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The Expansionist
Saturday, October 30, 2010
 
Fiting RadRite Loons, Again. AOL News covered a minor scandal in Ohio:
A handful of McDonald's employees in northeastern Ohio received handbills in their most recent paychecks suggesting they vote for three Republican candidates.

"If the right people are elected we will be able to continue with raises and benefits at or above our present levels," the insert said. "If others are elected we will not." ... Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner, the Democratic elections chief, said she was launching an investigation because the action appeared to violate Ohio election laws.
As could be expected, the Radical Right wingnuts who haunt AOL comments areas quickly defended an employer's implicitly telling his employees that their jobs depend on how they vote. Also as usual, they didn't stick to this story, but wandered all over the political landscape, dragging in crazy accusations against President Obama and falsifying all kinds of things. I was sufficiently ticked off to answer over 145 of these absurdities. My comments appear below, separated by *** at the margin. I do not include comments that repeat basic points or simply tell people to stop repeating their comments, which many Rightwingers do in order to fool readers into thinking there are far more Rightwingers than there are. Warning: there are 142 comments, totaling over 7,000 words, below. I include only my text; you can infer what I am answering. Liberals sometimes need help in answering the crazy things the Radical Right says. My remarks may assist, next time they encounter RadRite propaganda.

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What an outrageous lie! Bush MORE THAN DOUBLED the national debt, up by $6,102 trillion, from a SURPLUS under Clinton; up from $5,807 trillion at 9/30/2001 to $11,909 trillion at 9/30/2009, before Obama's first budget took effect. The national debt at 9/30/2010 (under Obama) stood at $13,561 trillion, up $1,652 trillion, which is between only 37% (little more than 1/3) of what Bush did. These figures are from the U.S. Treasury website: http://www.treasurydirect.gov/govt/reports/pd/histdebt/histdebt_histo5.htm. Why can't enemies of Obama ever tell the truth?
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Oops. The comma in my "trillions" figures should be a period. Figures are hundreds of millions.
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The stock market crash and housing bubble pop occurred under Bush. Don't lie about history, because the records are there for everyone to see.
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So it would be fine with you if the employer endorsed Democratic candidates and implied that if he finds out his employees voted Republican, they'd be fired?
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People who throw around the word "Socialism" NEVER know what it means. George Bush was in fact one of the worst Presidents ever, and virtually all historians are agreed on that. Obama has had less than half his term pass to date, and people who hate him (because he's black -- no other reason) "Rush" to judgment. Let's see, what had happened in George Bush's first year? Ah, right: 9/11.
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And Reagan TRIPLED the national debt; when Bush the Elder left office, the Republicans had QUADRUPLED the national debt. When Bush the Younger left office, he had further DOUBLED the national debt. So Republicans OCTUPLED the national debt. Check the U.S. Treasury website: http://www.treasurydirect.gov/govt/reports/pd/histdebt/histdebt.htm.
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All comments aside from the McDonald's story are OFF-TOPIC. But Radical Rightwingers cannot stay on topic, ever, but must always move every discussion on AOL News to anti-Obama b.s. Then honest people feel they have to answer, and the original topic gets lost, every time.
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So now a budget surplus of hundreds of billions of dollars from Clinton's last year just didn't happen? Radical Rightwingers just cannot ever tell the truth. I suppose Saddam really did have WMD too.
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The President, whoever he is, controls the budget. Did you ever hear the word "veto"?
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Kindly stop making things up. This is not a fiction-writing class.
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Obama's approval ratings are in the range of 46%-54%: http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/other/president_obama_job_approval-1044.html. Stop lying.
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You plainly have no grasp on reality. Marxists and Socialist are NOT Liberals. As for voter fraud and intimidation, do you really want to go into the extreme pressure to conform in much of the Republican South, in which entire counties are dominated by one "boss" family?
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A very large proportion of all McDonald's outlets are franchises, owned and controlled by franchisees, not McDonald's corporation. The corporation cannot be blamed for the behavior of franchisees unless egregious violations of a franchise agreement are brought to the attention of the corporation, which then may warn the franchisee that it risk losing its franchise(s).
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Ah, your racist motivations finally come out in the open: "we will not be sitting in the back" -- of the bus, right? Yes, now we see. Obama is sitting in the front of the bus, where only white people belong. How dare he? Now we can all see why you hate Obama: because he's an uppity n*. And that is the be-all and end-all of the Radical Right's hatred of Obama.
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Saying something does not make it so. There is no such thing as a "self-fulfilling prophecy". So let's just wait four days to see what happens with Congress, and two more years to see what happens with the White House. If Republicans do gain control of one or both houses of Congress, and then ruin the Nation by fiting the President and shutting down the Government -- and what will our foreign enemies do while Republicans paralyze the Government? -- the people who put them in position to bring on such a disaster will turn them out, and install not just Obama in his second term but a BIGGER Democratic majority in both houses than they now have. So be careful what you wish for.
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McDonald's has many healthy choices, and people must not be permitted to blame others for their own gluttony. People can eat from McDonald's many choices, including red meat, and live fine, healthy lives. It's all a matter of moderation -- in all things.
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If Liberals make up only 20% of Americans, how come Obama won the Presidency and Democrats won both houses of Congress?
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The reality is that the school did not provide the sample ballot. An independent Democratic activist did. The school should have shown an actual sample ballot, but did not. Perhaps it never occurred to them to ask the board of elections for an actual sample ballot. Cincinnati is not exactly in a flaming-Liberal part of the country, so this was a meaningless failure of planning. And it did not involve actual voters, only schoolchildren, so is in no way comparable to an EMPLOYER telling his employers the "right" way to vote.
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MoM's antidemocratic statement as to who should be on the ballot and who should vote are indicative of a contempt for democracy typical of the Radical Right. I live in NJ and don't know what she's talking about as regards third parties. The reality is that the Florida candidate she mentions, Mr. Meek, is a DEMOCRAT, not a member of a third party, like the Greens. And it would be far healthier for this country is the major parties did not do everything in their power to keep third parties off the ballot. We wouldn't need to worry about term limits as a way of getting new people with new ideas into office if the laws wouldn't keep third-party candidates off the ballot. As for a candidate put on the ballot just to ensure another candidate's victory, look to the fraud carried off by South Carolina Republicans in an OPEN primary, electing an utter unknown, Alvin Greene, as the Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate. Open primaries should be forbidden. Indeed, primaries should be forbidden, since almost nobody votes in them, and political parties are private organizations, not organs of government, so taxpayers should not have to pay for the decision-making process of private organizations.
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Everything that has ever been done to make this country better was done by Liberals -- indeed, creating the United States was a Liberal REVOLUTION against tradition.
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That BUSINESSES should endorse Republicans is NOT NEW but standard.
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You have the story backwards: REPUBLICANS are telling Mexican-American voters to stay home.
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Kindly stop wasting our time with arrant nonsense. Republicans are servants of the rich, only. Democrats care about PEOPLE, and about businesses only as they serve the interests of SOCIETY. Democrats are pro-responsible-business.
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Two things. First, the typical working FAMILY pays taxes and receives SERVICES. Why do Radical Rightists always forget that half of the equation? Taxes support public SCHOOLS, police, firefiters, garbage collection, and other indispensable services. Try providing those things for yourself and you will see you get very good value for money from government services. And what private entity is going to defend the Nation on the battlefield, or intercept bombs sent in airplanes from Yemen? Second, I don't know if MoM is referring to a specific incident, but the idea that COLLEGE kids are ignorant is absurd. They are in COLLEGE, so probably know more about the world than 90% of non-college-educated voters. As for "bribing" kids with free tuition, are we to believe it's a bad thing to educate kids?
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Most people are very busy nowadays -- esp. those scrambling to make a living and keep their job by working extra hours, on top of long commutes. They do NOT spend much time keeping themselves informed about how their representative at any level of government votes. If people talk politics with friends and family, they are getting information and, often, advice, as to how to vote. But being TOLD by an employer how to vote is quite different. Friends and family don't have the power to fire you if you vote "the wrong way".
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Don't blame McDonald's. This was ONE franchisee, not the McDonald's corporation, and not your local franchisees.
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MoM has got to let go of insane conspiracy theories about NONEXISTENT Black Panthers. Four black guys showed up at ONE polling place in one BLACK neighborhood out of the entire country. They did not intimidate anyone into doing, or not doing, ANYthing. They had no way of knowing how anyone was going to vote, and did not in any way interfere with anything. They did not follow anyone into the voting booth, nor would they have been allowed to. They did not even hand out materials to tell people which way to vote! It was an entirely ridiculous story blown way out of proportion by the Radical Right, who have never been able to explain how four black guys standing outside a black polling place was supposed to intimidate anyone to do anything.
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Unions can't fire anyone. And your husband has a union job? The SOCIALIST!
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The Supreme Court has no authority under the Constitution to void a law. Why aren't "strict constructionists" indignant about this "judicial activism"? If the Framers had intended the Supreme Court to have a veto over legislation, they would have GIVEN it a veto AND provided a means of override.
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You are confusing two entirely different issues. Unions have elections, and the members entrust the leadership to run the affairs of the union. They can oust union officials whose actions they disapprove of. Employees don't elect their bosses. Union officials cannot fire members who vote Republican; an employer who finds out (or just believes) that an employee has voted "the wrong way", CAN fire that employee. No one is talking about political endorsements here, but only voter intimidation. The boss is entitled to voice his opinions -- but not in an enclosure with paychecks that implies that anyone who votes Democratic risks his or her job.
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Teachers want to be paid well. They are college graduates, and do a difficult and INDISPENSABLE job. They are not garbage collectors who need only a strong back. It is NOT in the interest of the union to protect bad teachers. NJ Governor Christie has been a catastrophe for the state; my property taxes have gone up 17% because of Christie!
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MoM, wake up. The Radical Right attacks unions because union workers are 'overpaid'. So plainly the unions have increased workers' pay, for one thing. For another, the union does step in to protect their members from wrongful discharge, as aleighcat avers. Unions also fite against compulsory overtime, unpaid work, cuts in benefits (such as to health insurance, or increasing worker contributions to health insurance premiums), etc. You really think people pay union dues for NOTHING? Get real.
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Democrats tried, within the last few weeks, to end a tax loophole that benefits overseas outsourcing of American jobs. Republicans voted to keep that loophole and keep sending American jobs abroad. As for the people objecting that this wasn't the McDonald's corporation, that is true, but meaningless for the purposes of evaluating whether there was voter intimidation by SOMEONE. The BUSINESS implicitly threatened its employees. It doesn't matter whether the local owner was a corporation, proprietorship, LLC, or anything else. The people who have the power to fire, put a political endorsement in the envelope with paychecks. That does rise to voter intimidation.
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You are living in a fantasy world of paranoid delusion. The Democratic National Committee does NOT pay unions. Acorn no longer exists. NOTHING you say makes any sense.
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What "funding" does a union do for members? You're talking nonsense.
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COLA has nothing to do with any Presidential Administration. It is a formula that has been in place for a very long time. Plainly the formula is wrongly devised, since my costs of many kinds have indeed gone up, so we should indeed have gotten a Cost Of Living Allowance increase, this year and next. Obama did not do a thing to the law, and has absolutely no control over the COLA formula. The Great Recession caused deflation in segments of the economy that are included in the COLA formula, but shouldn't be. Congress needs to change the "basket" of goods used to figure COLA. Nancy Pelosi, whom the Radical Right despises, has said she will try to get a $250 check to Social Security recipients early next year to make up for the second year without COLA increases. Will Republicans vote for it? Hm.
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I am a Liberal. I do not use any drugs, not even so much as an aspirin once every two months. Nor do I attack happy meals. I concern myself with issues of social justice, not silliness like a toy in a happy meal.
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Who says he spoke "facts"? He issued his OPINION, in the same envelope as employees' PAYCHECKS. If you don't see that as pressuring employees to vote the boss's way, there's something wrong with you.
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May I remind you that Bill Clinton was FAMOUS for stopping at McDonald's?
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Mafia murders of union officials who wouldn't do their bidding have nothing to do with union standards and practices. And how many people have killed their business partners? Cut the crap. Stick to real issues.
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MoM, Democrats haven't lost a thing, yet. In fact, early voting indicates that Dems are AHEAD. Republicans have said that early voting from urban districts means nothing, so Dems are EXPECTED to be ahead in early voting. Why don't you just wait FOUR DAYS before gloating? If your choice, the Republican Right Wing, which favors exporting jobs to China and India, wins -- and the Nation loses -- there is time on Tuesday nite or Wednesday morning to gloat. Saying Democrats are "already losing their seats" is, as of now, a lie.
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WHAT has Obama done to divide the Nation? He tried to bring Republicans on board, and listened to everything they had to say, then weakened his healthcare legislation, and other types of legislation, to try to satisfy Republican objections, in trying to achieve bipartisanship. For that, he was kicked in the teeth.
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No, unions never fired anyone. Not in the old days, not now. As for our ancestors centuries ago, they worked 72-hour workweeks and died if they couldn't work. NO ONE would want to go back to those days, not even the most regressive Republican -- unless they could choose to be wealthy, which has never been anyone's choice.
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Unions can't fire anyone, and that makes all the difference in the world. But you don't care about logic or truth. Liberals did EVERYTHING of value in this society, from establishing the United States to begin with (the "conservatives" wanted to stay loyal to King George), to establishing wages-and-hours legislation, to creating worker-safety standards, protecting against hazardous substances, and on and on.
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aleighcat says "God forbid that your employer should ever find out that you dared to vote differently than what they believe." But she doesn't understand that that is why a piece of political endorsement from an employer in a pay envelope is qualitatively ENTIRELY DIFFERENT from union endorsements. Unions can fire anyone, and the Radical Right has got to stop pretending that employer and union endorsements are identical in nature. They are not, because UNIONS CAN'T FIRE ANYONE, but EMPLOYERS CAN.
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Oops. Left out word "not": "unions can NOT fire anyone". Fingers are cold.
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That is a complete misstatement of facts. Employers are PRESENTLY dropping health insurance for employees, but the Obama healthcare bill does not take effect until 2014! You can't blame actions NOW on a law that doesn't take effect until FOUR YEARS FROM NOW. The behavior of BANKS during the Bush Administration that produced the housing collapse is not attributable to Democrats. And "this batch of Dems" includes many people who had nothing whatsoever to do with the policies under Bush that produced the Great Recession. The economic collapse began under BUSH, and no rewriting of history will change that.
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What are you suggesting? That it was a put-up job, and DEMOCRATS planted bombs on airplanes just so they could intercept them? How, pray, could a U.S. Government, under anyone, have prevented bombs from being placed on airplanes in YEMEN? Seek professional help. And while you're talking to a shrink, talk about Bush knowing that Al-Qaeda planned to hijack airplanes and use them as flying bombs, but refused to TELL us so we could PREVENT such hijackings -- as the passengers on flite 93 tried to do but didn't know to do until the fanatics had already seized the cockpit.
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If you saw wrongdoing in YOUR union, YOU should have campaigned to stop it, even run for union office yourself.
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You are lying. Obama's "people" have NEVER said Obama's policies are going to bankrupt the country. Nor have Democrats tampered with voting machines. There are indeed problems with voting machines, but it is not Democrats' doing. Nor are you entitled to disparage people who take their UNPAID time to correct LIES on comments boards, as being on the dole. Liberals could as easily accuse YOU of being a paid agent provocateur or on the dole. But we don't. Because we have honor.
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A political endorsement in a PAY ENVELOPE from your employer is far more than a "suggestion". As for aleighcat's sentence, "You don't vote the Democratic way, and you'll end up paying for it in your paycheck, if nothing else," that makes no sense. Democrats don't control your paycheck. Employers do.
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This election is not about conservatism, preserving the good things in our traditions, but about radical REGRESSION to a society before the New Deal, when the rich ran roughshod over the poor and middle class.
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Radical-Right Republicans have spent $250 MILLION on campaign ads this election.
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Perhaps you are speaking in code, but no one outside your coterie has any idea of what you are supposed to be talking about when you say "57 states".
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NO ONE says that a school's giving Democrat-only ballots is OK, and in fact the school did NOT. A campaign worker at a polling place gave out the sample ballot. Besides, these were schoolkids, NOT voters.
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Schoolchildren do not vote. Perhaps you don't understand that. So whether Boxer did or did not do anything to win favor with NONVOTERS is aside from the point.
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Your post makes absolutely no sense. Unions don't fire people; employers do. Unions do not receive bailouts; businesses have. Education funds do NOT go to a political party; that's just a lie, or serious delusion. There is no God. You haven't any idea what Socialism and Communism are, so stop using the terms inappropriately.
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Unions are not in control of voting machines. The board of elections is: local GOVERNMENT.
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How, pray, did you hear of all these asserted matters if they are not covered in major media, and listed at AOL news? Any LEGITIMATE story of wide interest is shown on AOL. May I remind you that AOL is a BUSINESS? If anything, it is biased toward business, not government. Military ballots were NOT "withheld", but mailed a bit after the preposterous 45-day-in-advance standard. As for voting machines pre-loaded with Democratic votes, you, or some other paranoid Rightwing propagandist, is just making that up.
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It's called "voter intimidation" because it plays on people's fears that the way they vote will be discovered, and they will be punished for it. In her reply, MoM expressly STATES that fear, albeit on the side of fictional union intimidation. Her insane suggestion that people will be physically attacked for voting Republican is the kind of FEAR-mongering that voter intimidation is all about.
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So union organizers follow people into the voting booth and watch how they vote, do they? Stop talking nonsense. Unions get out the vote; they do not force people to vote one way or another, nor is there any mechanism by which they COULD force people to vote one way or another.
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No one here is able to check what you say. But you contradict yourself in saying at once that the NEW YORK POST and NATIONAL REVIEW covered this supposed story AND that the "media" ignored it.
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You are making it up. If YOU had to present ID, EVERYONE had to present ID to register to vote. Stop the NONSENSE. Perhaps you really are clinically paranoid, so need to see a mental-health professional. Voter fraud by Democrats is a very common Radical-Right, Republican accusation, but in fact it is unfounded. The Bush Administration found 57 case in the entire country during one national election, involving less than half that many false ballots, and we don't even know if the votes miscast were for Democrats or Republicans. Stop making up insane lies. See a shrink.
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You do not know what socialism means, so stop misusing the term. Historically, business does better under Democrats than under Republicans. Compare Clinton's record to Bush's and you will see that far more jobs were created -- in the U.S., not China -- under Clinton. But your post does make plain that unions do NOT intimidate members into voting for their choice. Nor could they.
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How many times do we have to tell you that unions cannot fire anybody but employers can? If you don't understand that difference, I suppose you can't tell the difference between nite and day either.
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Jan and her/his ilk just can't give up on the lie about Black Panthers intimidating people at a BLACK polling place. Let me explain something: black people standing in front of a polling place do not intimidate BLACK voters from entering that polling place, nor even the few white people who might live in a predominantly black neighborhood. We are accustomed to seeing black people everywhere. 4 guys standing outside 1 polling place and not even handing out flyers to indicate how they wanted people to vote does NOT remotely constitute voter intimidation. But that's all the Radical Right has: nonsense.
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Try to find a credible story of voter intimidation by Democrats. Drop the moronic lie about Black Panthers, who intimidated NOBODY out of voting in a BLACK neighborhood.
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Equating President Obama and Jeffrey Dahmer is insane. The Radical Right really will stop at nothing, including roughing up and handcuffing reporters. This is not the America decent people want.
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An employer who would tell employees how to vote is not beyond ASKING them after the fact how they voted.
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So an extra piece of paper in a pay envelope means nothing, does it? How about if it's a pink slip? What if the employer printed his political endorsement on pink paper? Government is not the enemy of business. If you are running your business right (if you even HAVE a business, which we are in no position to fact-check), you have nothing to fear from Government. But if you are dumping hazardous waste, underpaying employees, cheating them on hours, forcing them to work overtime without pay, or doing other things rightly forbidden by Government, then you do indeed have something to worry about.
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Black Panther voter intimidation = ridiculous BIG LIE. Nobody was intimidated by 4 black guys standing outside a polling place in a black neighborhood. But the frequent reference to this nonexistent intimidation of nonexistent white voters in a black neighborhood really does show the RACIST motivations and RACIAL FEARS of the Radical-Rightists posting to this comments area, doesn't it?
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jmm8254, how come everything that happens now is Obama's fault, but NOTHING that happened during Bush's years was his fault?
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SEIU doesn't own the McDonald's at issue, and cannot fire its employees. You're talking irrelevant nonsense.
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So you cannot conceive of that employer ASKING his employees how they voted, or listening in on their conversations? Not everyone has the courage to tell an employer who asks how they voted, "That's for me to know, not you", esp. if they feel that any such answer would be interpreted as saying "I voted Democratic, despite what you suggested." Moreover, even if an employee voted Democratic but told the boss s/he voted Republican, some people are very bad liars, and the boss will guess the truth. I have worked in a McDonald's, decades ago, and they are small workplaces where a manager can hear all kinds of things people say. Moreover, it is hardly unusual for bosses to have "spies" who report on what they hear. Don't be naive.
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Crazy lies fool only crazies. Obama is a CHRISTIAN; you have no idea what Socialism is; and Moslems are NOT excused from anything that anyone else is not excused from. You're just making things up, but no sane person believes you.
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Stop calling people names just because they disagree with you. And stop the nonsense about Black Panthers. The trivial incident you cite occurred during the BUSH Administration Nov. 2008), and there were POLICE on hand who did NOT arrest anyone or see any violation of law. NO level of government prosecuted ANYBODY because NOTHING happened. Obama is not racist. How could he be? He's half-white. You are PROJECTING onto the President your own racism, and everybody knows it. Your reference to "the back of the bus" shows again your deep racial animus and fear. You want to push black people to the back of the bus again, and EVERYBODY sees that.
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Equating two very different things is insane. Unions don't fire people; employers do. How stupid do you think readers here are, that they would somehow see unions as firing people?
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4 black guys stand outside 1 polling place in a BLACK neighborhood, and the Radical Right goes crazy talking about "Black Panthers" as tho there were an army of heavily-armed black militants embarking on gurerrilla war against white people, and you talk about Democrats blowing things out of proportion?
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Yes, you will be free [if you vote Republican] – free from your job, free from your house, free to enjoy the benefits of all that fresh air and sunshine on the sidewalk.
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Asserting that no one would have been concerned if the business owner had endorsed a Democrat with the same kind of message in a pay envelope is pure speculation. As far as we know, no such thing has happened. And if it had, the same kind of attention would be warranted. It would, however, hardly be necessary for a McDonald's franchisee to urge his low-paid employees to vote Democratic, because most people who are paid badly know better than to vote for the servants of the rich, the Republicans.
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Unless you live near that offending franchisee, you have no reason to avoid McDonald's. Corporate disowned that guy's action. As for the aprtly named "Mad Dog!", the accusation that Liberals disapprove of freedom of speech is insane, RIDICULOUS slander.
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No Liberal is going to boycott McDonald's generally, but only, at most, that one franchisee's restaurant/s.
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Are you threatening violence if you are defeated at the polls? You fit right in with the RadRite BROWNSHIRTS who rough up and handcuff reporters. Liberals are not helpless to defend themselves from Brownshirts.
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Radical Rightists just can't accept that they lost legitimately. Democrats have lost many elections without ANY "riots in the streets". This is evil, RIDICULOUS propaganda. Republicans have NEVER proved any significant voter fraud. Do you REALLY think that Democrats in urban areas need to cheat to win elections?
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There is NOTHING "Marxist" about the Democratic Party. You have absolutely no conception of what Marxism really is. And Liberals are far more dedicated to freedom of speech than are the Radical Right.
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Newspapers can't fire readers who don't accept their advice.
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Oh, I see, "blacks can do whatever the heck they want" -- your racism and racial anxiety are showing. There are no "Blackpanthers" for white people to worry about, just 4 guys standing outside 1 polling place in a BLACK neighborhood where NO ONE was intimidated out of anything. Seek professional help.
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I don't see any corporate endorsements under any corporate name.
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Rightwing groups are spending $250 million on this election. Nobody has been silenced.
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Rightwing groups are spending $250 million on this election. Nobody has been silenced. Don't worry about the 'poor', 'downtrodden' corporations.
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It's NOT McDonald's, only one franchisee. And the math is entirely wrong. Republicans are always bad for the economy.
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You completely falsify the issue. Employers are to be given TAX BENEFITS for extending health insurance to their employees. So, you would cut employees' wages to minimum wage -- because you are a vile, antihuman monster. Fortunately, you are not the employer; people with your attitudes NEVER run businesses -- except into the ground.
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Let me explain yet another thing "Mad Dog!" does not understand. The news report said, "Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner, the Democratic elections chief, said she was launching an investigation because the action appeared to violate Ohio election laws." Fair-minded people have to investigate an accusation to find out what really happened, BEFORE they make a statement that the law has been violated. I am very certain that the Secretary of State of Ohio knows a great deal more about election law than does "Mad Dog!" Moreover, the fact that the news story mentioned that that Secretary of State is a Democrat shows that the article is NOT biased.
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No one would be complaining if the franchisee put up a campaign sign on his McDonald's property (unless his franchise agreement with McDonald's forbids such a thing) -- but he would risk adverse reaction from customers. No, he put a notice in the same envelope with the paycheck, which is qualitatively enormously different.
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Unions cannot fire anyone; ergo union political endorsement does NOT constitute "the exact same fear tactics".
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dumpdemliars keeps talking nonsense. Nevada's state government is controlled by REPUBLICANS, and any problem with voting machines was found WEEKS before the elections. He's just making it all up. There is NOTHING Marxist about Democrats, but dumpdemliars doesn't know what Marxism is. To him, it's just a name, like -- exactly like -- n* or f*ggot. As for kshoe007, it's good that we see his antigay bigotry out in the open. It tells decent people who to think of everything he says.
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The education union implicitly tells workers it will fire them if they vote for someone they do not endorse? How would it fire anyone?
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Acorn did not implictly threaten to fire anyone if they didn't vote as recommended. Acorn no longer exists, anyway. As for "amoral Liberals", 'dump' (appropriate, as in "No. 2" in children's parlance) is practicing the Big Lie technique again. Liberals are PURELY moral. They care about people, esp. people who are helpless if Government doesn't act. It is the Radical Right that is amoral / immoral, concerned only with their most narrow self-interest -- which often ends up to be their own harm, when they produce a Great Recession or even Depression thru mindless selfishness.
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Stop the "Black Panthers" nonsense. It has been PROVED to have been b.s. RACIST b.s.
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No one is trying to destroy McDonald's. That is Radical-Right b.s. People want McD's and other employers to pay people a living wage, and provide humane benefits. The Democrats did not put us into any mess. It was all the Republicans' doing. How long does it take to clean up the sh* that hit the fan? That depends on how long the fan was running. In this case, it was running for YEARS.
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Do you imagine that that BLACK neighborhood had WHITE voters who would be scared of a black man? There were POLICE at that scene, who made NO arrests. NO ONE was intimidated in any way. Stop the simpleminded propaganda about 4 black men standing outside 1 polling place where only BLACK people voted.
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artorius317, very few people at the lowest incomes itemize, so tax breaks mean NOTHING to them. Most don't event relate to things that the poor do or buy.
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I think it's enuf that McDonald's warn him that a repetition of such conduct will result in the termination of his franchise. The man has apologized. He probably didn't even realize that what he did was probably illegal. Let people learn from their mistakes. Certainly his mistake has instructed many other employers across the Nation, thanks to this news story.
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Find an actual case of Democratic voter fraud, and the media will cover it. Democratic voter fraud is a Republican urban myth.
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It that is "how most of us feel", how come the electorate put Democrats in the White House and in control of both Houses of Congress?
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Actually, the Arkansas bigot did NOT apologize at first, but defended his remarks until the public outcry against him mounted higher and threatened to get even higher.
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If your bald, unsupported assertions are correct, why not post a link to a reputable graph of unemployment and per capita income over the past 20 years so we can all see if you are right -- or wrong? And while you're at it, point us to a graph of the national debt over the past 30 years so we can see what Republicans have done to us?
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Pay attention: u(1) Unions can't FIRE anybody. (2) The franchisee ADMITTED to distributing the endorsements in pay envelopes. (3) The free-beer incident involved people who had already voted; there was no requirement they vote for one party of another; and yet it was still illegal, and the organizers were told it was. Further, NOBODY showed up to claim the free beer: http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/1010/Beer_for_votes.html. Urging people to vote -- for somebody or anybody -- is NOT the same as telling them to vote for Republicans (if they want to keep their job).
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Schoolchildren don't vote. It was a demonstration of how voting works. No one was voted for in actuality. Find something serious to talk about. NO CHILD VOTED for anyone in a real election!
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It was MOCK vote, not real. It didn't matter who was on the ballot, because NO ONE WAS ACTUALLY VOTED FOR. It was a demonstration of how voting works. And you RadRite loons talk about this as voter fraud! Get a life.
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rayatalalawn would have you believe that all corporations are enlitened, and do only what is good and wise for their employees. No corporation would ever move jobs overseas, because that would put people here out of work, who could then not afford to buy their products or services. No corporation would cut wages, hours, or benefits, because that would make employees unhappy. Yet corporations DO move jobs overseas and DO cut wages, hours, and benefits. Real wages (adjusted for inflation) have DROPPED over the past 10 years, but corporate profits have soared. rayatalalawn is living in a dreamworld. Voters must live in the real world.
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rayatalalawn posts what he pretends is a reply to your correct assertion about the democratic nature of unions as against corporations, but he doesn't answer it at all. Rather, he goes off on a tangent, because he CAN'T argue that employees do have a say in the management of a company. They don't, here. They do in Germany, and Germany is doing very well compared to us.
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McDonald's and other companies that pay low wages are not for stupid people but people just entering the job market, or who need a part-time job while they go to college, or whatever. Don't insult poor people because they have to work at low wages.
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I assume the REPEAT of your comment is an error. If you click on "Post Comment" and it does not appear, do NOT click again. That will post the comment more than once. Rather, block-copy the text into a word-processor, copy the path in the window above, then exit this area by clicking on the red X at top right; call up the URL in the fill-in box again, and hit Enter to get back to this page, and your comment should be there. If not, click on "Reply", call up your text from your word-processor, and click "Post Comment" again. We don't need to see repeats because AOL stops working after a while and you have to exit and go back into the same page to continue to work.
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Yes, people have no political rights, tomkoz. They should have to give up their job if they resent their employer's telling them how to vote. That's American, alrite. Oops. No, that's AmeriKan.
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Your attitudes are precisely FASCIST. The boss is not just the boss on the job, but in all of life. You are an ENEMY of liberty.
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That is slanderous, but what can we expect of Radical Rightists? No, Liberals don't work, only Radical Rightists work -- at crappy jobs for crappy pay, because that's all they qualify for. Liberals not only DO work, but they get most of the really good jobs, because they go to college and LEARN about the world, not just about a particular job.
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Yes, blame the victim. Greedy managers of corporations send jobs abroad so they can maximize profits for shareholders and show how 'smart' they are. It has NOTHING to do with regulations or any other excuse dishonestly put out by corporate public-relations departments, but only to do with GREED. Radical Rightists are perfectly willing to make excuses for the TRAITORS who send American jobs to COMMUNIST China.
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Stop posting the same nonsense that has been answered dozens of times in these comments. Unions can't FIRE anybody because they vote the "wrong" way. If you're not going to read what has already been said, DON'T POST.
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People talk about their lives while on the job. The boss hears, either directly or via his "spies". Don't be naive.
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Accept the man's apology. He made a mistake. He has learned from it. He apologized for it. Move on.
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You're "sure" it wouldn't have been reported if a Democrat was endorsed. That is a bald and absolutely worthless assertion speculating about something that did not happen.
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Republicans OCTUPLED THE NATIONAL DEBT, exported 14M to 20M jobs, and caused a stock market crash and housing crash. And you're blaming Democrats. You have no honor.
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There is no God, but if there were a God, he would be a Liberal, and you would be headed to Hell for your evil feelings toward the meek and economically defenseless.
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This appears to be a repeat of another post. STOP repeating posts. You're not fooling anybody into thinking the Radical Right is more popular than they are.
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The Radical Right has no arguments, only slanders. They answer charges of corporate greed with accusations that Obama is a Moslem Marxist. Oh, that's great debating, isn't it? Don't ever address the real problems, just cast attention elsewhere, and lie about it while you're at it.
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Yes, putting a political endorsement in a PAY ENVELOPE did imply that the employees jobs were at risk. To deny that is dishonest.
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OFF-TOPIC. If you can't stick to the McDonald's story, don't comment. That only forces decent people to answer your nonsense.
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The question of whether a flyer enclosed in a pay envelope fulfills the definition of banned practices is why an investigation is required. As to whether "information that if any particular candidate is elected or defeated work in the establishment will cease in whole or in part" was conveyed in the employer's message, that seems closer to what is banned: >>"If the right people are elected we will be able to continue with raises and benefits at or above our present levels," the insert said. "If others are elected we will not."<<>>The court said the NVRA has basic protections built into it. One of those protections is a felony charge for perjury against fraudulent registrants and criminal charges against organizations which seek to illegally register unqualified voters. According to an October 23rd press release, the FBI is vigilant against voter fraud with it's Public Integrity Section
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Read more: http://technorati.com/politics/article/arizona-voter-registration-law-illegal-pierce/#ixzz13u3qYl00<<>





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