Vets Shouldn’t Vote
by digby
They might not vote “correctly.” After all, they’ve seen wars and might not think that it’s such a great idea for the US to constantly be pushing more of them just say “suck on this.”
Recall this:
The [disabled]veterans, at Bally’s for their national convention, gave him a tepid reception, especially considering McCain’s life story. The Arizona senator was a Navy pilot shot down over Vietnam, tortured and held as a prisoner of war for 5 1/2 years.
Just one of 14 veterans interviewed by the Sun after his speech said he is a certain McCain voter, and the nonpartisan group’s legislative director expressed concerns about McCain’s proposed “Veterans’ Care Access Card.”
I wrote a while back about the inexplicable new rule banning voter registration at VA hospitals. The good news is that they’ve rescinded the rule. The bad news is that it may not make much difference:
[O]n Monday, as the Senate Rules and Administration Committee held a hearing in Washington on a bill to ensure veterans living at VA facilities could be helped with voter registration, a legal motion was being filed in federal court in California alleging the VA was still blocking efforts to register voters in time for the 2008 presidential election.
Following last week’s announcement of VA’s new voter registration policy, a VA facility in San Francisco blocked a non-profit group, Veterans for Peace, from registering voters, the legal motion said. The filing said the VA was seeking to require Veterans for Peace members to go through the process of screening VA volunteers, a process that would delay registration efforts. In contrast, the VA does not require screening for most other visitors.
“The VA has disenfranchised veterans and interfered with the freedom of political parties and nonpartisan groups to associate with their members and with other citizens who reside on VA campuses,” the motion said. “This Court should prohibit further interference with voter registration at any VA campus for the imminent federal election.”
Scott Rafferty, the Washington-based attorney who filed Monday’s motion on behalf of a California labor organizer who in 2004 was blocked from registering voters on another VA facility in California, said there were political reasons behind the agency’s refusal to register veterans.
“Veterans’ experience in war gives them a powerful voice,” Rafferty said. “The VA wants to stop them from using their right to speak out and to vote. The VA knows that many veterans oppose the Administration’s conduct of the War, the overextension of the military, and its inadequate support for returning warriors.”
Hey, if you can illegitimately shave off just enough votes from disabled veterans, distressed homeowners, latinos and African Americans and first time voter you can probably just get over the finish line.
Some people call this cheating. Republicans call it winning.
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