I’ll take a slightly less suspicious stance than Lee on the remarkable turn-around we saw yesterday in the Wisconsin Supreme court race.
People make mistakes. All the time.
The whole idea of canvassing under the scrutiny of public observers is to figure out the intentions of every single voter, and make sure the votes are counted correctly. Shit happens…tallies change. Yesterday we learned that, because of a data entry error in a Republican-leaning county, Prosser was shorted some 7,582 votes in his contest with Kloppenburg.
Do I believe it? Yes, I do.
Seriously…I believe a whole string of innocent human errors are a far more parsimonious explanation than systematic voter fraud, lying, deceit, ballot stuffing, etc. for the plethora of vote changes that have occurred over the last two days Yeah…I believe that—even when the conservative nut-cases come out ahead—it is true until concrete evidence shows elsewise.
So…to paraphrase the words of an overrated person with senile dementia who was once was propped up as “President,” “I’ll trust, but please verify.”
And sure…the most likely outcome of this election isn’t nearly as satisfying as we thought two days ago, but it really doesn’t change what I said on Wednesday:
So, who really wins…Workers or Walker? Given the closeness of this race, it will be hard for either side to make too much over the eventual winner. That said, the expectation that a incumbent should win such a race means that a Kloppenburg win, and maybe even a very close loss, provides modest evidence that Wisconsin voters have joined with their Milwaukee county brethren to give Gov. Walker a collective thumbs down.
If one recognizes the fact that Prosser dominated with a 2:1 margin over Kloppenburg in the four-way primary, only to have that margin cut down to a slim advantage in the general election…yeah, I can find solace in that as the outcome.
All that aside, check this out:
The Brookfield bombshell was the biggest – but hardly the only – change as counties across the state checked their election results Tuesday. Here’s a sample:
- In Winnebago County, officials now say Prosser received 20,701 votes to Kloppenburg’s 18,887. On Wednesday, The Associated Press – which gathers the votes for most of the media in Wisconsin – had 19,991 for Prosser to Kloppenburg’s 18,421.
- In Kenosha, Prosser picked up 33 votes in the Town of Randall and 27 votes in the Town of Bristol, and the canvass is still going on.
- In Waukesha County, Prosser also picked up 200 votes in New Berlin after a clerical error was discovered.
- In Grant County, Prosser lost 116 votes when officials completed their canvass Thursday. The count was off in part because the Town of Smelser incorrectly reported the count for paper ballots that voters cast after the regular ballots ran out, County Clerk Linda Gebhardt said. The town reported 294 votes for Prosser, but later corrected the figure to 194.
The list of changes rolled on in county after county…
Let me ask you. If these discrepancies were reported to advantage the (perceived) Democrat, what do you s’pose would happen?
Yeah…the Wingnut spin machine would go absolutely, fucking, out-of-their-gourd bonkers! They would go on a witch hunt against anyone and everyone who made “hostile” corrections to the vote tallies. They would launch a holy crusade against Democratic stronghold counties, ACORN, Planned Parenthood, NPR, George Soros, Michael Fox, the Clintons and certain Teletubbies. We’d hear about roving bands of ballot-stuffers, mailbox dwellers, illegal alien voters, Black Panther intimidators, and Democrat-loving felons voters.
We’d hear references Dean Logan ad nauseum.
In other words, the apoplectic right-wing propagandists would do everything they could do to stir up negative emotions by undermining our system of elections. They would consider their victory so important that they would fabricate lies and hatred about our elections process. (You know…kind-of like Hitler would do.)
You ask how I can make such a claim—practically calling ’em traitors? Because that is what they did in 2004 in Washington state. And then, again, in 2008 in Minnesota. You know, like the 157 different “findings of fact” alleged by Coleman, of which, ohhh…all 157 were tossed out by the courts. The Coleman’s people (like Rossi’s) made the calculation that grasping for a win—even at the cost of damaging our democracy—was more important than truth and reality.
So I will maintain the dignified stance that this Wisconsin election is typical—clean, overall, but with a few errors along the way that can and will (rightfully) be corrected.
And the next time the Democrats squeak one out and some right-wing asshole starts trashing our Democracy and promoting doubts about our electoral system…I may have to shoot him in the fucking head.
Or her.
And what might have been the Dem response had Prosser been behind after the canvassing and certification, and then requested a recount in only four right-leaning counties?
Since you seem to be bringing past behavior by GOP interests in unrelated elections into this mix, I think it’s a fair question to pose in reply.
Yeah…the Wingnut spin machine would go absolutely, fucking, out-of-their-gourd bonkers! They would go on a witch hunt against anyone and everyone who made “hostile” corrections to the vote tallies. They would launch a holy crusade against Democratic stronghold counties, ACORN, Planned Parenthood, NPR, George Soros, Michael Fox, the Clintons and certain Teletubbies. We’d hear about roving bands of ballot-stuffers, mailbox dwellers, illegal alien voters, Black Panther intimidators, and Democrat-loving felons voters.
We’d hear references Dean Logan ad nauseum
So in other words they would act like union members at a protest? Besides the fact that all of the above actually happened. Hey
dipshits, there is no more money! What part
are you having trouble with? The union
extortion is coming to an end! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
I hope the economy gets way worse so we can get rid of all the dead weight! HAHAHAHAHAHAHA
I agree, sometimes shit just happens..doesn’t mean it’s some kind of fraud. I mean, Kloppenburg and the Democrats have people on the ground there too, overseeing this process..
Ramona Kitzinger, the Democratic member of the county board of canvass had this to say:
“Everything that we went over yesterday afternoon and today, it jived up, and we’re satisfied that it’s correct. And I’m with the Democratic Party, vice-chair of Waukesha County, so i’m not gonna stand here and tell you something that’s incorrect.”
Seems like every election nowadays, one side or the other is screaming about election fraud. Very little of it is based on fact. Mostly just hysterics from sore losers.
For most people, both sides have cried wolf too many times to take any of these stolen election claims seriously..
I believe it was Napoleon Bonaparte that said: “Never ascribe to malice, that which can be explained by incompetence.”
So, now we have an entirely incompetent system of governance, delivered through a decrepit and vandalized education system that has been systematically defunded over several generations.
And the Conservatives celebrate their success in eliminating the educated classes, and celebrate their incompetence, and celebrate their victories over the piles of ashes they created for the majority of Americans to sift through for the scraps. While their Corporate owners light cigars with $100 bills and complain about how much of their money they have to hand to the government after getting back more than they put in.
Then they blame the family living under a bridge, in a cardboard box for ruining the economy.
Some folks find it very difficult to be 100% confident that Barack Obama was actually born in the United States. In that spirit I find it very difficult to be 100% certain that the Republicans didn’t steal this election. I think the jury’s still out and will be for a long, long time.
I remember back in 2004 the bleats from the right were that “mistakes” could only mean one thing:
Fraud.
Now we hear “simple clerical errors” – that just happen to be greater than the 7400 vote margin that would require the State to pay for a recount.
Indeed “it” happens.
Nickolaus: I forgot to save (sniff, gurgle)..
Just count the votes.
Journal Sentinel: Officials dispute reliability of Waukesha County clerk’s election data system
drip, drip, drip…
Infosec?
drip, drip, drip…
Nickolaus said that she has the statutory responsibility for elections
Darn those pesky statutory rules set by legislatures elected by the people! Why can’t things change fluidly so that liberals always get what they want? Life is SO unfair.
Wow Bob is furiously using name calling and other forms of ridicule and handing out orders to discredit any skepticism.
Methinks Bob doth protest too much.
Actually, the discrediting was already done by one of yours:
http://dyn.politico.com/prints.....3846CF6EEA
when Kloppenburg held her short-lived lead.
Live by the pen……..
@12, Underinformed again. The Heritage Foundation and John Fund from the Wall St. Urinal were already claiming Dem voter fraud shortly after the polls closed Tuesday.
12 – Hmmm. Now he’s using divide and conquer..
We’re all getting a Rovian playbook lesson here.
Very enlightening indeed..
http://thinkprogress.org/2011/.....-or-idiot/
Hmmmmm…nothing “fishy” here…nahhhhhhhhh.
Great analysis. It would be interesting to know what made the difference for Prosser in the end, despite the change in prospects for the election from before Walker’s union-killing campaign.
There is no indication that this is anything other than deliberate electoral fraud.
It’s hard to ignore this particular election supervisor’s very partisan leanings, her very checkered past, her very close ties to Prosser, and her previous involvement in GOP corruption. These 7,500 ballots are just too convenient to not receive the utmost investigative scrutiny.
@7 I agree, go back and HAND COUNT every single one of Waukesha County’s votes. Even if Nikolaus isn’t a crook and liar — which she almost certainly is — at the very least she herself has just demonstrated that her management of the election office is, at best, incredibly sloppy.
Darryl may be experiencing mental health issues. Can a blogger “go postal”? I am pleased to note that the lefty unions and other un-American groups poured millions of dollars into this race and got…SHIT! Couldn’t have happened to a more deserving set of horsesass-holes.
Hey Roger:
If Prosser wins is the election still a referendum on Walker, as you stated when Kloppenburg held that short-lived, hair-thin lead?
in this instance Lee, you are correct. when they go thru the process to reconcile votes received with voters given creit for voting, we will know for sure.
in washington in 2004, this process did not exist and was apparently not required. when you have more votes received in a precindt than voters credited for voting, what is the explanation? Without the detailed reconciliation process, ballot-box stuffing and unstuffing can happen. no other explanation really. This still isn’t over, but I believe they have a very detailed reconciliation process in Wisconsin.
good insight, including the fact that republican’s would go nuts if it swung the other way.
devil is in the details. either the votes not counting election night were legit or not. need to prove which ones specifically were not legit to have a legal challenge.
@17:
The very clear statement by the county Dem co-chair at the press conference yesterday that it was a simple error in tabulation, and that she agrees with the corrected data, is really all the evidence you should need.
Nate Silver sees nothing amiss in the explanation:
http://fivethirtyeight.blogs.n.....onspiracy/
Oh, and the city’s results were posted on AOL news the night of the election.
Although you might have a different definition of the word ‘evidence’, I suppose.
I’d say RECOUNT but it’s a hard call to make – maybe we should keep our powder dry and let this one slide and focus on the recall of the union busting WI Senators and the idiot tool of a Governor.
Hmmmm. Reminiscent of Glen Beck’s “shoot in the head” fantasy perhaps? Oh excuse me. That Mount Vernon tool is yesterday’s news now.
A new fear-monger will take his place soon I’m sure.
@24
I think saving the cash for something you might prevail doing makes sense.
Assuming the WI law is enacted, dues to unions there will plummet, as they did in IN. Fight the fights you can win.
Would be interesting to see a comparison of Prosser’s vote % in each legislative district, compared with Walker’s gubernatorial vote %. It might not be hard to get a senator subject to a recall if only 25% of the electorate needs to sign up to do it, but in a recall election that senator would likely still take a majority of the vote. Just because a recall is held doesn’t mean it will be successful. Don’t know how many swing district state senators there are in WI but I bet not many. Kloppenburg did not do well outside of Dane County and parts of Milwaukee. What she claimed about statewide support is not supported by the tally.
@25…
Nineteen previously “Walker” counties fliped to Kloppenburg.
Expect four State Senators to be recalled.
@26 Thanks for the info. Have a link to that?
Easy to find man…go get it.
@26 Never mind. Found a nice map at :
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/.....45612.html
As I recall, Slade Gorton took 34 of 39 counties and still lost to Cantwell in ’00. So winning a number of sparsely populated counties only gets one so far.
I would expect between 0 and 1 GOP state senators to lose in a recall scenario in WI, overall. Expecting four is like expecting there will be 65 US Dem senators in 2013. Possible but, come on………
Well, if I were a Republican (thank all that exists that I am not) I would probably ask for a hand recount of all the votes from that particular city.
I’d figure the votes were so heavily in favor of Prosser that a hand recount would do nothing more than prove to everyone it was just a clerical error. That way, none of Prosser’s decisions would have the possible taint of election fraud associated with them.
If it isn’t done, the specter of a recall election every time he does something unpopular is a very real concern.
@29
Those four state senators represent and are elected by the counties that flipped, they are not state wide offices. Gorton was running for US Senator and required a majority from all of the state.
@29 We’ll see. You’re talking about replacing incumbents, and it isn’t just the GOP senators subject to recall elections. From what I read only two petition efforts, one by each party, have reached the threshold necessary to force a recall election. You aren’t there, yet.
@21 Yes, it would be, and even if Prosser ekes out a narrow victory the results would confirm what all the recent Wisconsin polls show: that Walker and his party have lost a lot of support. There’s going to be an opportunity to test this soon, as it’s already apparent that at least two recall petitions against GOP senators are assured of making it onto the ballot. How those recall elections turn out will give us all a good indication of how well Walker’s circus act is playing with Wisconsin voters.
But I think that, based on what is currently known about Nickolaus and her background, those supposed “new” Waukesha ballots have to be deemed extremely suspect at this point.
@32…
NO Wisconsin Demo State Senators have recall petitions filed yet. Your handlers are giving you bad numbers.
I don’t know what type of voting equipment Waukesha County uses, but unless there are verifiable and countable paper ballots, those newly discovered votes clearly should not be counted and I can already visualize the court challenge against them.
What we already know for certain is that Nickolaus ignored instructions given to her by the state, took Waukesha County’s vote tallying system off the county computer system and put it on three stand-alone PCs, and used a single password for accessing those PCS that several people had. All of this points to a concerted scheme to erase the paper trail and put Waukesha’s vote tallying beyond the reach of verification and accountability.
As another poster here has pointed out, Nickolaus also lied in her press conference about how these alleged ballots came to be “overlooked” in the original count; the software program on those computers — the ubiquitous Microsfoft Excel program millions of people are familiar with — simply doesn’t work the way she claimed it does.
In short, these “ballots” reek, they stink, this thing smells a whole lot like electoral fraud.
In particular, if Waukesha County uses electronic voting machines without paper backup, it would be a simple matter for a partisan Republican operative with a history of personal dishonesty — which is exactly what Nickolaus is, and probably has an awful lot to do with how she got that job — to alter the tallies in those PCs, then claim some ballots weren’t counted, and there would be absolutely no way to verify that the new numbers weren’t simply manufactured on a keyboard after the election results were in — and, in fact, that’s exactly what it looks like.
So, Bob (and the rest of you trolls), don’t get too smug about the “new” election results just yet — it’s a dead certainty there’s going to be an investigation. Even though there’s a very high probability of Republican election fraud here, the GOP still might get away with that — all they need is a partisan judge to give them the decision they want when the case hits the courts, which it almost certainly will. So, the GOP may yet save their puppet judge’s skin, and their razor-thin majority on the state supreme court.
But do you really think all of this will go unnoticed by the Wisconsin electorate? The GOP’s reputation in that state is already destroyed. They may win the battle, but politics is a never-ending war, and these shenanigans are likely to be very costly to the GOP farther down the road. Not the least of the consequenes of these cynical, Machievellian maneuverings is that they’re turning tens of thousands of gape-mouthed young people and college students into lifelong Democrats.
@33 RR
The Waukesha ballots are not ‘new’. They were reported numbers Tuesday night – AOL news, for one. They just didn’t make it onto the county-wide tally the first time. It’s not like some guy was driving around with 14,000 ballots in the back of his Toyota.
You would prefer, instead, to believe the entire city of Brookfield, WI didn’t bother to vote? ’cause the initial tally had that city’s totals as ‘0’.
Would it make more sense to you if the clerk responsible was a Dem?
@36…
Your arguement is leaking.
If you are voting for right wing authoritarians, and the authoritarians win — that does not mean that YOU are now making the rules. You’ve just put yourself and everyone else in the same lousy situation.
@32 Yep, and both of those petitions are against REPUBLICAN state senators. If I may add to what Rujax said, saying you’re going to go after Democratic senators and actually getting the signatures are two different things. Everything in this picture — the 85,000 demonstrates in the Capitol, recent polls, how quickly two of the recall campaigns against Repbulicans got their signatures, the apparent rejection of a Republican supreme court judge by voters — demonstrate that the unpopular party in Wisconsin right now is NOT the Democrats.
I am still selling tissues to all the cryers..step right up – I am only marking them up 200%….hey man, a brotha’s gotta make some coin doesnt he?
get them while you can…they are selling fast.
@36 If these are paper ballots, not blips on electronic voting machines, then it’s simple: Count the ballots, one by one, by hand, under the watchful eyes of observers from both parties. Then there will be no question about the vote count and no taint hanging over the election outcome. Of course Brookfield voters’ votes should count — if they’re really voters’ votes. As I said above, I don’t know whether Waukesha County uses paper ballots or electronic voting machines. If the former, then resolving this is easy. If 14,000 “votes” based on unverifiable blips on electronic voting machines abruptly appeared the day after the election, then it’s obvious they shouldn’t be counted because it’s impossible to verify they were actual votes cast by actual voters.
hey everybody!
Dean Logan just called! He said to check behind the soda pop machine at the local DNC office – he said something about a box of votes that are prepped and ready to go.
Not sure what he meant, but he said everything has been taken care of and not to worry.
Oh, and Dean says “hi” to everyone.
Just IMAGINE the Glen Beck show is the Republican was winning and this swung in favor of the Democrat like this (and a Democrat was running the vote count). ROTFLMAO
It’s probably just an innocent mistake. The recount will help I’m sure.
Look even IF it turns out to be a 51% win for the conservative there, instead of a 49.99% loss…the point is still the same. He was ahead by 30% or more UNTIL he was painted as Scott Walkers bitch. This is HOW unpopular Walker is…go figure.
A quick Google search indicates Waukesha County uses Sequoia touch-screen voting machines and has a history of voting irregularities under Nickolaus’ management.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/.....sha-County
The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, Wisconsin’s largest newspaper (and Republican-leaning), ran an article in August 2010 that said:
“Waukesha – The County Board’s Executive Committee has ordered an audit of the county clerk’s election equipment and system … despite several memos she sent to the committee over the weekend defending her practices and resisting the move.
“County Clerk Kathy Nickolaus has maintained that as the one in charge of elections, she is responsible for the security and operation of the system. However, other county officials say they worry about the integrity of … the system she’s using and whether she has adequate backup.
“County Corporation Counsel Thomas Farley told the committee Monday that as an elected official with responsibility for elections, ‘If she wants to keep everything secret, she probably can. I don’t know if that’s wise or what she should do, but if she wants to and the public is satisfied that … they want someone who keeps everything secret – that’s up to them.’ …
“Director of Administration Norman A. Cummings said Nickolaus has been uncooperative with attempts to have information technologists review the system and confirm the backups.
“He said … he wants to know whether the system is functional and secure …. ‘It is not a good idea to have one person in charge of everything,’ Cummings told the committee. “There … should be more accountability than there is now.’
http://www.jsonline.com/news/w.....90299.html
In short, the more we learn about these Waukesha County ballots, the more suspect they look.
State election officials have ordered an investigation.
http://www.jsonline.com/newswatch/119486574.html
yep…as predicted, here comes the left wing spin designed to cast doubt – brought to you by Roger Bunny…
this is going to be so fun to watch.
BTW, LOVED those posts you did on Wednesday – how does it feel to own yourself….repeatedly!
In Other News …
Although Republican voting fraud in Wisconsin is getting the attention today, plenty of other things are still going on in the world. To wit:
The CEO of JP Morgan Chase got a 1,500% pay raise this year. America’s working families? Not so much. Wisconsin public workers? They took an 8% pay cut. But what the hell, the bankers want to maintain their lifestyle, whether they deserve it or not.
Germany’s utility industry association says it wants to completely phase out that country’s nuclear power plants by 2020.
On the heels of WikiLeaks’ revelation two months ago that Saudi Arabia may have overstated its oil reserves by 300 billion barrels, the Saudis have just announced they plan to invest $100 billion in alternative energy sources such as wind and solar, presumably for their domestic needs. This doesn’t look so good for future oil supply and gasoline prices.
Discussion of technical issues, here. Impounding Ms. Nickolaus’s computer would seem an appropriate step.
@46 I just report facts. I don’t create them. It’s not my fault this election has been tainted by questionable ballot counts from a county elections department run by a secretive Republican operative with a history of involvement in corruption who refused to follow state guidelines designed to ensure the integrity of elections and that those questionable ballots benefit her former boss. If you don’t want to look like you’re stealing elections for your political buddies, then don’t act as though you are.
@48 The U.S. Attorney has already been asked to do that — before she can destroy evidence.
Okay, Darryl, I’ll try to be reasonable and accept that no process is perfect, although I remain awfully suspicious that all the “errors” are falling in Prosser’s favor.
I am a strong believer in counting ALL the votes and counting them accurately, so I’ll watch to make sure that is done correctly, within a reasonable degree of effectiveness. I’m encouraged that it looks like most of the votes have a paper trail which can be used to verify the process.
But remember the saying: “Just because you are paranoid doesn’t mean that there aren’t really people out to get you” (source unkown).
And what might have been the Dem response had Prosser been behind after the canvassing and certification, and then requested a recount in only four right-leaning counties?
1. That would depend on how many lickspittle we had on the Supreme Court…or..
2. Given what we now know how that would have turned out if they did so, I’d say, “Count ’em.”
RR at 15: Okay, the state attorney has been requested to impound the evidence. Which means we probably have at least 24 hours between the time the error was announced, and the computer is seized by deputies.
Somehow, I wouldn’t be surprised at all if an 18 minute gap didn’t show up somewhere on that hard drive.
(for those too young to remember, google “watergate tapes”).
RHP sounds like a birther!
re 46: “…designed to cast doubt.”
Sequoia Systems is owned by the Venezuelan government. You can’t get any more upright than that, can you?
U.S. Investigates Voting Machines’ Venezuela Tie
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10.....allot.html
“The federal government is investigating the takeover last year of a leading American manufacturer of electronic voting systems by a small software company that has been linked to the leftist Venezuelan government of President Hugo Chávez.”
Yep. Republicans in bed with the Hugoistas. Figures.
News sources (e.g., Reuters) report that certification of Wisconsin’s disputed supreme court election has been put on hold while authorities investigate suspicious GOP ballots from Waukesha County.
54: Flag on play, logical fallacy. Improper (false) equivilency used.
The Nixon tapes had an 18-minute gap which Nixon’s loyal secretary, Rosemary Woods, explained as the accidental pressing of a delete button and a foot pedal while simultaneously taking a phone call. When called upon to demonstrate how that could happen, the contortionist pose just brought laughter, later called the “Rosemary Stretch”. It turned out that phone logs showed she couldn’t have been on the phone for more than five of the eighteen minutes. Nobody ever found out what was on those eighteen minutes of tape. But given Nixon’s proven record of lying, and the manner in which he fought for years to prevent the release of the tapes, it’s more likely than not that the “gap” in the tapes was intentional.
@58, rhp: I doubt he (it) is capable of understanding what you just said, but thanks anyway.
Just another steaming pile of dog shit looking for a shoe…
Aaaaah.. Science marches on!
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/201.....ves-study/
Wait,
There is still time for the Wisconsin Democrats and their union handlers to steal another election!
BTW The Mediterranean is very beautiful
“Liberals have more gray matter in a part of the brain associated with understanding complexity, while the conservative brain is bigger in the section related to processing fear, said the study on Thursday in Current Biology.”
Why is it then that all these liberal union
workers are having so much trouble understanding that there is no more money?
It’s not that complex.
Yeah money has a tendency to “vanish” when Governors and legislators pass tax cuts (WI) or are scared to death of reforming the tax system (WA).
Sooner or later you run out of other peoples’ money.
64 – Yeah. Hedge fund managers know that only too well.
Didn’t the first biennial budget increase 35% or so after Gregoire’s ascendancy to the governorship? Wasn’t there a very clear warning by those opposed that it was not sustainable?
Well, the warning proved correct.
Slight correction to 65:
Hedge fund manager, i.e. “the job creators” know that only too well.
@66
thats something that the tax hungry leftists continue to ignore.
hows the crying coming along ladies?
YLBleeders vagina must be aching…
69 – Bob might be interested in the ‘ass-pounding‘ you felt as Dino Lossi’d for the third time.
It gets better…
Wisconsin State Journal, link.
Gee, even King 5 News was reporting last night that the current cuts to the U.W. budget puts the state funding of that institution at it’s lowest level in 20 years.
Think about it. How much have prices increased in the past twenty years?
Repblicans and the tax-cut fanatics (i.e., Tim Eyman, etc.) are, simply, trying to privatize this once-fine public institution. But they don’t want to pay the incredible cost for actually buying the land, buildings, infrastructure, federal grant funding, etc. They just want to have taxes cut and admissions go up just enough so there are fewer “riff-raff” attending, opening up slots for those who can use their tax money to pay the higher admissions fees. It’s really much like tuition vouchers, except on a higher-income scale.
One of the reasons they are so determined and upset about the current state of affairs is that their little Johnny and Mary can’t get into the U.W. despite having a solid 2.5 G.P.A. Their outrage is escalated when they happen to drive through the U-District and see all those “Asians”, whom they presume to be “foreigners” taking away the admissions slots to which Johnny and Mary are “entitled” as descendents of two white Anglo-Saxon protestant parents who have been paying sales taxes in the state for the past fifteen years. Well, except for the motor home which is registered to their shell corporation in Oregon, and the furnishings and artwork for their remodel project, which they purchased online to avoid the sales tax, etc.
They figure if they can’t get the Asians and Hispanics (which they presume to be illegal) excluded based on race or nationality, maybe just enough can be pushed aside by the higher tuition rates that Johnny and Mary can get in.
After all, if the low-income and “foreigners” are really that smart, they can get scholarships, right? Isn’t that the way it is supposed to work – rich white students should get into the U.W. with a 2.5 G.P.A., but lower-income whites and “foreigners” should have to compete for scholarships with 3.9 G.P.A. or better?
Does it take a 2/3 ‘supermajority’ to pass tax cuts?
“Yeah…the Wingnut spin machine would go absolutely, fucking, out-of-their-gourd bonkers!”
Have they ever stopped?