All's fair in love and war and elections, too?

I looked at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel to get some feel for the turnout in today's recall election in Wisconsin.  It looks like the turnout is mixed as are the reactions.  Some polling places have short lines, some long.  Some people are happy to vote Scott Walker out, some are unhappy that there is even an election.

One item in particular caught my eye.  It was about a mailing designed to increase turnout.  Using public records, the mailing gave the voting record of individuals and their immediate neighbors.  It was sent out by a liberal group.  Will it get more people to vote in general, or will it get more people to vote for Walker?  Judge for yourself.  See "Mailings that list voting records set off some neighbors", Meg Jones, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 2012-06-05.

If you live in Wisconsin and the polls haven't closed, make sure you vote.

Shame on Wisconsinites!

Scott Walker won the governorship of Wisconsin in 2010 with about a quarter of the eligible voters in a light turnout.  Then in February 2011 there were big demonstrations against some of Walker's anti-union legislation.  See "The "people" are speaking, but a bit late".

Then this year many started a petition to recall Gov. Walker.  They collected 900,939 signatures.  That is about 40 percent of the 3,285,704 registered voters (July 2010).  These figures are from the Wisconsin Government Accountability Board.

So what happened on primary day on May 8, 2012?  Did 900,939 voters vote for any of the Democrats?  Right, and we will have 100% turnout in the Presidential elections this fall!  The five Democratic candidates received 665,928 votes together.  Where were the other 25 percent of the petition signers?  And it is probably worse than that because many who showed up to vote didn't sign a recall petition. (Election results from the Green Bay Press Gazette.)

Demonstrations take a lot more effort than voting.  But it seems many people would rather demonstrate than vote.  See "Which is better, civil disobedience or voting?"

Remember, "The 1% may have the money, but the 99% have the votes", but your vote doesn't count if you don't show up!

Look who's engaging in voter fraud!

The Republicans in Wisconsin are putting fake candidates into the Democratic primaries.  Oops, sorry, they are "protest candidates" according to Republican Party of Wisconsin Executive Director Stephan Thompson.  The primaries are to replace elected officials who have been recalled.  To me, the placing of these "protest candidates" is fraud, and the Republican Party claims voter ID will prevent fraud and protect the "integrity" of elections.

It is bad enough that those who support one party will cross-over to vote in a primary for the "weakest" candidate in the other party, but for a party to choose that "weakest" candidate for the other party is fraud, pure and simple.

See "Wisconsin Republicans name fake Democrats for recall primaries", The Republic, Associated Press, 2012-04-04 and "Attorney: Fake Democrats in Wisconsin committing criminal election fraud", The Raw Story, Eric W. Dolan, 2012-04-05.

A couple of interesting quotes

The first is from the panel, appointed by and funded by Toyota to look into its safety problems.  The Star Tribune, 2011-05-24, Business quoted the panel that Toyota noted its success in saving over $100 million by negotiating a limited recall of all-weather floor mats".  The Strib wrote this as "an example of what the independent panel called the automaker's view of regulation as an 'adversarial process' that considers blocked regulations to be 'wins.'"

Gosh, too bad more complainers of government overregulation aren't caught with their hands in the cookie jar.

The second is some words of wisdom in Sheri S. Tepper's "The Visitor", a post apocalypse science-fantasy: "You asked for wisdom?  Hear these words.  Nothing limits intelligence more than ignorance; nothing fosters ignorance than one's own opinions; nothing strengthens opinions more than refusing to look at reality."

The problem is what is reality: we are spending too much or we are not investing enough?