With the write-in count continuing to bode poorly for GOP candidate Joe Miller Thursday, his campaign staged what can only be described as a bizarre press conference here to raise the specter of alleged electoral fraud and voter intimidation in Alaska's 2010 Senate race.
Floyd Brown, a conservative strategist who flew into Juneau with Joe Miller on Tuesday, said the campaign had heard of many instances of voter intimidation, but refused to name one individual who had experienced such intimidation. He read aloud a phone number Alaskans could call to report threats or bullying. And he reported the gap in votes between Miller and incumbent U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski -- the write-in candidate-- was getting closer every day, even though all the evidence pointed in the opposite direction.
As counting wrapped up Thursday, the numbers released by the Alaska Division of Elections were not favorable to Miller's Senate dreams. With 49 percent of write-in votes counted, the division was calling 98 percent for Murkowski. If that trend continues -- it has been holding at almost the same rate since the first the ballots were counted -- Murkowski will boast a lead of 8,700 votes over Miller in the final tally.
So essentially it is pretty much all over but the crying. Surely after seeing the final vote tally the Miller campaign will take their Teabagger ball and go home right?
Sucker! Haven't you been paying attentino to how the Palin-bot and Teabaggers are "helping" Brisotl win DWTS? Do you really think they will play fair in THIS election?
John Tiemessen, an attorney representing Miller, said the campaign has two possible avenues of attack to try pull out a victory if Miller finishes officially in second. One is the lawsuit currently in U.S. District Court. It argues against the Division of Elections accepting minor misspellings of "Lisa Murkowski" in the voting. However, even if U.S. District Court Judge Ralph Beistline were to rule in favor of the Miller campaign, many of the ballots Miller observers have challenged fall short of spelling errors.
A bunch of the ballots in the "challenged" pile are there because Miller observers objected to Murkowski's name being written with an overly loopy "u," or written in with an "r" in cursive in an otherwise printed Murkowski. Miller has even challenged "Lisa Murkowski, Republican" as a violation of election rules.
The second option open to the Miller campaign, Tiesmessen said, would be to appeal decisions made by the election board to the Alaska Superior Court. Even if expedited, he warned, such an appeal could take "months and months," and if "at the end of the day, if Lisa Murkowski has more valid votes than Joe Miller, then the state law says Lisa Murkowski is the next senator for the state of Alaska."
Still, there are other options for prolonging the election in hopes something will change, and Miller has a toll free hotline -- 1-866-446-4138 -- trolling for the game changer it hopes to find in voting fraud.
Like I said before the campaign is getting desperate.
So desperate in fact that they brought in THIS guy!
(H/T to my friend Phil Munger for the video.)
Can you believe that this guy almost became Alaska's next Senator?
Joe Miller's complete lack of ethics makes Ted Stevens look like freaking Dudley Do Right.
Floyd Brown represents what and who the Right Wing is. Period. It isn't as much about choices as it is DNA. I think it stems from their belief that they are on some religious or moral crusade. Right wingers wrap themselves in that crusade as a means of excusing truly horrific and evil behavior. It is the same mentality that allows a woman to rationalize killing her kids because she heard the voice of God or Satan or angels or demons... Or gives permission to religious zealots to rape, I mean, marry, children.
ReplyDeleteI'm not saying there is no bad behavior on the Left, but time and time again, all that ever seems to be dug up on the Left is some dumb bloke stashing $90 grand in his freezer or getting a blow job in his office. Bad behavior? Yes. Evil? No.
These people will be the downfall of our Democracy in our Country.
I wonder if Mr. Miller dreams of hanging chads.
ReplyDeletePalin gave $5,000 to assist Miller in the vote counting.
ReplyDeleteLurker coming out to say....my GOD...where has that kind of reporting gone? Watching that video just makes clear how bad today's news media is. I can't even imagine any network, cable or traditional, doing such a hard hitting piece, naming names and showing faces.
ReplyDelete(Love your blog!)
"Can you believe that this guy almost became Alaska's next Senator?"
ReplyDeleteI hope Alaskans will reflect on what this guy almost becoming the next Senator of Alaska says about Alaskans. The fact that Alaskans fall for the likes of Sarah Palin and Joe Miller reflects very badly on your maturity and judgement.
Yep, and Joe is crying so much that the ground underneath him is soggier than a swamp in Louisiana. What a whiner. And what frightening backers this loser has on his side. The S word sure knows how to pick 'em.
ReplyDeleteO/T interesting read...
ReplyDeleteAfter Rove's criticism last month, Palin noted on a Fox News show that former president Ronald Reagan — whose portrait hangs above the fireplace in the great room that doubles as Palin's pulpit for remote Fox satellite feeds — was a film and TV actor.
The University of Idaho journalism graduate says she's shocked at how she and her family have been portrayed. "We've been burned so many times. How else can they kick us? Can they keep saying Trig (her 2½-year-old son) is not really my child? That Track (her eldest son, 21 ) had to join the Army to avoid jail? That Todd and I are in the middle of a $20 million divorce?"
http://www.courierpostonline.com/article/20101112/ENT/101112005/Palin-is-in-her-element-in-TV-s-Sarah-Palin-s-Alaska-
He needs to take advice from the Republicans after the 2000 election:
ReplyDelete"get over it"
Well, at least Joe Miller will be remembered as a lunatic who couldn't beat a write-in candidate. So he's got that going for him.......
ReplyDeletePalin's degree is in (supposedly...) Journalism... go figure.
ReplyDeleteI am not forgetting C4P's campaign that people file as a write in candidate to confuse voters, take advantage of them as if people who are not voting for Joe Miller will be sabbotaged to not vote for Murkowski. It would be great if Ak papers, stores and places of business published the list of unethical persons who leapt at the opportunity of fraud to have their way and not the will of the people.
ReplyDeleteC4p, the Paliban blame the "left" for visciousness instead of accountability for their, Miller's and Palin's behaviors. The media is to suffer the consequences as well as citizens condemned for the unethical, immoral, bad to outright evil behavior of others.
These people are Jekyll Hyde types, convinced they are entitled to do as they please and claim they are of the highest moral order. Their words are Dr. Jekyll, the bulk of their behaviors are Mr. Hyde.
To borrow a phrase the Palin-tards love: Lisa didn't retreat, she re-loaded. Now Miller and Palin have a bunch of buckshot in their asses. I find it really interesting that Palin hasn't said "boo" about Miller since the election. After he loses, she'll be all "Joe Miller who?" I didn't vote for Lisa, but will take some pleasure in her victory nonetheless.
ReplyDeleteI agree with the comment on where has news reporting gone. Just watched (always late to the party) "The Insider" from 1999, the fictionalized story of "60 Minutes" expose on the chemical enhancers being added to cigarettes to make them addicting. I long for that.
ReplyDeleteSeeing Floyd Brown's self-righteous defense of his underhanded flay-for-pay business, made me want to slice and dice his life for public consumption.
A real reporter would never threaten a source like that and questioning a family about intimacies of a suicide are verbotten. Even if a family member divulges them, there is a lot of screaming and hollering in news rooms before those details see the light of day. Same thing with rapes
Forget the will of the people. This is Joe's will. If the ballot says, "Lisa Murkowski, Republican" it means the voter was wanting her in. There is no question in a reasonable person's mind what that voter's intent was, but to Joe, it should be nixed in his favor.
ReplyDeleteAre any of his supporters dyslexic or do they have family members with slight spelling problems? They should be outraged by his actions. If he can have his own supporters write in his name which is technically against the rules, but the intent of THOSE voters is clear, the other voted should go to Lisa.
@6:32 - Two quick points.
ReplyDelete1) Ronald Reagan was an actor, playing scripted roles of characters OTHER THAN HIMSELF, before he was elected to the governorship of California twice--and he fully served both elected terms.
2) Is she saying she has a journalism degree now? Recently she has said it's a communication degree. So it's back to journalism? Which is it, Sarah? I don't think you have any degree.
The Senate seat was Miller's IRA. He has spent his life gaming the system so he lives off the taxpayers. This was the brass ring; lifetime pension and healtcare and the other perks including shady insider deals and then later, a move to a cushy lobbying job...all gone......
ReplyDeleteTHANK YOU Alaska, you deserve much praise for NOT voting for Miller!
ReplyDeleteExactly @6:09! This morning, CNN was showing YouTube videos of some girls who couldn't make it over hurdles. Apparently the video is a hit on the web!
ReplyDeleteThe whole time I'm thinking, 'are you f*cking kidding me with this nonsense?'
That is interesting @6:32, especially since no one in the MSM has ever DARED touch any of those stories.
ReplyDeleteHmm, only the guilty need speak on certain things I guess...
Hey Gryphen, I thought I saw comments somewhere about ballot box stuffing on a blog. Didn't someone see Sarah's kids playing with a ballot box in an election place?
ReplyDeleteYou know it had to be for Joe MMMM.
You know they are always with her looking cute and distracting.
Someone better call the hotline and report them.
6:09, I had the same reaction. Jeez, where HAVE all the flowers gone?
ReplyDelete7:07, I read somewhere that the U of I didn't have a journalism degree, per se, at the time Palin "attended." It was mass comm.
ReplyDeleteI think she likes to change the who, what, where, when, and why to fit the lie du jour.
hey, that's a great name for a palin expose: The Real Who, What, Where, When and Why of Sarah Palin
Anon 6:32
ReplyDeleteIf I put on a ssick and twisted thinking cap I can forsee Palin intermittantly seeking publicty for the Palin Family victim pyschodramas while putting the cast of fictional characters out there on view to manipulate adoration for the most awesome family in the staged and just for show TLC program. The upcoming book is words to shore up the image.
Sarah is in the phase of preemptive strikes establishing any fats of them which betray the fictional identiy are evil lies not their sick, immoral, dysfunctional or evil behaviors.
Rational persons would chose differently e.g. the son who returned home from a short stint in the service resume his alleged previous passion for hockey, enroll in a school of higher learning, have personal aspirations, or even have a known job,or volunteer for a cause.
I read the propaganda presensted at C4P that the media and the vile left visciously attacked and humiliated Bristol for two years.
Shame, embarassment people chose for themselves e.g. lyng or to parade your child at a difficult time in her life, her humiliation is taken twisted and blame shifted to other people. Again, the ardent fans are convinced using Bristol, keeping her a winner is going to guarantee Palin becoming President. In the pond scum it is everyone else's fault for Bristol's "two years of tabloid" life. I'd estimate 75-80% of tabloid to deceitful publicty was the Palin's seeking and choosing that for money and in their mind fame culminating in being the First Family.
I have read from the collective Palin fans using the children and family, just seeing Piper and the grandmother in the audience of DWTS, Bristol winning DWTS, is guaranteed first family (the nation will fall in love with Britol and want HER in the white house!)and the TLc show another win people will join the effort sseeing what is with the Palin's and another win into the white house.
I personally feel sickened they are convinced that other people or all Americans are exactly this shallow and they project their envy and admiration of fame (or notorious) and money as if those are virtues. It does not matter if money is acquired via decption, lies. The philosophy at C4P is it's not how you play the game, it is that you win.
Objectively, these are the people crying out and campaigning to "restore honor, religion and values. Meanwhile they do nothing of the sort and destroy honor, integrity, morality and the ten commandments.
o/t but in the newest ad featuring SPA, in the family intros, there's totally a pic of Bristol when it should be Willow. So no one should feel bad about thinking the girl in the Homer vid was Willow
ReplyDeleteAn ADN article says Miller challenged in the wrong court--sh/ been state, not federal.
ReplyDeleteOh, but he wants the "Feds" out of everyone's business.
She is addicted to the BlackBerry --
ReplyDeleteever-present BlackBerry...
Cubs are not always grateful. Piper, 9, confides, “My mom is superbusy, she is addicted to the BlackBerry.” Mimicking her mother’s thumb typing, she adds, “She’s like, ‘Hold on, I’ll be there in a second.’ "
-----------------------------------
Daughter Piper, 9, relishes a fishing trip to Big River Lake, as much for the adventure as the remote locale that could disconnect Mom from her ever-present BlackBerry.
Sarah Palin is a puppet for George Soros!
ReplyDeletehttp://www.salon.com/news/politics/war_room/2010/11/12/orion_soros_palin
Maybe she'll heed Mom and Dad's advice?
ReplyDeletePalin's parents, Chuck and Sally Heath, would prefer Palin to remain a private citizen. "I don't see why she needs to do this," says Chuck, 72, a retired Wasilla schoolteacher.
"She has so much to offer," Sally says. "But I say don't do it. It's too painful."
OMG, I am shocked at that video. How in the hell does that man not in jail?
ReplyDeleteAnon at 6:09,
ReplyDeleteI had the same response. What has happened to this kind of reporting? As media of all kinds has gotten more corporate, we lose more and more real investigative work. Which means the crooks can play with impunity.
But it also strikes me that two can play at the kind of games Floyd Brown specializes in. Someone like Miller, with his comment about 'if there's child porn on my work computer it wasn't put there by me!' should really watch his step. You Alaskans should continue to look into this, even after the slime-ball is defeated. You don't want this vampire rising from the grave to go after another government job. You know how he loves that government money!
So can we all just call that 800 number and say " I want to vote for Bristol and Mark"?
ReplyDeleteThat should tie up the lines for a bit.
Let's not get sidetracked with this. What the media and Murkowski's team need to keep hammering over and over is that Miller is trying to disqualify PERFECTLY SPELLED ballots. It's the truth and shows even more what a weasel and creep this fraudster is (that Palin tried to foist off on Alaskans!)
ReplyDeleteAnonymous said...
ReplyDeleteO/T interesting read...
After Rove's criticism last month, Palin noted on a Fox News show that former president Ronald Reagan — whose portrait hangs above the fireplace in the great room that doubles as Palin's pulpit for remote Fox satellite feeds — was a film and TV actor.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
HERE is the TRUTH of what Regan was compared to Palin from a republican rag written by a former REGAN speech writer:
Conservatives talked a lot about Ronald Reagan this year, but they have to take him more to heart, because his example here is a guide.
All this seemed lost last week on Sarah Palin, who called him, on Fox, "an actor."
She was defending her form of political celebrity—reality show, "Dancing With the Stars," etc.
This is how she did it: "Wasn't Ronald Reagan an actor? Wasn't he in 'Bedtime for Bonzo,' Bozo, something? Ronald Reagan was an actor."
Excuse me, but this was ignorant even for Mrs. Palin.
Reagan people quietly flipped their lids, but I'll voice their consternation to make a larger point.
Ronald Reagan was an artist who willed himself into leadership as president of a major American labor union (Screen Actors Guild, seven terms, 1947-59.)
He led that union successfully through major upheavals (the Hollywood communist wars, labor-management struggles);
discovered and honed his ability to speak persuasively by talking to workers on the line at General Electric for eight years;
was elected to and ~~~completed~~~~ two full terms as governor~~~~~ of California;
challenged and almost unseated an incumbent president of his own party;
and went on to popularize modern conservative political philosophy without the help of a conservative infrastructure. Then he was elected president.
The point is not "He was a great man and you are a nincompoop," though that is true.
The point is that Reagan's career is a guide, not only for the tea party but for all in politics.
He brought his fully mature, fully seasoned self into politics with him.
He wasn't in search of a life when he ran for office, and~~~ he wasn't in search of fame;
he'd already lived a life, he was already well known, he'd accomplished things in the world.
Here is an old tradition badly in need of return: You have to earn your way into politics.
You should go have a life, build a string of accomplishments, then enter public service.
And you need actual talent:
You have to be able to bring people in and along.
You can't just bully them, you can't just assert and taunt, you have to be able to persuade.
Americans don't want, as their representatives, people who seem empty or crazy.
They'll vote no on that.
It's not just the message, it's the messenger.
http://on.wsj.com/crZyRM
WTH???
ReplyDeletehttp://www.usatoday.com/video/#/Sarah+Palin+in+%27Alaska%27/673348583001
Palin's Track/Bristol aged hacker (when guessing a password that is essentially a no-brainer public record is considered hacking) was sentenced to a year and a month's worth of time in custody. The judge recommended a halfway house instead of prison.
ReplyDeleteI'm sure the Teabaggers and unaffiliated Palin supporters were lobbying for the death sentence. Meanwhile, Palin and Miller, both admitted hackers of their colleagues' computers, are celebrated as Maverick's trying to shake things up when they engage in worse, nefarious purposes.
In other news, a Garfield strip honoring "National Stupid Day," was inadvertantly run on Veteran's Day, which obviously offended a number of people and groups. Jim Davis, instead of attacking those in charge of publishing the order of cartoons and which days they run, Jim apologized. . .even though it wasn't a reference to Veteran's Day, but he took the fall and made an apology.
I thought we didn't do that anymore, apologize when we are wrong? Let's honor Palin the way she deserves to be recognized, National Stupid Day.
If having an affair makes one "morally unqualified" to be President where does that leave Sister Sarah?
ReplyDeleteNow THIS is "Sarah Palin's Alaska", folks.
ReplyDeleteAndrea Mitchell just reminded everyone that Floyd Brown is the one who brought us that awful Willie Horton ad in 1988, & that he has been involved in "some dirty tactics in past campaigns."
ReplyDeleteDenise (Michigan)
joe miller will lie, cheat and intimidate to steal this election.
ReplyDeleteI remember not too long ago when Miller beat Murkowski in the primary that Sarah asked Murkowski to step aside because the "people have spoken. I guess that only applies when Sarah or one of her picks wins.
ReplyDeleteI read the C4P article urging people to vote for Bristol and these people are truly delusional. To somehow think that Bristol winning and the Palins being there supporting her is in any way a political victory or that this is going to help her get to the White House is just nuts. These people are less intelligent than I think that they are.
Lessee . . . complain about KTVA reporters joking about finding dirt on the Miller campaign, but then bring in a sleazeball dirt-manufacturer to invent stuff about the Murkowski campaign? Yep, that's our boy Miller.
ReplyDeleteI called the 866 number and a recording said that it was the Alaska 2010 vote fraud hotline, with no mention of it's affiliation of Miller. Sounded like an official Alaska hotline.
ReplyDeleteThose kind of guys have been in the picture all along, not just in the case of Joe Miller, but with Sarah Palin. One thing Joe Miller is right about, Republicans do intimidate people at the polling places. I experienced it in a rather severe form in Homer.
ReplyDeleteFor the first time ever I've begun to consider visiting places in this country based on who they've elected. The country has become so insane that I'm wondering if I would be welcome in places like Florida (West, Scott, the nut who was going to be West's COS), Kansas, Oklahoma, and of course Texas (Barton, Gohmert, Perry).
ReplyDeleteI know it isn't fair to how up a states tourism dollar based on the actions of a part of the states citizenry but I've finally reached a tipping point. These people aren't just voicing their opinion about their values, they're voicing sedition and hate and once upon a time there words would have serious consequences.
I'm very glad I'm now retired from the military so only I can decide where I live and vacation. Until the debate calms down and people begin to speak rationally there are places I'm marking as off-limits. Still haven't placed Alaska on that list but if the Palin, Miller, and militia types continue it most certainly will be.
RE: Palin's $5,000 donation, this from the AP today:
ReplyDelete"Miller spokesman Randy DeSoto says Palin's political action committee made the donation to Miller's U.S. Senate Defense Fund."
U.S. Senate DEFENSE Fund !?! What is it with these lunatics and playing the victim card? How can you defend something you don't have? Better name would be "Help Me Scramble for a Federal Pension for the Rest of My Sorry-Ass Life Since I've Burned All My Bridges for a Real Job"
News Flash
ReplyDeleteThis just went up at Roll Call a few minutes ago!
FEC Letter to Sarah Palin Asks Her to Explain SarahPAC’s Spending"
Minor math errors- or something more?
This is the same heartless disrespect the Republicans showed to Vince Foster's family.
ReplyDeleteThey kept dragging in another investigation and another ad another and putting his suicide back in the press and questioning his family and friends over and over for several years after the park police, DC police, and FBI all concluded Foster had committed suicide.
Starr reopened the investigation again in the impeachment hearing. There have been multiple privately sponsored investigations.
It is a very heartless type of harassment, and it is a Republican specialty.
Leave the families alone to grieve and heal.
"It is the same mentality that allows a woman to rationalize killing her kids because she heard the voice of God or Satan or angels or demons"
ReplyDeleteMen are equal opportunity child killers. And they also often blame it on God.
"Lisa Murkowski, Republican"
ReplyDeleteJoe is supposedly a lawyer.
If the law does not specifically prohibit the listing of the party after the candidate's written in name (which just mimics the printed names that also list the candidates' parties) and other wise satisfies the law as to specificity, then its legal.
Or as Sarah would say lets use some "common sense,'
...she has a degree alright, a degree of Craziness...
ReplyDeleteDay after day people world-wide attack Prez.O & yet he hangs in there She couldn't handle 1 State.
Till she completes something, maybe she ought 2 #STFU
Next he'll be challenging ballots because they didn't dot the 'i's' in Lisa and Murkowski.
ReplyDeleteLook up 'scumbag' in the dictionary and you'll see miller's picture.