There is a parody website called georgewbush.org that has been in existence since 2000. It is often confused with Dubya's official campaign site, georgewbush.com.
The most striking confusion came when several dozen emails from various Bush campaigners were accidentally sent to the parody site rather than the official one. Some of these emails were... most revealing.
On August 26th, 2004, the Dead Letter section of the parody site recieved two emails entitled "Caging" and "Caging-1". The emails themselves simply stated what the day's "total" was (i.e., "The total as of today is #"). Attached to the emails were Excel spreadsheets containing the names and addresses of thousands of registered voters in the Jacksonville, Florida, area.
This struck the site's proprietors as highly suspicious. After all, "caging lists" (lists of voters based on race, income, party affiliation, etc.) are important tools used in voter suppression. With such lists, party operatives are able to strategically challenge the votes of people likely to belong to the opposition.
So, an investigation was conducted. After crunching the demographics, the answer was clear -- the vast majority of names on the list were from black-majority neighborhoods. The Republican Party had drafted a list of black voters in Jacksonville, which it would then use to challenge and strike down thousands of Democratic votes. It was a clear case of voter intimidation, not to mention blatantly racist.
So, why was this never a big story? Why was nothing done? All the evidence is still available: Posted by HopefulNebula (Member # 1933) on :
Well, well, well, I'm surprised at this.
No, really, I am.
Corruption? In my government?
[/sarcasm]
Posted by Jason Abbadon (Member # 882) on :
...and in my state?!? Of course, my idiotic state voted Republican- even Mark Foley's district (which still bears his name) lost with "only" 49% of the vote.
Posted by Zefram (Member # 1568) on :
I seriously doubt that the news media, which hasn't exactly shown itself to be a friend to George W. Bush (or have we forgotten all the confidential government information they've broadcast over the past couple years that has cast a bad light on the Bush administration), would knowingly bury or ignore any such information.
Besides, why exactly would these conspiratorial GOP aides be sending such sensitive files to a very public site such as georgewbush.com (but mistakenly send them to the parody site) rather than to someone's personal address or, since we're talking conspiracies here, to a .gov address? Did there also happen to be a similar addressee at both sites (like [email protected] and [email protected])? This sort of paranoia makes my own commie hunting look normal.
Posted by Shik (Member # 343) on :
Well, I don't care either way. Both of your sides are fuckheads.
Posted by HopefulNebula (Member # 1933) on :
quote:Originally posted by Zefram:
Besides, why exactly would these conspiratorial GOP aides be sending such sensitive files to a very public site such as georgewbush.com (but mistakenly send them to the parody site) rather than to someone's personal address or, since we're talking conspiracies here, to a .gov address? Did there also happen to be a similar addressee at both sites (like [email protected] and [email protected])? This sort of paranoia makes my own commie hunting look normal.
The way I understand it from the original link, the website has everything sent to anything at georgewbush.org sent to a dummy account that they clear out periodically.
So to put my point seriously: Do I believe this could happen? Hell yeah. Do I believe this is necessarily true? Nope. Got to look into it more.
Posted by Shik (Member # 343) on :
Wait...you're the one from OHNY, yeh?
Posted by HopefulNebula (Member # 1933) on :
Yep. The very same. *bows* Posted by Lee (Member # 393) on :
That optimistic gas-cloud is right. Chances are they have a Postmaster account that picks up anything addressed to an account on the domain that doesn't actually exist.
quote:"We got sidetracked with all the accusations on racism and his personal history. We got sidetracked from his positive history in the state as governor and senator," said Samantha Vanterpool, a district Republican party chairwoman.
So, when your attempts to sling mud at, or be out-done at mud-slingging by, your Democratic opponent fails, then you start hand-wringing about how you should have maybe tried some positive campaigning instead? Rrright. This will obviously mean a sea-change in Republican future electoral tactics. Not.
Anyone else think Bush's press conference will be used to dismiss the election results as invalid, and for him to declare martial law and suspend the government until the obvious infiltration by Al-Qaeda has been rooted out? No, me neither. . . Not much, anyway. Surely not? Nah. But then. . .
Posted by B.J. (Member # 858) on :
Assuming this is real (which I am *far* from convinced of), I would still like to know how they got from this:
quote:Originally posted by Shik: So, an investigation was conducted. After crunching the demographics, the answer was clear -- the vast majority of names on the list were from black-majority neighborhoods. The Republican Party had drafted a list of black voters in Jacksonville,
....to this:
quote:which it would then use to challenge and strike down thousands of Democratic votes. It was a clear case of voter intimidation, not to mention blatantly racist.
It seems like a huge jump to make *that* conclusion. It would seem more likely that they had the lists to see where they needed to campaign more, or see how they needed to tailor their campaigns in certain areas. Again, making the huge assumption that this is real.
I would also like to point out that this "information" is two years old, and in no way directly related to yesterday's elections.
Posted by Jason Abbadon (Member # 882) on :
Oddly enough, most states which were considered Republican sure things because of gerrymandering fell to the Democrats anyway.
Except Florida, of course.
Here in Florida, no amount of bad press can keep the Republicans out of overall power: For example.
quote:MIAMI -- Former state Rep. Ralph Arza surrendered to authorities Thursday to face charges of witness tampering and retaliation stemming from obscenity-laced phone messages he left with a fellow lawmaker.
...yet, his seat still went to a Republican- Arza's potential votes went to a comparitive political nobody named Eduardo Gonzalez...who likely won based on his "latin" name. Even the 16th Congressional District (which by law still read "Mark Foley" as the candidate) would have likely gone to Republicans if Joe Negron had another week to get his name out to the public.
Such is politics in the wang of America.
Posted by bX (Member # 419) on :
I would amend that to "Such is politics in the flaccid wang of America." Not intending any offense to Jason of course, but with The Keys it's positively post-orgasmic.
Posted by Jason Abbadon (Member # 882) on :
Yeah...think of the keys as the baggie thing at the tip of the condom.
Posted by Da_bang80 (Member # 528) on :
So, if Florida is Americas wang, what's the butthole? New Mexico?
Posted by HopefulNebula (Member # 1933) on :
San Francisco, I'd assume (geographically, not necessarily socially).
![[Big Grin]](biggrin.gif)