The Daily Sandwich

"We have to learn the lesson that intellectual honesty is fundamental for everything we cherish." -Sir Karl Popper

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Location: Boston, Massachusetts, United States

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Thursday, March 29, 2007

Breaking! Welfare Queen steals elections!

As much as I appreciate this article, "The Myth of Voter Fraud," it should have been written six months-- or six years-- before today. Instead, we were treated to the same old show-- wingers fan the flames of racial and class enmity for political gain, and their base is typically enraged. 'Serious journalist' asks Beltway GOoPer about the issue in the manner of a TV cop apologetically saying "I know it's absurd, but I'm required to ask." GOoPer condescendingly dismisses the story as nutty, left-wing fever dream. Everyone has a good laugh and the issue disappears. Oh, then the issue reappears when it's way too late to make a damn bit of difference.

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.

How about firing them for failing to produce Reagan's mythical 'Welfare Queen?'

The thing to keep in mind here, of course, is the 2006 attempt by neo-fascists across America to make voting more difficult-- not to level the playing field, but to tilt it heavily in their favor. As the article thankfully, if belatedly, observes.

Mmmmm, nothing like the taste of the press corps' table scraps, eh?