much bigger problem than voter impersonation fraud, and IDs do nothing to help with that.

If you've found yourself following the polls a little too closely, read this: http://yougov.co.uk/news/2012/10/23/PK-obama-stays-ahead-just/

how well the ohio economy is doing (relatively) should encourage the anti-mitt contingent

http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/business/2012/10/24/jobless-rate-lowest-since-08.html

if ohio doesn't go for obama it'll be even more wtf than when they didn't vote for kerry

plasmons link is a must read

romney isnt going to win ohio unless he starts mailing personal bribe checks to the voters

O keep wanting to say: I remember gas prices being at an all-time high in September 2008, then lowering closer to Election Day.

"I keep," that is.

http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_mcdpy12xXO1rq4c0wo1_1280.jpg

I suppose I should recognize him, but who's Mr. Man in Black?

Dick Cheney.

Some douche.

I remember Kid Rock's sidekick as being much shorter.

Which one is Kid Rock?

The photo looks like the last known document of an ill-fated fishing trip.

"... and they were never seen again."

at least kid rock has a neck

538's "Now-Cast" is now rougly back to pre-convention levels, btw.

roughly, even

http://www.salon.com/2012/10/25/an_actual_october_surprise/

booklets full of testimony

admirable restraint

Why are most of the news channels saying Ohio will determine who wins the election? Btw, I understand very little about the election process, but doesn't something need to change if one state determines the election.