"Obama is Attacking Our Military"

[Andara Bledin]

So, the current foaming at the mouth out of the right is all about how Obama is supposedly suing to take away early voting rights from veterans.

Except for the inconvenient facts that nothing of the sort is happening.

Despite the fact that the administration has filed a lawsuit against the state of Ohio regarding an uneven early voting window for the military versus non-military, the suit is actually in reaction to the right in Ohio reducing the early voting window available to non-military.

Article at the Washington Post

The worst part is that most people who see the headlines are going to see what I put in the title and just start foaming at the mouth over what is, at heart, their side trying to discriminate against everybody else.

It's worth noting the importance of that 3-day window as many church-going poor were driven to the polls by volunteers within their congregations after services on Sunday; so it is likely that this change would most heavily affect the poor who might otherwise have difficulty reaching their polling place.

^-.-^

[Greenday]

Funny, someone used the exact same title for the same thread on another forum. Except he was serious about it. God forbid everyone have the same amount of time to vote. I mean, if soldiers get to vote early, why don't doctors, or cops, or firemen?

[bara]

There are many people who have very active and full schedules. A lot of these are poorer citizens. When your rent relies on those extra hours of work, you're going to work instead of going to the polls.

I honestly see the new deadline (the one Obama is fighting against) as a form of class warfare.

The republicans are truly disgusting me.

[Andara Bledin]

For those interested: more info over at Politifact. It's worth noting that they rate the claim as purely false, but not up to the level of pants on fire.

As for the title, a former employee signed up their work email for right-wing political newsletters, and as the person is no longer employed here, all email is dumped into a general account that I sift through; one of the headlines, designed to incite mindles HWFO was "Barack Obama deploys army of lawyers to suppress military’s voting rights." Talk about a load of grade a bullshit. >_<

^-.-^

[HYHYBT]

It seems to me to be a symptom of something far more general that I've never quite understood: Democratic presidents get painted as disrespectful of the military (and, for that matter, as more generally antipatriotic), and damn the facts when they show otherwise.

The same with the Memorial Day speech, where apparently giving a speech about those the day is for remembering at a monument meant to aid the purpose is disrespectful because it inconveniences someone who didn't check to see if maybe some special event would be happening that day.

The same as that nonsense about not being allowed to put his feet on a desk like his predecessors did. (If the desk is so precious it cannot be used like any other desk would be, put it in a museum and get a plain one.)

The same with the business about the flag pin a while back, or any number of other things I can't think of at the moment... and the same type of complaints were made about Clinton as well, all completely baseless so far as I can see.

And the odd thing, to me, isn't just that this happens to Democratic presidents, but that it *doesn't* happen to Republican ones. Other types, yes, but they're essentially never painted as disrespectful of the military, the flag, etc in the way Democrats are.

[Hyena Dandy]

So, "Extending my rights to other people" = "Stealing my rights"?

[fireheart17]

This is why I'm glad that while we have compulsory voting, we have a few options for if you can't make it to a polling booth in your district on the day:

-Do what's known as an absent vote in another electoral district. You're given the ballot paper for YOUR district though.
-Postal voting (as it says on the can)
-Some places have early voting booths, which you can use, provided that you can explain why you won't be able to vote on the day.

I've had to do an absent early vote, due to the fact that the nearest polling booth was 4-5km away from my workplace at the time and I only had a 30 minute break. So I did it when I visited my boyfriend. (we both did it actually-he did it so he wouldn't get clogged on the day).

[Nekojin]

It gets worse. There's a new attack ad against Obama, claiming that Obama is lifting "Workfare" restrictions, and making it so that Welfare recipients don't have to do anything to receive their checks - just check the mailbox every other week!

This isn't what's actually happening, however. The truth is that a number of Governors - particularly Republican governors - have been asking that Workfare be given more flexibility, allowing states to decide how best to put Welfare recipients to work, rather than having that handled at the national level. In fact, Romney himself asked for the exact same thing when he was governor - so now that Obama's doing it, he should be elated, right?

[Andara Bledin]

The maneuver that the lawsuit is trying to get reversed is actually just another in a long line of attempts to disenfranchise the poor and students in Ohio.

^-.-^

[mikoyan29]

You know, if Obama's record is as bad as they all say, it seems like they wouldn't need to lie about other things. I mean he should be beatable by other means, right?

[Mytical]

You know, if Obama's record is as bad as they all say, it seems like they wouldn't need to lie about other things. I mean he should be beatable by other means, right?

It's the 'destroy the other person' mentality, with the truth being immaterial. Go for the dirty attacks, who cares about such things as facts/who gets hurt/truth.. all that matters is that the other person gets demonized.

A lot of things Obama is blamed with is just a smoke screen..the 'boss' getting the blame regardless. Yeah, nobody is perfect, and Obama has not done the best job in the world, and though I didn't vote for him..I think he is not the demon he is painted to be.

[mikoyan29]

I get it that politics is not (damn forget the expression) but why go for the lies and distortions if you think Obama's record is that bad? They were talking about the welfare thing this morning and if anything it would strengthen the forcing people to find work.

[HYHYBT]

Part of that is convenience. The truth tends to have rough edges; even the best-suited facts aren't going to be *quite* as damning as you want, or will have complications that require explaining.

Far easier to make something up that's consistent with what your target audience expects to be true.

See this, for example.
http://www.snopes.com/legal/lawsuits.asp
There are real cases listed further down, but they weren't as spectacular, nor were they successful.

[Gravekeeper]

I get it that politics is not (damn forget the expression) but why go for the lies and distortions if you think Obama's record is that bad? They were talking about the welfare thing this morning and if anything it would strengthen the forcing people to find work.

Easy, the core base of frothers are so livid over the fact there's a black guy in the Whitehouse that they will quite willingly believe absolutely anything negative about him. Because it justifies their beliefs.

Good ol' confirmation bias cranked up to 11.

Remember, there are still people that swear up and down he was born in Kenya.