Judge Rules Against Justice Department in Florida Voter Purge Case

How about some good news: Lost in all the Supreme Court news perhaps is that federal-government-run voter fraud suffered a setback this week at in a lower court:

A judge on Wednesday rejected the federal government’s attempt to block Florida’s voter purge of non-U.S. citizens, partly because the purge has been suspended.

U.S. District Judge Robert Hinkle said federal laws that prohibit the systematic removal of voters close to an election do not refer to noncitizens. He also accepted the state’s claim that its purging efforts are over for now.

The ruling came as part of a request by the U.S. Department of Justice, which sought a retraining order stopping the purge efforts...

“Leaving ineligible voters on the list is not a solution. Noncitizens should not be voting,” the judge said. “People need to know we are running an honest election.”

Hinkle is a Clinton appointee.

Voter Fraud Alert: North Carolina

Project Veritas, the brainchild of muckraker James O'Keefe, has done excellent work in exposing America's almost criminally lax voting procedures that are tailor-made for vote fraud. The investigation recently moved to North Carolina, which doesn't require a photo ID to vote:



The problem is hardly restricted to any one particular state. Florida officials have found over 50,000 dead people and some 180,000 non-citizens on the voting rolls.

Poll Worker Gives U.S. Attorney General's Voting Ballot to Complete Stranger

Eric Holder's politicized Justice Department is on a vendetta against laws to prevent vote fraud such as showing a government-issued picture ID at the polls. Playing the phony voter suppression card, Holder and his politicized minions claim that there is no evidence of voter fraud, despite indictments for same all over the country, most recently in Indiana (although the latter involves petition fraud).

James O'Keefe of Project Veritas shows how anyone can apparently walk in and vote in the name of none other than Eric Holder.



John Fund adds the following on National Review Online:

State Senator Harold Metts of Rhode Island got a photo-ID law put on the books in his state last year after he was told by several constituents of a pattern of voter fraud in his home town of Providence. Indeed, his own state representative and her daughter had their votes stolen by someone voting in their names in one election...Metts, the state senate’s only African-American member, says that he took a lot of heat from national Democrats for getting the ID law approved by an overwhelmingly Democratic legislature. But he says party loyalty only takes him so far. “It’s time to stop crying wolf and make the voter-ID law work for those on both sides of this issue who want to ensure the integrity of the system, while guarding against disenfranchisement.”

As one of the commenters writes under Fund's article, "It's clear to pretty much everybody that the reason the Dems are against voter ID is that they perpetrate most of the voter fraud."

Photo ID for Voting: What's Wrong with this "Picture"?

The left seem seems to be addicted to vote fraud in the same way that crackheads are drawn to the white powder.

How else to explain the all-too-predictable Justice Department blocking Texas' voter ID law for mythical violations of Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act, while a Wisconsin judge issued a ruling setting aside a similar Wisconsin law. Now the corrupt United Nations, an organization dominated by human-rights-violating dictatorships, wants to engage in a phoney-baloney investigation of U.S. photo ID laws.

Liberals worried about make-believe voter disenfranchisement cling to the fantasy that voter fraud is not a problem. Here is another video from James O'Keefe of Project Veritas that demonstrates otherwise.

Study: Nearly Two Million Dead Voters Still on Rolls

Leftists (including seemingly corrupt U.S. Justice Department officials) who claim that vote fraud isn't a problem act like isolated soldiers who many years later still haven't heard that the conflict has been settled.

The Pew Center on the States found in a new report (titled "Inaccurate, Costly, and Inefficient,") that nearly two million dead people are still registered to vote, about 24 million registrations are either "invalid or inaccurate," and 2.75 million persons who are improperly registered to vote in more than one state.

Our lax voter registration procedures are obsolete. The report maintains that "Voter registration in the United States largely reflects its 19th-century origins and has not kept pace with advancing technology and a mobile society. States’ systems must be brought into the 21st century to be more accurate, cost-effective, and efficient."
 
How about as a start deploying similar technology to that implemented by MasterCard or Visa?

The study also provides more common sense justification for photo ID in all states, as Investor's Business Daily explains:

Yet Democrats are pummeling states trying to impose picture ID laws to protect against this kind of fraud. They vetoed such laws in Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, New Hampshire and North Carolina.

The Justice Department blocked South Carolina's new photo ID law...

Democrats make two bogus arguments. First, that ballot fraud isn't "widespread" enough to merit the new requirement, as though there's such a thing as a tolerable level of fraud. Second, that picture ID laws would suppress voter turnout among minorities.

In fact, states with picture ID laws go out of their way to make sure everyone who needs an ID can get one. Plus, turnout in Indiana and Georgia swelled after their laws went into effect, and  the Supreme Court already ruled that picture ID laws don't infringe on anyone's right to vote.

Given this, it's hard to escape the conclusion that Democrats count on exploiting an inept and tattered registration system to help them win close elections. If that isn't the case, they should prove it by backing a reform that would do much to protect the sanctity of the ballot box.

Addendum: In a column about the Pew study, National Review's Deroy Murdock writes:

 For its part, President Obama’s Justice Department exacerbates these problems.

As former federal prosecutor J. Christian Adams explains in his superb book Injustice, Section 8 of the Motor Voter Act “requires voter rolls to be kept free of dead and ineligible voters.” As Justice attorneys were poised to investigate eight states rife with non-living and otherwise unqualified voters, top Obama appointees balked.

Adams heard Deputy Assistant Attorney General Julie Fernandes tell headquarters staffers in November 2009: “We have no interest in enforcing this provision of the law. It has nothing to do with increasing turnout, and we are just not going to do it.”

Non-Citizens Voting in Lee County Florida

Right-of-center politicians have to overperform in elections because Democrats tend to feast on vote fraud, which was made easier by the so-called Motor-Voter law enacted during the Clinton administration (which does not require proof of citizenship).

Cape Coral, Fla., in the Ft. Myers area, is a beautiful place to live or visit. But like communities all across the U.S., the integrity of the ballot is at risk because of lax laws and poor oversight as revealed by this local TV investigation about non-citizen voting. In the meantime, head-in-the-sand (or worse) liberals insist vote fraud isn't a problem and fight tooth and nail against reasonable photo ID requirements.

New Hampshire Primary Vote Fraud

New Hampshire's motto is "live free or die." It could also be "vote even you're dead."

In this video made on primary day, muckraker James O'Keefe reveals how easy it is to commit vote fraud in that state--and in other states that require no photo ID to vote or that fail to scrub the voter rolls of ineligible voters.

Only the Alice in Wonderland Democrats (including New Hampshire's governor who vetoed a voter ID bill) oppose reasonable efforts to prevent shenanigans at the polls.

Corrupt or incompetent state officials, aided and abetted by the U.S. Justice Department, are turning a blind eye to vote fraud--although in this case the New Hampshire attorney general claims he will conduct an investigation.



Requiring voters to show a photo ID before voting is one issue; fraud-prevention reforms also need to be made in the distribution of absentee ballots.
 

Justice Department: Vote Early, Vote Late, Vote Often

In daily life, we in general have to assume good faith in our transactions with others, otherwise as a practical matter we'll be consumed with doubt and unable to get things done.

But can anyone attribute good faith to th U.S. Justice (so-called) Department?

The latest outrage is that DOJ rejected South Carolina's voter ID law on the basis of alleged "racial disparities" according to Assistant AG Thomas Perez. Relying on the provisions of the Voting Rights Act, the agency will likely block similar measures recently enacted in other states.

This phony-baloney decision really amounts to the DOJ under Eric Holder simply wanting to make vote rigging and vote fraud easier just in time for the 2012 presidential election. Again, as we have mentioned previously, if you need to show a picture ID for mundane activities such as getting on a plane, buying booze or cigarettes, picking up a package at UPS or the Post Office, or in some cases completing a credit card transaction, why in the world should any reasonable person oppose showing a driver's license or other valid photo identification at the polls? And isn't it an insult to any individual or group to assume that they can't get it together to obtain a photo ID?

Presenting a picture ID at the polls was "endorsed by the Commission on Federal Election Reform headed by President Jimmy Carter and former Secretary of State James Baker in 2005 to protect the integrity of the ballot," the WSJ adds.

The DOJ action based on make-believe discrimination defies common sense. But it comes from the same fantasy world federal government that fails to enforce immigration law but sues states that do.

Earlier this week (before the South Carolina decision was announced, although the handwriting was on the wall), The Wall Street Journal decried Holder's use of the race card to oppose voter ID in a recent speech:

Mr. Holder says the Civil Rights Division led by Thomas Perez will review the policies and impartially "apply the law." If that's true, Mr. Perez's job should be easy: In 2005, Justice approved a nearly identical law in Georgia. In 2008's Crawford v. Marion County Election Board, the Supreme Court likewise ruled 6-3 that an Indiana law requiring photo ID at the ballot box was constitutional....

That isn't good enough for Mr. Holder, who says his department's priority is to "expand the franchise." But expand it for whom, exactly? The vast majority of voters already have the necessary photo ID, which they need to get through airport security or register for a grocery-store savings card.

Plaintiffs put up by liberal lawsuit shops routinely claim that ID laws endanger the rights of hundreds of thousands, but lawsuits in Indiana and Georgia were dismissed because they couldn't produce a single eligible voter who'd been turned away due to the ID requirement. Turnout has risen in states that have passed the voter ID laws, with no adverse impact on minorities.

Texas is apparently next on the chopping block. DOJ whistleblower J. Christian Adams recommends that "The way to save Texas voter ID is to withdraw the objection, immediately, and file in federal court on Tuesday.  The way to save South Carolina voter ID is to file in court immediately.  Stop wasting time with the corrupt leftist bureaucrats at the Justice Department."

Hopefully South Carolina, Texas, and other similar situated states will immediately use all the legal means at their disposal to overturn the DOJ bureaucracy.

ACORN Vote Fraudsters Gearing Up For 2012

Speaking of vote fraud, this report by Matthew Vadum from The American Spectator is guaranteed to make your blood boil:

Leaders of the resurrected radical group ACORN are lobbying the Obama administration in what appears to be a concerted effort to game the electoral system to help Democrats, new evidence suggests.

At least five Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now leaders have visited the White House this year alone. One of those ACORN officials has been involved in vetting Department of Justice hires who may help to enforce the voter fraud-enabling National Voting Rights Act (NVRA), also known as the Motor-Voter law. The Department has come under fire for refusing to enforce Section 8, which requires states to remove the names of ineligible felons, the dead, and non-residents from voter rolls, while zealously enforcing Section 7, which requires states to register voters at welfare offices.

Vadum adds that the ACORN-afilliated Project Vote "have filed a rash of lawsuits recently in several states in an attempt to pressure state officials into backing off investigations into voter fraud allegations."

Bill Clinton signed the Motor-Voter legislation into law.

Read the whole article here.
 

Artur Davis: Democrats Cooking the Ballot Box

Organizations similar to ACORN allied with the Democrats are likely gearing up to commit vote fraud in the 2012 election. Former Congressman Artur Davis says that the real problem in voter fraud, at least in his home state of Alabama, is in the absentee ballot process, and that no "progressive" should oppose voter ID laws.

Again, if you need to show an ID for mundane activities such as getting on a plane, buying booze or cigarettes, picking up a package at UPS or the Post Office, or in some cases completing a credit card transaction, why in the world should any reasonable person oppose showing photo identification at the polls?

Finally: A Democrat Who Supports Voter ID

What's more bogus in contemporary politics--made-up stories about Tea Party transgressions or the delusional reasons that the Democrats and the ACLU types use to justify their opposition to reasonable requirements for showing a photo ID before voting?

Former Congressman Artur Davis, a Democrat who unsuccessfully ran for Alabama governor, no longer buys into the left-wing mythology (which is just a smokescreen for voter fraud) about the latter according to this opinion piece in a Montgomery newspaper:

I've changed my mind on voter ID laws -- I think Alabama did the right thing in passing one -- and I wish I had gotten it right when I was in political office.

When I was a congressman, I took the path of least resistance on this subject for an African American politician. Without any evidence to back it up, I lapsed into the rhetoric of various partisans and activists who contend that requiring photo identification to vote is a suppression tactic aimed at thwarting black voter participation.

The truth is that the most aggressive contemporary voter suppression in the African American community, at least in Alabama, is the wholesale manufacture of ballots, at the polls and absentee, in parts of the Black Belt.

Voting the names of the dead, and the nonexistent, and the too-mentally-impaired to function, cancels out the votes of citizens who are exercising their rights -- that's suppression by any light. If you doubt it exists, I don't; I've heard the peddlers of these ballots brag about it, I've been asked to provide the funds for it, and I am confident it has changed at least a few close local election results.

To his further credit, Davis apparently was the only black Democrat to vote against Obamacare.

Did President Obama Throw His Attorney General Under the Bus?

That tiresome cliche "throwing [some specific person] under the bus" has spread like a virus. According to Wikipedia, it emerged in sports journalism in 2004 and became even more prevalent during media coverage of the 2008 presidential election cycle. The site also indicates that the expression's origins could date back to the late 1980s or early 1990s.

This CNN snippet seems to suggest that the presidential timeline doesn't match that of Attorney General Eric Holder in regard to the Fast and Furious scandal.



In the following clip, DOJ whistleblower J. Christian Adams discusses the corruption in Holder's radicalized Justice Department concerning Fast and Furious along with its unwillingness to prosecute voter intimidation and vote fraud.



[h/t Breitbart.tv]

Congress Likely to Subpoena AG Holder Over Fast and Furious

How long before Eric Holder, the U.S. Attorney General (whose politicized Justice Department refuses to prosecute voter intimidation and voter fraud), decides to spend more time with his family?





In the meantime, the LA Times reports that "High-powered assault weapons illegally purchased under the ATF's Fast and Furious program in Phoenix ended up in a home belonging to the purported top Sinaloa cartel enforcer in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, whose organization was terrorizing that city with the worst violence in the Mexican drug wars."

Tom Foley Fails The Voters Of Connecticut

Americans have a lot to be thankful for on this day.

On a macro level, the November elections halted this mad rush toward socialism (although there are rumblings about executive orders that could circumvent the will of the people).

We have to wonder how many more seats could have been won in Congress without fraud committed by ACORN wannabes and union operatives with the complicity of government officials? In a way, it's almost like an occupying army comes in and steals close elections. U.S. Department of Justice whistleblowers have testified that the agency won't enforce the section of the Voting Rights Act that requires states to remove deceased voters from the rolls or othewise lift a finger to combat ballot fraud.

For a technologically advanced, industrialized nation, the U.S. has incredibly lax registration and voting procedures that are ripe with fraud, including allowing illegal aliens to vote. One of the first orders of business for the new Congress should be to tighten procedures for voter registration and absentee ballots and to require photo ID in elections in all 50 states.

Back in September during primary season, Maryland resident Rory Cooper addressed this issue on NationalReviewOnline:

Maryland is one of 23 states that maintain the most minimal standards for voter identification, only requiring that you show ID (photo not required) when you register, and never again after that. This allows anyone who knows your full name and polling location to vote in your place with no recourse. ..

Liberals led by the ACLU, the League of Women Voters, and the NAACP contend that voter-ID requirements are designed to suppress minority and Democratic votes, but that has been proven wrong time and time again. ..

A Rasmussen poll in August 2010 found that a full 82 percent of Americans believe all voters should show photo ID before they are allowed to vote, representing a majority in every single demographic group. ..

In ruling after ruling, strict voter-ID laws have been found to be constitutional and not in violation of the Voting Rights Act. Yet that doesn’t stop liberal activist groups from spending countless court hours and taxpayer resources working towards an end goal that invites voter fraud. ..

The point here is not that people should be denied their right to vote. Quite the opposite: Legal and registered citizens should not be denied their right to have their votes fully count by illegal ballots cast mere feet away. ..

It’s time for all 50 states to have commonsense voter-ID laws that require photo identification every time you vote. It is the only way to protect the integrity and security of this sacred obligation for millions of legally registered Americans. Please, will someone check my ID?

Connecticut is fortunately on of those states in which photo ID is required. This didn't stop the Democrats from apparently stealing the governor's election in some shady activity in the city of Bridgeport, aided by an inept office of the secretary of the state. The events in Bridgeport were dirty and chaotic.

Lackluster candidate Tom Foley, who allegedly lost the election by some 6,000 votes out of about one million cast, had a solemn obligation to the voters to contest the election and get to the bottom of the vote fraud. Instead, after a few days of saber rattling, he threw in the towel, and let the voters down.

Jim Vicevich summarizes on RadioViceonline:

 So let’s see. In Bridgeport we have poll workers on tape mixing official ballots with sample ballots, voters allowed to vote who were not registered, registered voters receiving multiple ballots and what does Foley say? “So the election Tuesday, although very close, was a conclusive victory for Dan Malloy, and this result should not be questioned.” And how does Mr Foley know that the irregularities were not willfull?

...[Foely] was a rich guy looking for another title and clearly out for himself. A guy who wanted to play Governor, not be Governor. It was never about the people of this state, or the fiscal emergency facing Connecticut, it was about him, a throwback to the original elitist RINOs that we will continue to purge from the party.

Pajamas Media had a report of vote fraud in neighboring Massachusetts that was likely replicated throughout the country on November 2.

Addedendum: In the midst of all this outrage from liberals about "Tea Party" votes being responsible for Bristol Palin's ascendancy on Dancing With The Stars, the HillBuzz blog quips that Palin supporters were just doing what Democrats do in real elections!

Appeals Courts Issue Rulings on ACORN, Gay Marriage

Just when you lost all faith in the judicial system, two reasonable appeals court decisions surface. In the first, the Second Circuit upheld the ACORN funding ban:

A federal appeals court on Friday threw out a decision that had barred Congress from withholding funds from ACORN, the activist group driven to ruin by scandal and financial woes.

The ruling by the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan reversed a decision by a district court judge in Brooklyn that found Congress had violated the group's rights by punishing it without a trial.

Congress cut off ACORN's federal funding last year in response to allegations the group engaged in voter registration fraud and embezzlement and violated the tax-exempt status of some of its affiliates by engaging in partisan political activities. [AP]

Separately, the Ninth Circuit has put the trial court's Proposition 8 decision on hold while the appeal is pending. Even if you support same-sex marriage, courts often postpone enforcement of a ruling in high-profile cases during the appeal process. The Proposition 8 appeal is on a fast track, with arguments scheduled for December 6. There is also an issue of standing, i.e., which party has the legal right to appeal the judge's decision that overturned California's voter-approved same sex marriage ban:

But in what may become a crucial element in the case, the appeals court asked the ballot measure's lawyers to offer arguments on why they have the legal right to appeal when the state's top two officials, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Attorney General Jerry Brown, refuse to defend the law and say it is unconstitutional. Gay rights lawyers and San Francisco city officials have argued in court papers that the Proposition 8 campaign does not have legal standing to appeal, and Walker himself questioned whether they do in his order last week. [Mercury News]

Meg Whitman, the Republican candidate, favors civil unions but not gay marriage. She also supported Proposition 8 but has yet to take a position on whether she would defend it as governor.

DOJ Whistleblower: Justice Department is Lawless

Is anyone really surprised that the Obama is presiding over the most politicized Justice Department in history? Consider the purely political lawsuit challenging the Arizona immigration law, dropping the Philadelphia voter intimidation case despite a default judgment against the perpetrators, and now allegations that the DOJ facilitates ACORN-like vote fraud according to whistleblower J. Christian Adams, a lawyer who worked in the agency's Voting Rights section:

In November 2009, the entire Voting Section was invited to a meeting with Deputy Assistant Attorney General Julie Fernandes, a political employee serving at the pleasure of the attorney general. The purpose of the meeting was to discuss Motor Voter enforcement decisions.

The room was packed with dozens of Voting Section employees when she made her announcement regarding the provisions related to voter list integrity:

We have no interest in enforcing this provision of the law. It has nothing to do with increasing turnout, and we are just not going to do it.

Jaws dropped around the room.

It is one thing to silently adopt a lawless policy of refusing to enforce a provision of federal law designed to bring integrity to elections. It is quite another to announce the lawlessness to a room full of people who have sworn an oath to fairly enforce the law.

Adams recently gave this interview on FNC following his testimony before the U.S. Civil Rights Commission:



Should the Republicans take control of Congress after the November, one of their first legislation actions should be to require photo ID in all 50 states to vote. This in addition to requiring full enforcement of Section 8 of the Motor Voter Law.

Blatant vote fraud is what the Democrats really mean by voter "outreach." That's how "Stuart Smalley," among others got elected to Congress. Democrats want every vote counted rather than every legal vote counted. Think of it as a form of community organizing...

Addendum: The lawyer (and now federal prosecutor) who represented the American Taliban is quarterbacking the DOJ's legal effort to block Arizona's immigration law. That speaks volumes about the administration's priorities, does it not?

FBI has the Goods on ACORN Vote Fraud

We've often wondered about kind of algorithms need to be used to take vote fraud into consideration when polling organizations giv election predictions. After all, with corrupt organization like ACORN doing their bidding, phantom voting is big part of the Democrats' "get out the vote" effort. That's why they fight tough and nail (using absurd, made-up reasons) against laws that would simply require a photo ID to cast a ballot.

Via The Daily Caller, evidence has apparently come to light about ACORN vote fraud in St. Louis:

The radical activist group ACORN “works” for the Democratic Party and deliberately promotes election fraud, ACORN employees told FBI investigators, according to an FBI document dump Wednesday.

The documents obtained by Judicial Watch, a watchdog group, are FBI investigators’ reports related to the 2007 investigation and arrest of eight St. Louis, Mo., workers from ACORN’s Project Vote affiliate for violation of election laws. All eight employees involved in the scandal later pleaded guilty to voter registration fraud...

One employee told the FBI that ACORN headquarters is “wkg [working] for the Democratic Party.”

According to one report, an ACORN employee said the purpose of “[f]raudulent cards” was “[t]o cause confusion on election day to keep polls open longer,” “[t]o allow people who can’t vote to vote,” and “[t]o allow to vote multiple times.”

The organization is in the process of re-branding in many states which is not good news for anyone who believe in fair elections.

British Labor Party Accused of Ballot Stuffing

The Conservatives (a/k/a Tories) led by David Cameron are vying with the Labor Party and the Liberal Democrats for control of the British parliament in Thursday's election. The Conservatives are expected to capture the most seats in the House of Commons, but may fall short of a majority needed to elect Cameron as prime minister. Particularly in a close election of this nature, ballot security is most important.

However, in addition to a socialist agenda, the Labor Party in England and the Democrats in the U.S. share another trait: an affinity for vote fraud. The DailyMail has the story:

Voter fraud could determine the outcome of the general election as evidence emerges of massive postal vote rigging. Police have launched 50 criminal inquiries nationwide amid widespread cases of electoral rolls being packed with ‘bogus’ voters. Officials report a flood of postal vote applications in marginal seats. With the outcome of the closest election in a generation hanging in the balance, a few thousand ‘stolen’ votes there could determine who wins the keys to Downing Street...Labour supporters stand accused of packing the electoral roll at the last minute with relatives living overseas or simply inventing phantom voters.

Update: The London Times says that the a mere 16,000 votes prevented the Conservatives from winning an outright majority in parliament. As a result, they find themselves in difficult negotiations with the third-place-finishing Liberal Democrats to form a coalition government.

ACORN Gets Punked

Investigation journalism still exists, but don't look for it in the mainstream media. While most of the news agencies continues to sleep, two independent filmmakers with a hidden camera have further exposed the brazen, corrupt practices of the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN). The entire footage, which led to the firing of the ACORN officials involved, can be found on Andrew Breitbart's BigGovernment.com website.

Now comes word that the Census Bureau, who previously said that ACORN was peachy keen, has decided against doing business with ACORN for the 2010 population count.

ACORN is under investigation on the state level in many jurisdictions for voter registration fraud in the 2008 election cycle, but we need a comprehensive (not ceremonial) federal investigation of this so-called community organization by Congress and the U.S. Justice Department. In the meantime, the spigot of taxpayer funding for this crooked enterprise must be turned off immediately.

Something Fishy Going On

Obama supporter Camille Paglia, the scholar and culture critic, insists she has no buyer's remorse but still concludes that the healthcare reform effort is a "clunker":

Case in point: the administration's grotesque mishandling of healthcare reform, one of the most vital issues facing the nation. Ever since Hillary Clinton's megalomaniacal annihilation of our last best chance at reform in 1993 (all of which was suppressed by the mainstream media when she was running for president), Democrats have been longing for that happy day when this issue would once again be front and center.

But who would have thought that the sober, deliberative Barack Obama would have nothing to propose but vague and slippery promises -- or that he would so easily cede the leadership clout of the executive branch to a chaotic, rapacious, solipsistic Congress? House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, whom I used to admire for her smooth aplomb under pressure, has clearly gone off the deep end with her bizarre rants about legitimate town-hall protests by American citizens. She is doing grievous damage to the party and should immediately step down.

There is plenty of blame to go around. Obama's aggressive endorsement of a healthcare plan that does not even exist yet, except in five competing, fluctuating drafts, makes Washington seem like Cloud Cuckoo Land. The president is promoting the most colossal, brazen bait-and-switch operation since the Bush administration snookered the country into invading Iraq with apocalyptic visions of mushroom clouds over American cities.

You can keep your doctor; you can keep your insurance, if you're happy with it, Obama keeps assuring us in soothing, lullaby tones. Oh, really? And what if my doctor is not the one appointed by the new government medical boards for ruling on my access to tests and specialists? And what if my insurance company goes belly up because of undercutting by its government-bankrolled competitor? Face it: Virtually all nationalized health systems, neither nourished nor updated by profit-driven private investment, eventually lead to rationing.

I just don't get it. Why the insane rush to pass a bill, any bill, in three weeks? And why such an abject failure by the Obama administration to present the issues to the public in a rational, detailed, informational way? The U.S. is gigantic; many of our states are bigger than whole European nations. The bureaucracy required to institute and manage a nationalized health system here would be Byzantine beyond belief and would vampirically absorb whatever savings Obama thinks could be made. And the transition period would be a nightmare of red tape and mammoth screw-ups, which we can ill afford with a faltering economy.

Paglia is amazed how the tribunes of civil liberties became mute despite fishy White House privacy invasions:

But somehow liberals have drifted into a strange servility toward big government, which they revere as a godlike foster father-mother who can dispense all bounty and magically heal all ills. The ethical collapse of the left was nowhere more evident than in the near total silence of liberal media and Web sites at the Obama administration's outrageous solicitation to private citizens to report unacceptable "casual conversations" to the White House. If Republicans had done this, there would have been an angry explosion by Democrats from coast to coast. I was stunned at the failure of liberals to see the blatant totalitarianism in this incident, which the president should have immediately denounced. His failure to do so implicates him in it.

Along similar lines, media pundit Monica Crowley detects the new-found disrespect by the ruling party in Washington for grassroots activities:

It is laughably absurd for liberals to attack Americans for exercising their First Amendment rights, when they have organized the following: massive protests that shut down college campuses and, indeed, entire cities during the Vietnam War; marched en masse during the nuclear-freeze movement in the 1980s; organized corporate shakedowns to force race-based initiatives; set up a lawn-chair village outside President George W. Bush's Crawford, Texas, ranch during the Iraq war -- and disrupted congressional hearings, got in the face (literally) of Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, and called Gen. David H. Petraeus "General Betray Us"; and orchestrated nationwide vote fraud by the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now and voter intimidation by the New Black Panther Party in Philadelphia. (I could go on, but The Washington Times is only so many pages long.)

So the masters of the organized protest hate it when protesters organize against them.