OSCE Vote Monitors Threatened Again!

Courtesy of Dr Strangelove.
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Is it Russia's Vlad "the impaler" Putin? Iran's Ahmadinnerjacket? Syria's Assad?

Nope.

It's the GOP in Texas.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/sns-rt-us-usa-elections-texasbre89o017-20121024,0,7220422.story

Warned to obey the law =/= "threatened."

Plus, who invited these people anyway? Go monitor elections in fucking Zimbabwe or something.

I see nothing to be afraid of plus how can we demand other countries allow in monitors when we refuse to allow them ourselves? Or at least crappy places like Texas tried not to.

BTW it is pretty darn clear that the Texans wrote the law as it is specifically to prevent election monitors from doing their job. That's wrong and needs to change immediately.

Yeah not really seeing the big deal. IGOs impartially monitor elections in other countries, but because Texas has a persecution complex they're threatening legal action? Per the article, the OSCE has only monitored six votes in the US since 2002, which leads me to believe they're doing this not because they suspect foul play but simply to get a random sampling.

What really needs to change is this dribbling away of U.S. sovereignty to foreign concerns through UN interactions and particularly these bullshit 'treaties' that abrogate the US Constitution.

How does this violate U.S. sovereignty, exactly? They were invited to provide independent, nonpartisan monitoring and the monitors come from 18 different countries to ensure no single country's interests are represented. There is no consequence for failing to comply, except looking like there is something to hide. Likewise, there is no consequence they can impose for an electoral district failing to provide fair elections--the only consequences would be what our own laws mandate.

We shouldn't. Period.

I'm pretty sure that every state in the union has laws regarding just who is allowed in polling sites as well as far away those not allowed in are supposted to remain. And Texas didn't invite any members of the U.N.'s "we hate America" debating society to monitor their elections.

All of which adds up to there being no purpose whatsoever for their presence here, except possibly to desensitize American citizens to the dribbling away of U.S. sovereignty that Marso mentioned. The likely hoped-for end result being the emergence of a generation of Americans who think, "But the U.N. has always administered our elections!"

If they want to monitor they should go monitor the Democrat controlled areas where fraud is rampant. Especially in the northern part of this country.

It's a federal election, Texas has no say in the matter, the United States invited them.

They are monitoring multiple locations.

Yeah, this is idiotic. Who invited the OSCE to oversee American elections? President George W. Bush. Didn't seem to be a problem in 2004 or 2008.

Why is it idiotic? Well, among other things, OSCE have diplomatic immunity and the US is a signatory to its charter.

Evidently the furor now is because OSCE officials met with groups opposed to voter ID requirements. And while that's not part of their mandate, they certainly are concerned with voter suppression.

But we double down on the stupid because many of the countries that comprise the OSCE have voter ID laws.

Clearly its a big UN plot!

Oh wait, the OSCE has nothing to do with the UN!

Republicans - its a sad shame they've gone from the party of Lincoln, Eisenhower and Reagan to these fucking idiots.

Point and laugh time again.

Yes, it was a problem then, too.

To be fair, Reagan was one of these fucking idiots, and Eisenhower tolerated these fucking idiots enough to allow them purchase in the Republican party that followed him--witness Joe McCarthy and Eisenhower's veep, the lunatic and paranoid strain of modern Republican personified, respectively. Otherwise you post was spot on.

So what's Rick Perry afraid of, exactly? Or is he just a savvy enough panderer to know that blustering about international anything is a good way to win support from the modern-day Know-Nothing bloc?

Given that Rick Perry ran an ad saying we should kick gays out of the military while music from a flaming homosexual played in the background, I'd hardly call him "savvy." No doubt he was just having a knee jerk reaction. Just like the folks who think that its possible for the US to completely bring all of its military forces home. If there weren't large numbers of US corporations with multi-billion dollar investments in foreign nations, that might be possible, but so long as US corporations have so much money invested in places all around the world, you're going to see the US have a military presence in foreign lands.

I agree with your second statement, OSCE can fuck off. As for the first, I think we ought to wait until a law is actually broken before going after somebody. Imagine a similar situation regarding guns -- "you can't have one until you renounce the following uses," would go over real well, don't you think?

You sure have a poor opinion of your fellow citizens. Makes me wonder whether you trust democracy, which would of course explain why you oppose monitors.

Has Rick Perry seen the dictator?

Uh... The US sends monitors to Latin America to ensure their elections are fair, going as far as to dictate who has to be at each voting booth, how the ballots will be transported and how they will be counted. How come the rest of the world can't send a powerless organization to us? It's not like we're immune to voter fraud.

Yeah, that's different. The imperial power gets to do that shit.

Consider the Republicans have been going on incessantly about voter fraud, you'd think they'd welcome the chance.

Pisses off guys like me who actually do want to see tougher safeguards on voting.

But there seems to be no end of the hypocrisy that the GOP can muster these days.

In fact, the same people who spend the most time talking about vote fraud are simultaneously the most likely to flip out at the idea of international election monitors. Almost as if fraud wasn't their real concern...

It's almost as if their concern is "American, fuck yeah! (but only if you're a white conservative christian or willing to subordinate yourself to white conservative christianity)"

Why do they care?

Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe.

We are not part of Europe.

Plus, fine, we invited them here, but now they have the notion that they are entitled to be here. Notice they said that the US has an obligation to have them here.

As for "random sampling"....no, I don't think so. They are planting themselves in every state with the highest number of electorial votes.

Personally, I really don't care if anyone watches. If there is a problem it needs to be found. But folks like this should also respect the laws of the places that they are monitoring. Wanting them to follow the law or else seems like a warning more than a threat, unless they were planning to break laws.

The fact it's the biggest delegation they have ever sent to any country and that they are focused on states with the most electorial votes makes you wonder.

If it's the biggest delegation they've ever sent, might we also be the biggest country they've visited?

The more monitoring you have of elections, the harder it is to steal the right to vote from brown people, ergo...OUTRAGE!!!

That may be the reddest herring you've ever tried to peddle.

The OSCE is not just about outrioght fraud. It is concerned with general bad practice - even if that isn't deliberate or co-ordinated. And I'd say this sort oft hign counts: http://trailblazersblog.dallasnews....n-texas-but-law-schmaw-demand-it-anyway.html/

If you don't want stuff like that highlighted (whether it it by the OSCE) or others then I'm not sure what your motivations are.

Having said all that observers are only one (flawed) way of monitoring an election and ensuring a fair vote. Not the be-all-and-end-all.