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BoneKracker
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Joined: 14 Mar 2006
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Location: U.S.A.
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 Posted: Tue Sep 11, 2012 5:12 am Post subject: Obama To Soldiers Overseas: No Voting For You! |
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| Quote: | Military: The administration thanks the troops for their service by failing to comply with a law requiring that it help soldiers deployed overseas cast ballots in their home states.
The administration has taken various states to court to block voter ID laws on the grounds it will disenfranchise voters. But it has no qualms about the disenfranchisement of military voters overseas through its failure to comply with and enforce the Military and Overseas Voter Empowerment (MOVE) Act, passed by Congress in 2009 and signed into law by President Barack Obama.
The law acknowledges the difficulties caused by time and distance for deployed soldiers in exercising the right to vote they put their lives on the line to protect. One of the key provisions required each military branch to create an installation voting assistance office (IVAO) for every military base outside an immediate combat zone.
Last week, however, the Pentagon's inspector general reported that attempts to locate and contact IVAO offices at overseas military installations failed about half the time.
"Results were clear. Our attempts to contact IVAOs failed about 50% of the time," the inspector general reported. "We concluded the Services had not established all the IVAOs as intended by the MOVE Act because, among other issues, the funding was not available."
The estimated cost of establishing functioning IVAOs at all overseas military bases not in combat zones is estimated at between $15 million and $20 million a year. We wasted $530 million on Solyndra but can't afford a relative pittance to ensure our soldiers are not disenfranchised.
An administration that constantly talks about voter disenfranchisement appears unconcerned that a study by the nonpartisan Military Voters Protection Project found that in 2008 less than 20% of 2.5 million military voters successfully voted by absentee ballot. In 2010, that participation shrank to a scandalous 5%. We need to encourage military voting and make it easier.
Is there a method in the administration's madness, a reason it doesn't want to make it easier for soldiers to vote? It couldn't possibly have anything to do with the fact that John McCain won 54% of the military vote in 2008 or that a May 2012 Gallup poll showed Mitt Romney pulling 58% to President Obama's paltry 34%.
The law also requires that states mail absentee ballots to their servicemen 45 days before an election so there's enough time to return and count them. The Department of Justice can file suit to ensure compliance but in 2010 was content to grant failing states waivers. As a result, about one-third of overseas troops who wanted to vote in 2010 couldn't, according to testimony at a House committee hearing in February.
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http://news.investors.com/ibd-editorials/090712-624998-obama-ignores-military-absentee-voting-problems.htm
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Clad in Sky
l33t
Joined: 04 May 2007
Posts: 657
Location: Germany
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| Posted: Tue Sep 11, 2012 6:08 am Post subject: |
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That is indeed an issue.
Especially letting them vote by mail shouldn't be a problem.
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Now it's autumn of the aeons
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Now it's time for the harvest |
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GabrielYYZ
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Joined: 03 May 2012
Posts: 5
Location: Dominican Republic
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| Posted: Tue Sep 11, 2012 6:20 am Post subject: |
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I seriously don't get this (as an outsider looking in)...
If the SEALs kill bin laden, Obama can't take credit for being under his administration that it happened. But, if the pentagon can't do its job and get the military to vote, then Obama must surely carry the burden of the blame.
Maybe i don't get it 'cause i'm not American?  |
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sikpuppy
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Joined: 12 Jun 2012
Posts: 23
Location: Central Coast, NSW
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| Posted: Tue Sep 11, 2012 6:43 am Post subject: |
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| GabrielYYZ wrote: | I seriously don't get this (as an outsider looking in)...
If the SEALs kill bin laden, Obama can't take credit for being under his administration that it happened. But, if the pentagon can't do its job and get the military to vote, then Obama must surely carry the burden of the blame.
Maybe i don't get it 'cause i'm not American? |
A leader always blames his advisers for mistakes, just as a mechanic always blames his tools. |
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Muso
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Joined: 22 Oct 2002
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Location: The Holy city of Honolulu
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| Posted: Tue Sep 11, 2012 7:41 am Post subject: |
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The democrats have a history of trying to exclude the military from voting. During the Bush~v~Gore case, Gore's team tried (unsuccessfully) to throw out military votes.
This is completely disgraceful, but expected from the party of the leeches.
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sts
Tux's lil' helper
Joined: 02 Jul 2007
Posts: 97
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| Posted: Tue Sep 11, 2012 11:26 am Post subject: |
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How do we know this is an impartial article? Random reference to Solyndra.
This is pretty messed up nonetheless. |
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sikpuppy
n00b
Joined: 12 Jun 2012
Posts: 23
Location: Central Coast, NSW
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| Posted: Tue Sep 11, 2012 12:17 pm Post subject: |
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| sts wrote: | How do we know this is an impartial article? Random reference to Solyndra.
This is pretty messed up nonetheless. |
No such thing as impartial in a newspaper  Can have "balanced" but that requires two viewpoints, at least, on the same story. |
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Darth Marley
Tux's lil' helper
Joined: 25 Jan 2007
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| Posted: Tue Sep 11, 2012 12:44 pm Post subject: |
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| sts wrote: | How do we know this is an impartial article? Random reference to Solyndra.
This is pretty messed up nonetheless. |
Impartiality doesn't matter. it is a question always of "Are the claims true?" |
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BoneKracker
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| Posted: Tue Sep 11, 2012 4:49 pm Post subject: |
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Yeah, but Australia could handle Indonesia. China badly wants Australia's lebensraum and resources, could squash Australia like an insect, and soon will be able to project that power to your shores.
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BoneKracker
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| Posted: Tue Sep 11, 2012 4:54 pm Post subject: |
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| GabrielYYZ wrote: | I seriously don't get this (as an outsider looking in)...
If the SEALs kill bin laden, Obama can't take credit for being under his administration that it happened. But, if the pentagon can't do its job and get the military to vote, then Obama must surely carry the burden of the blame.
Maybe i don't get it 'cause i'm not American? |
It's not about "getting the military to vote"; it's about allowing them to vote. Military commanders have more important things to worry about, like trying to carry out impossible bullshit missions dreamed up by politicians while getting as few people killed or crippled as possible.
The real problem isn't so much the voting assistance offices; it's the states run by Democrats intentionally not mailing out absentee ballots to soldiers until it's too late, and getting "waivers" from Obama's DOJ enabling to do this even though there's been a law passed requiring it.
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wildhorse
Tux's lil' helper
Joined: 16 Mar 2006
Posts: 148
Location: Estados Unidos De América
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| Posted: Tue Sep 11, 2012 5:34 pm Post subject: |
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What would Australia be without the USA.
USA. USA.  |
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wildhorse
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| Posted: Tue Sep 11, 2012 5:37 pm Post subject: |
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| Time to send in the UN election observer. |
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BoneKracker
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| Posted: Tue Sep 11, 2012 6:45 pm Post subject: |
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They could kick Spain's ass.
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BoneKracker
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| Posted: Tue Sep 11, 2012 6:48 pm Post subject: |
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| wildhorse wrote: | | Time to send in the UN election observer. |
I agree. Democrats would never allow it.
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pjp
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Posts: 16029
Location: Colorado
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| Posted: Tue Sep 11, 2012 9:26 pm Post subject: |
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It's obvious the media is trying to help Obama, thus my title.
That said, I don't personally think the measure of a bailout is to make a profit as would be expected for a normal investment. The concept of a bailout is to reduce or eliminate economic disaster, whether it be an industry collapse, or just trying to minimize job loss. In that regard, I don't have a problem with the concept.
My main concern is the "ROI" (which isn't the same as maximizing profit). If we spend $1T and only recover $1M, most would probably agree that was a mistake (unless a Demokrat did it).
What I'd really like to know is what the track record has been for allowing bankruptcy to do its job. Here's the test: If ABC/CBS/NBC/NPR/PBS or Fox News needed a bailout, would you approve? If not, that should be the same for >=90% of any other bailout.
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BoneKracker
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| Posted: Tue Sep 11, 2012 10:57 pm Post subject: |
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Well, the theoretically urgent need to bail out the financial institutions is that they are the industry which provides (loans) capital to all the others. If credit is not available, then the economy can't grow.
How much truth there is to that is open to debate. Some would say that credit is based on savings, and the savings rate does not depend on the number of banks. If AIG or Bank of America goes tits up, people just put their money elsewhere. Some would say that, by bailing them out, we simply reinforced bad behavior the market was about to naturally punish.
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pjp
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| Posted: Tue Sep 11, 2012 11:04 pm Post subject: |
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Sure. And that gets back to the Too Big To Fail problem, not to mention banks not actually having the money people give them. If the banks fail, people lose most of their money, if not all of it. If they try to pull out their money, the collapse happens sooner.
(And unless I'm misremembering, Federal Goons actually took back money from people who pulled out. I may very well be misremembering multiple stories there, as it seems unpossible.)
Then if we try to prevent Too Big To Fail, people complain about free markets and excessive regulation.
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pjp
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| Posted: Wed Sep 12, 2012 12:40 am Post subject: |
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Merged a bunch of threads into this one.
Thread title actually belongs to this thread, but I accidentally merged an older thread. For the record, I think that thread started reasonably.
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bogamol
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| Posted: Wed Sep 12, 2012 5:21 am Post subject: |
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| BoneKracker wrote: | | wildhorse wrote: | | Time to send in the UN election observer. |
I agree. Democrats would never allow it. |
You don't suspect that a UN election observer would side against the party that routinely calls for the defunding of the UN from its biggest benefactor? |
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pjp
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| Posted: Wed Sep 12, 2012 10:53 pm Post subject: |
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Perhaps the only chance for Mitt to win? Mitt certainly doesn't seem to be winning over people with his charms.
Why Democrats, including me, are abandoning Obama
| Quote: | | While I'm not claiming there is a new wave of supporters for Mitt Romney, there is no denying that there is a large number of disgruntled Democrats and independents who are dissatisfied with President Obama. |
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Old School
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Location: The Covered Bridge Capital of Oregon
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| Posted: Thu Sep 27, 2012 4:33 pm Post subject: |
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Is Obummer a socialist?
Is the Pope catholic?
Do bears shit in the woods?
Is sugar a batshit crazy partisan commie?
[edit] Why is the OP bringing up all these US political threads? OtW is already full of US politics. Get a life!
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pjp
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| Posted: Tue Oct 02, 2012 2:27 am Post subject: |
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Merged previous post from Is Obama a Socialist?.
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