The Story of a Story:
Enter 14,000 "Suddenly Found" "Missing Votes"
Enter 14,000 "Suddenly Found" "Missing Votes"
Around here, the amazing story of the election fraud unfolding in Wisconsin arrived courtesy of FOX News. As is usually the case with FOX "stories," MeanMesa assumed that, buried somewhere in the cess pool of the thing, something factual had originally incited the FOXites into action. Of course, ferreting out what had actually happened remained an "undone" assignment.
Who are we kidding, here? Even though more GOPCon fraud in the election piqued our interest, there would certainly be nothing particularly credible in the FOX content.
So, when MeanMesa first heard about the 14,000 "missing" votes which had suddenly been "found" in her rickety old PC by the shady little GOPCon clerk in Waukesha County -- just as it began to look like GOPCon Supreme Court Justice Prosser had lost the election -- echoes of that old Bush vs. Gore nightmare began to ring out quietly in the distance.
Come on.
We have watched Republicans tilt elections routinely for years. In fact, "glory boy, Karl Rove's main claim to fame was centered on his masterful schemes for stripping registered Democrats from voting lists with stinky tricks like Jim Crow style "voter caging" and all manner of other mischief which would have been felonies if anyone beside Alberto Gonzales were Attorney General.
Since it was Friday, MeanMesa decided that special attention should be paid to the breaking story before it was lost in the "fact consuming memory void" of Saturday and Sunday (BTW, this Sunday). Out came the LazyBoy, the pop corn was made and there sat MeanMesa waiting for the PBS NewsHour to "spill the beans."
After leading with a lumbering "toothache-style" reiteration of "both sides" of the "shut down the government" "burning question of the day," the narrative finally moved ahead to Hari Sreenivasan's "quick list" of "important" daily events. MeanMesa was literally salivating. We would finally hear more of the story at any moment now.
Waiting. Waiting. Waiting.
BOOM! Here it came! Hari finally popped up with the "facts," "the in depth reporting," "the story behind the story."
For 6 seconds.
That was it.
"The county clerk of Waukesha County found another 14,000 votes which had not been tabulated into the results of the election as they had previously been announced. With these, GOPCon monkey Prosser has been re-elected to the State Supreme Court. Now back to John Boehner."
There was not so much as a fleeting note about any challenge to the results. NewsHour had simply continued its non-reporting of the mass hordes of outraged Wisconsinites protesting at the Capitol. After saying almost nothing about the day after day quarter million strong protests against Governor Walker until Dick Armey's Freedom Works buses rolled in with a few dozen wheel chair bound tea bags, NewsHour had now prolonged the fraud by saying almost nothing about anyone questioning the County Clerk's bad GOPCon behavior.
When the first shuddering discouragement had tapered off a little, MeanMesa began to wonder. How does this keep happening? Had some tea bag thug kidnapped Jim Lehrer's baby?
Who's Who and Why is This Important
The election for the State Supreme Court Justice exploded, front and center, as the first test of Wisconsin voters' distaste for the national socialist they had absent mindedly allowed to become Governor. "Absent mindedly?" Wisconsin Democrats, reeling under a massive Koch Brothers financed campaign had stayed home.
However, that was then and this was now. The "then" was November when they should have been out electing a Democratic governor. The "now" is now when the disastrous results of the "then" have come home to roost.
One little thing that the new Governor had in his pocket as he began his attack on everything holy in the now forlorn state, was a cozy little majority of GOPCons on the State Supreme Court. Just like the Federal Supreme Court's similar clutch of corporatists, Governor Walker knew that he "count on" his cronies in the Wisconsin Court not to interfere with his Koch Brothers' inspired scheme to loot what was left in the Treasury.
The neo-con incumbent Justice was Prosser. The election opponent was a woman judge named Kloppenburg. If she won the election, the majority on the State Court would cease being the 5-4 neo-con "yes men" train wreck of the past and become a 5-4 progressive -- at least not in the pocket of the Governor and his Koch Brother masters -- for the future.
The voting was tense, but slowly, and on small margins, Kloppenburg edged ahead. The official election results were announced, and Kloppenburg was named the winner.
However, the celebration was over by the next morning. Reminiscent of the election crimes Rove committed in Alabama with the now infamous "de-election" and immediate imprisonment of elected Governor Don Siegelman after a similar "discovery" of "missing" ballots in the middle of the night, Prosser had suddenly "won" the election with the "suddenly found" -- and, until then -- "missing" 14,000 votes from Waukesha County.
The voter turn out for this normally sleepy election ran about three times what had been anticipated. Wisconsin was pissed.
But, what stalwart "freedom fighter" had been sent to make sure this "happened?"
From WNYC - It's a Free Country:
As a Wisconsin Election Takes A Fishy Turn,
is the Tea Turning Toxic?
Surprise!
Progressive challenger JoAnne Kloppenburg appeared yesterday to have pulled off a surprise victory over incumbent conservative justice David Prosser. Prosser, who had expected an easy win, initially looked to have lost by 204 votes, largely as a result of high voter turnout by Wisconsinites angry about Governor Scott Walker’s battle with state unions.
Surprise Again!
Now the tables are turned. In what the Washington Post called a "stunning twist," a County clerk announced Thursday that she had forgotten to record 14,000 votes, which gave Prosser the lead by 7,500 votes. Clerk Kathy Nickolaus (R) of heavily Republican Waukesha County said that she had inadvertently failed to import and save information into the database, omitting the votes. Nickolaus previously worked under Prosser in the Assembly GOP Caucus years ago when Prosser was Assembly Minority Leader.
As County clerk, Nickolaus set off a firestorm of criticism last year from the Waukesha County Board when she refused to agree to comply with the recommendations of the board following an audit. That audit had been requested after the county's director of administration found Nickolaus uncooperative with attempts to have the county's experts review her systems. In addition, the board had taken issue with Nickolaus's decision not to report municipal election results on election night.
Kloppenbug and Prosser's campaigns are already collecting money and lawyers in case of a challenge. Under Wisconsin law, only the candidates can request a recount.
So, Why Did NewsHour Report This Story
for Only 6 Seconds?
Well, since Glenn Beck's "proof of every possible crazy lie" blackboard wasn't immediately available any more, MeanMesa had to scrounge around for some place to present its own conspiracy theory on the matter. We settled on the easiest venue around -- the stained and troubled "stall walls" of the tea house bathroom.
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| Pathetic MeanMesa Bathroom Graffiti |
In fact, as a continuation of the NewsHour's non-reporting of the largest demonstrations since the Vietnam war days, the "6 second" treatment of this latest insult seems somehow fitting -- oh well, maybe consistent.
MeanMesa can "buy" "fitting" and "consistent" only so far.
As the NewsHour's credibility plunges deeper and deeper into the morass of the commercial media -- including the likes of FOX -- the only part of the "business model" able to keep up with careening descent seems to be its list of corporate sponsors.
All that's left, unhappily, are even more of the fund raising PSA's endlessly touting "fair and balanced."
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