Cobb

"I might go incognegro..."

LOL

I'm not worried in the least about having my vote suppressed. I tend to believe lot's of folks have their votes thrown out. And let's not forget about all those folks who don't even exist that get to vote,so it balances out. Senator botox is just trying to get the ISM mongers on the war path. This moron will do anything,to keep from dicussing issues.

. . . to keep from dicussing issues.

They're both morons in that respect.

I'll differ with you, Cobb, in that I think that voter suppression is a big deal, and in that I don't think it really happens much if at all. What I've seen points to the greater likelihood of widespread fraud, in which people vote twice, vote in elections they aren't entitled to vote in, and vote dead people's names. This kind of thing disenfranchises all of us, and I'd like to see it gone after much more vigorously than it is. For example, can someone tell me why it's so oppressive to ask a voter to show some ID? People don't drive to the polls with their driver's license in their pocket? - and before you say I'm saying "let them eat cake", I'm talking about my neighbor up the street who does drive her own car, and who threw a FIT at the polling place where my husband worked when asked to show ID. He vouched for her but was kind of embarrassed to admit he knew her after the scene she made. What's up with that? If it's so dadgum important to somebody that they vote, why can't they get ID?

Interestingly, in NC precinct workers are not allowed to ask for ID, even your voter registration card. You merely have to tell them your address and birthdate and name in order to recieve a ballot.

Your comment is straight up old school. I remember Albert Murray saying something very similar in one conversation or another.

But here is the question.

Albert Murray is old enough to have been eligible (race excepted) in the Jim Crow South. Did HE vote? If he didn't, why didn't he?

The answer, in my mind, speaks to the centrality of the federal government in protecting our right to vote. And in as much as it behooves Republican operatives to suppress Democratic votes, our balls (AND OVARIES) might not do the job. MAYBE if the opposing force carries a badge. But NOT if it is Diebold.

I think that if blackfolks or any folks has some kind of referendum or policy mandate that some presidential candidate had met with them and confirmed, the wild horses couldn't hold them from the polls.

But is this a vote just to prove that you can vote? That's the import of Kerry's promise. Vote for me and I will do everything I can do to insure that you vote. And if you eyeball what Democrats have been doing to suppress any votes for Nader, you realize the pot is calling the kettle black.

People just have to decide for themselves that the vote is worth having, but I don't believe that there is a clear enough black policy agenda - which is to say that niether candidate has any genuine response to a genuine agenda. In that regard Democrats needn't be proactive in attracting whatever black vote there is to be had. This election defaults to the same terms as Kennedy's.

I think that if blackfolks or any folks has some kind of referendum or policy mandate that some presidential candidate had met with them and confirmed, the wild horses couldn't hold them from the polls.

But would they be able to vote?

Take your typology of racism and apply it to voting. There are going to be low level very visible forms of voter intimidation that only go on (now) in environments of black disempowerment. Police blockades and the like. This is the type of stuff folks like you and I can laugh off. No blockade is going to keep me from voting.

But then there is the other stuff. State governments giving urban areas less money to administer elections than they give suburban areas (Ashcroft in Missouri). Which means longer lines at the polls...which means (without court intervention) fewer votes.

We can't just talk about "black people voting" here. Because, truth be told, there was NEVER a time in which "black people" couldn't vote. Even in the deep south, there were always a few. Literally one or two per municipality perhaps, but they were there.

Given what happened in 2000, I am surprised we're talking about this. Kerry is doing exactly what I would do in this case. Emphasize and re-emphasize the travesty of Florida, Missouri, and other states like them.