US Politics Thread |OT| THE DARKEST TIMELINE

[Brehvolution]

the hand wringing, concern trolling, and general fuckery that would erupt if Obama does anything

.

[Great Rumbler]

Didn't really feel like starting a new thread for it, but today's the 20th anniversary of the Oklahoma City bombing.

[Joe Molotov]

I was in 6th grade, our teacher let us watch some of the news coverage on TV.

[Great Rumbler]

As the first black female mayor of Parma, Mo., took office last week, five of the town's six police officers resigned, Missouri television station KFVS reported.

The new mayor, Tyrus Byrd (pictured above on the right), was sworn in on Tuesday evening. Former Mayor Randall Ramsey told KFVS that in addition to the five police officers, the city's attorney, clerk and water treatment plant supervisor resigned due to "safety concerns."

Byrd was not aware why the five police officers resigned, according to KFVS. When she took office, Byrd said she could not find the resignation letters and that the city computers had been cleared. She told KFVS that she needs more information before addressing the resignations publicly.

Byrd was born and raised in Parma, and formerly served as the city clerk. Ramsey lost the mayoral election to Byrd by 37 votes after serving as the mayor for 37 years, according to KFVS.

#missouri

[Brehvolution]

I just posted that in the cop thread. You have to wonder what kind of racket was going on there.

[ToxicAdam]

Found my candidate

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/videos/waka-flocka-flame-for-president-watch-his-exclusive-campaign-video-20150420

[benjipwns]

http://thehill.com/regulation/other/239509-dc-attorney-general-looking-into-republican-photo-with-assault-rifle

Police in Washington, D.C., have been referred materials for a possible investigation into two Republican congressmen who posed for a picture with an assault rifle in a House office building.

Rep. Ken Buck (R-Colo.) last week tweeted a picture of himself and Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.), the leader of the House's Benghazi investigation, holding an AR-15.

Having the AR-15 in the District could be a violation of the city’s strict gun laws, and the city attorney general’s office has referred the matter to police, a spokesman told The Hill.

"The matter has been referred to the Metropolitan Police Department for further investigation,” he said.

Congressman Ken Buck        ✔ @RepKenBuck
Follow
.@TGowdySC stopped by today and we got a photo with my AR-15 #2A #SecondAmendment @TPPatriots @TeaPartyExpress

I hope they rot in prison.

[Kara]

The paint job on that is so bad I thought it was a FAL.

[benjipwns]

http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/239570-jeb-bush-praises-obama-over-nsa-spying

Jeb Bush, a likely presidential contender, said Tuesday that President Obama’s greatest accomplishment was keeping in place controversial spying programs at the National Security Agency.

“I would say the best part of the Obama administration would be his continuance of the protections of the homeland using the big metadata programs,” Bush said in an interview on the Michael Medved radio show.

Bush argued the NSA programs had been “enhanced” under Obama, even if the president “never defends them or openly admits it.”

The former Florida governor said the NSA’s bulk collection of Americans’ phone data was “an important service” carried out in a way that protects individual civil liberties.

He lauded the Obama administration for refusing to buckle under pressure from Democrats, civil liberties groups and some Republicans.

“He has not abandoned them,” Bush said.

[Joe Molotov]

Gowdy's hair should be a crime against humanity.

[Kara]

Gowdy's hair should be a crime against humanity.

u could say it's rather................ gaudy

[Great Rumbler]

Don't know which is worse, that paint job or Gowdy's stupendously awful suit.

[benjipwns]

I like the suit, but I've already stated my views on politicians suits extensively in this thread.

EDIT: Found it:


Full picture of the dork Reagan's shaking hands with, spoilered because large:

spoiler (click to show/hide)

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Apparently Reagan's wearing a pink shirt with white collars? mac?

Also found this amazing picture while looking for it, spoiler tags because it's also large:

spoiler (click to show/hide)

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[Joe Molotov]

YES

[Madrun Badrun]

[Kara]

I don't really do poor people taxes but whenever I see this talking point I'd love to know how much of it stems from using the Internal Revenue Code to subsidize parenting, home ownership, and other (Weberian) bourgeois goodies for people that can't afford them but are too stupid to know better.

[Brehvolution]

Complain about high taxes while championing the need to be world police, brehs.

[Great Rumbler]

Complain about high taxes while championing the need to be world police, brehs.

Complain about government invasion of personal liberties while championing an oppressive police state.

[I'm a Puppy!]

I was in the cab in Canada today and the cabbie was talking about how the US has it so much better cause taxes are lower and they don't have to pay taxes for healthcare.
I told him how much I pay monthly for my insurance premium.
He paused a sec and said, "Maybe Canada isn't that bad."

[Joe Molotov]

http://www.cnn.com/2015/04/23/politics/white-house-hostages-killed/index.html

Drones, brehs

[benjipwns]

Italians in general probably should have more responsible fathers.

[benjipwns]

terrorist fist bump on Senate floor: https://vine.co/v/eaDazpDzxnU

[Great Rumbler]

The $45 billion Comcast-Time Warner Cable merger that initially seemed inevitable now seems almost impossible.

After a series of meetings between the cable companies and government regulators, some of the parties involved have begun speaking about the proposed deal in the past tense.

[benjipwns]

Washington, D.C. – Congressman Steve King released the following statement after introducing his bill “Restrain the Judges on Marriage Act of 2015.” This bill strips federal courts of jurisdiction to hear cases related to marriage.  The effect of the bill would prevent federal courts from hearing marriage cases, leaving the issue to the States where it properly belongs.

“For too long, federal courts have overstepped their constitutionally limited duty to interpret the Constitution.” Said King. “Rather, federal courts have perverted the Constitution to make law and create constitutional rights to things such as privacy, birth control, and abortion.  These unenumerated, so-called constitutionally-protected rights were not envisioned by our Founding Fathers.

My bill strips Article III courts of jurisdiction, and the Supreme Court of appellate jurisdiction, ‘to hear or decide any question pertaining to the interpretation of, or the validity under the Constitution of, any type of marriage.’ Second, my bill provides that ‘[n]o federal funds may be used for any litigation in, or enforcement of any order or judgment by, any court created by an Act of Congress.’

I urge the House to bring this bill to the Floor. If passed, my bill would stop the Court from destroying traditional marriage and preserve the votes of millions of voters in States that have passed bans on same-sex marriage.”

neat

[Brehvolution]

There would be way more fallout from that bill than just ssm. SSM wouldn't even be the tip of the iceberg.

[Kara]

I urge the House to bring this bill to the Floor. If passed, my bill would stop the Court from destroying traditional marriage and preserve the votes of millions of voters in States that have passed bans on same-sex marriage.

lol, ballwash dudes who created a whole legislature without direct election of members and then spin this yarn.

[benjipwns]

Some rights are too important to be left in the hands of democracy.

Or to the courts.

Like the right to establish government recognized marriage as one man, one woman.

[Great Rumbler]

I hope that bill passes just so I can how King reacts when it's eventually struck down by the Supreme Court.

[benjipwns]

The New York Times had already done research on it after a related story in 2009 or something, apparently the "exclusive deal" was because the book contained the "connecting piece" missing from their older story or something. That's what put this story together now, the NYT already having a bunch of stuff sitting around. Though they're still looking for a "smoking gun" to really make it a Benghazi level scandal.

"other trite phrase"

[Great Rumbler]

It won't and nobody cares.

[benjipwns]

It won't and nobody cares.

Exactly. The Clintons dreams to rule forever are already dead: http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2015/04/disastrous-clinton-post-presidency.html

[Great Rumbler]

It's amusing that the actual allegation here is "Hillary Clinton accepted donations to her charity in order to prevent her from stopping the sale of a privately-held Canadian company to a Russian firm." The sale wasn't even her decision to make, it wasn't even solely under review by the State Department, but rather it was part of a review by an intra-governmental panel made up of people from several different federal agencies and the decision not to block the sale came at the end of a long, bureaucratic process.

But, yeah, HILLARY SOLD NUKES TO RUSSIA will be an allegation you'll hear from certain circles until whatever other thing comes up in a few weeks.

[benjipwns]

 

spoiler (click to show/hide)

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[benjipwns]

http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/417405/president-obama-leader-men-david-french

 

[Great Rumbler]

[benjipwns]

http://www.nationaljournal.com/against-the-grain/democrats-went-all-in-on-hillary-clinton-it-s-looking-like-a-terrible-bet-20150423

Democrats didn't fully appreciate the size of the gamble they're taking on Hillary Clinton by assuming she's their strongest 2016 candidate, but they're sure finding out now.

Forget the email server. The latest revelation—that a Canadian mining company with close ties to the Clinton Foundation sold its uranium business to the Russians with approval from Clinton's State Department—is more damaging than any of the previous controversies that have buffeted the campaign.

The story goes to the heart of several serious, growing vulnerabilities that Clinton will be facing, sooner or later.

...

Finally, her evasive answers in dealing with the controversy, refusing to address the specifics of the reporting and using her campaign team to attack the messenger(s) shows both how serious the allegations are, and how unprepared she is for the scrutiny. Polling has already shown her standing taking a serious nosedive, as more questions are raised about her conduct in office.

Usually candidates who announce their campaign see a boomlet in popularity. The opposite is happening with Clinton, who is at least as unpopular as she is popular, according to a new Quinnipiac poll released Thursday. A 47 percent plurality view her unfavorably while 46 percent view her favorably. For the first time, her net unfavorable ratings put her (narrowly) behind several Republican contenders, including Marco Rubio, Scott Walker, and Rand Paul. Her trustworthiness is taking a bigger hit: Only 38 percent view her as being honest, while 54 percent disagree.

These are glaring red flags that would usually be an inducement for other Democratic candidates to run and challenge her. But the normal rules of politics don't seem to apply in a Clinton-controlled Democratic Party.

For all the Democratic denial, the controversies are already undermining one of Clinton's major campaign assets.

What's striking is how little she's talked about her record as secretary during her first two weeks on the campaign trail. It's no coincidence that she's been conspicuously silent on that front; it's an acknowledgement that it's becoming a political vulnerability. She understands that any time she brings up her record, uncomfortable questions about her conflict of interest with the family foundation will come up.

Do with it, what you will PD. 

[benjipwns]

 

[Kara]

  I didn't realize 20% of a market was a cornered market.

[benjipwns]

Welp, the Washington Times has done it, they've created the ultimate headline: ACLU sues feds to force Catholic charities to provide abortions for illegal immigrants

Wrap it up, we're done. Peak clickbait has been reached.

[benjipwns]

 

[Brehvolution]

http://www.nationaljournal.com/against-the-grain/democrats-went-all-in-on-hillary-clinton-it-s-looking-like-a-terrible-bet-20150423

Democrats didn't fully appreciate the size of the gamble they're taking on Hillary Clinton by assuming she's their strongest 2016 candidate, but they're sure finding out now.

Forget the email server. The latest revelation—that a Canadian mining company with close ties to the Clinton Foundation sold its uranium business to the Russians with approval from Clinton's State Department—is more damaging than any of the previous controversies that have buffeted the campaign.

The story goes to the heart of several serious, growing vulnerabilities that Clinton will be facing, sooner or later.

...

Finally, her evasive answers in dealing with the controversy, refusing to address the specifics of the reporting and using her campaign team to attack the messenger(s) shows both how serious the allegations are, and how unprepared she is for the scrutiny. Polling has already shown her standing taking a serious nosedive, as more questions are raised about her conduct in office.

Usually candidates who announce their campaign see a boomlet in popularity. The opposite is happening with Clinton, who is at least as unpopular as she is popular, according to a new Quinnipiac poll released Thursday. A 47 percent plurality view her unfavorably while 46 percent view her favorably. For the first time, her net unfavorable ratings put her (narrowly) behind several Republican contenders, including Marco Rubio, Scott Walker, and Rand Paul. Her trustworthiness is taking a bigger hit: Only 38 percent view her as being honest, while 54 percent disagree.

These are glaring red flags that would usually be an inducement for other Democratic candidates to run and challenge her. But the normal rules of politics don't seem to apply in a Clinton-controlled Democratic Party.

For all the Democratic denial, the controversies are already undermining one of Clinton's major campaign assets.

What's striking is how little she's talked about her record as secretary during her first two weeks on the campaign trail. It's no coincidence that she's been conspicuously silent on that front; it's an acknowledgement that it's becoming a political vulnerability. She understands that any time she brings up her record, uncomfortable questions about her conflict of interest with the family foundation will come up.

Do with it, what you will PD. 

What about the other 8 regulatory agencies and the Canadian government that signed off on the agreement? They make it sound like Hillary hand delivered uranium to Putin. Who, of course, will send it to Iran to make it weaponized.

[Great Rumbler]

The Utah state government had to sign off on it, too. And according to people involved in approving the sale, Hillary didn't even had a hand in any of it and probably didn't even know it was going on.

[Phoenix Dark]

The Utah state government had to sign off on it, too. And according to people involved in approving the sale, Hillary didn't even had a hand in any of it and probably didn't even know it was going on.

like Benghazi

[Great Rumbler]

I'm waiting for the next set of polls.

I'm waiting for the polls that come out the week before the actual election date.

[benjipwns]

I'm waiting for the polls that come out the week before the actual election date.

It's too late to get your model to unskew them up and running by then.

[Great Rumbler]

[Kara]

You hold senators in higher regard than I do.

Maybe I should bookmark jewishagency.org now. I think I'm still young enough for the Young Aliyah program.

[Phoenix Dark]

They also have a bill to extend ACA subsidies for when the SC shitcans it. They'll be extended into 2017 in order to neutralize the issue during the 2016 election.

[Tasty]

http://fox2now.com/2015/04/23/new-kinloch-mayor-blocked-by-police-from-entering-city-hall/

What the christ, Missouri.

[Joe Molotov]

http://fox2now.com/2015/04/23/new-kinloch-mayor-blocked-by-police-from-entering-city-hall/

What the christ, Missouri.

Obama gonna have to send in the National Guard to integrate Missouri city halls? 

[Human Snorenado]

They also have a bill to extend ACA subsidies for when the SC shitcans it. They'll be extended into 2017 in order to neutralize the issue during the 2016 election.

That bill repeals the individual mandate, small business mandate, etc. It will be vetoed.

[Rufus]

http://fox2now.com/2015/04/23/new-kinloch-mayor-blocked-by-police-from-entering-city-hall/

What the christ, Missouri.

It's 20 fucking 15.

[Great Rumbler]

More details and background in this article:

Betty McCray, Kinloch’s newly elected Mayor, arrived at City Hall on Thursday morning with an entourage and the intention to fire multiple city employees.

But before she could enter the building, McCray was told she was the one who was out of job.

In the parking lot, McCray was met by a half-dozen police officers and City Attorney James Robinson, who held a manila envelope under his arm containing articles of impeachment.

“You can’t come in as mayor,” Robinson said. “You have been suspended.”

McCray refused to take the envelope, saying, “You may be the attorney now, but I promise you, you won’t be later.”

Robinson also told Alderman Eric Petty, an ally of McCray’s, that the board had drafted articles of impeachment against him. Petty, too, refused to accept them.

“We won,” he said. “It’s time for them to move on.”

Kinloch, the first city in Missouri to be incorporated by African-Americans, is situated between Ferguson and Lambert-St. Louis International Airport. It once thrived with more than 10,000 residents. Then in the 1980s, the airport began buying homes for a noise-abatement program, purchasing roughly 1,360 properties. The city’s population plummeted, and poverty and blight took hold.
Today, Kinloch, which has fewer than 300 residents, is marked by pilfered coffers, shady land deals and increasingly bitter fights over the last remnants of political power.
During the past five years, the city has seen the imprisonment of a former mayor on federal fraud and theft charges, the hiring of a convicted felon as city manager, the selling of a previous city hall building to an alleged drug dealer and the unseating of at least two aldermen.
Now there are fresh allegations of voter fraud.

On April 7, McCray defeated Mayor Darren Small with 38 votes to his 18. Another candidate, Theda Wilson, received two votes. Petty ran unopposed. After the Board of Aldermen declined to swear them in, the two were sworn in by a St. Louis County circuit court clerk on Tuesday.

On Thursday, Robinson declined to provide copies of impeachment charges. Nor would he reveal who on the Board of Alderman voted to suspend McCray, except to say they voted in a meeting on Monday.

According to documents obtained by the Post-Dispatch through a records request, the city has raised concerns to the St. Louis County Board of Elections and the Missouri Secretary of State about people being registered to vote in Kinloch who no longer live there. On April 2, the city gave the Election Board a list of 27 names of people who it claimed were illegally registered; many of those individual addresses were listed at city-owned apartments.

McCray said that the concerns about people’s being illegally registered were “absurd.”

“It never came up until I ran for mayor,” she said, adding that people were still living at the addresses the city claims are empty.

At least two of the apartments in question on Tuttle Street, where six people are registered to vote, according to the city, appeared this week to have been unoccupied for some time. Both were stripped of furniture and appliances. In one, a jar of pickles and two spent oxygen tanks sat amid other debris on the floor.

Petty said the homes were vacant because the city began evicting people behind on rent shortly before the election because the tenants were supporters of McCray.

But City Manager Justine Blue said that wasn’t true. The only people who the city is evicting still live in their apartments, she said. The city did file lawsuits to evict some residents, but that was on Thursday, court records show. Blue said those residents have yet to be formally served with eviction notices.

“Besides, we would have no idea who would be supporting Ms. McCray,” Blue said.

Blue, Small’s cousin, took over at City Hall just after Small was elected in 2012. The previous city manager, Eric Mason, was a parolee once convicted of writing bad checks.

County Republican Election Director Gary Fuhr said that in response to the city’s complaints, the election board sent four canvassers to Kinloch on Tuesday to verify that voters were registered to correct addresses. He declined to say what canvassers found.

The city also filed a lawsuit in March against McCray, alleging that she fraudulently obtained a house from the city in 2008. The home was one of 17 properties that the airport bought with federal noise abatement money in the 1990s. The airport later determined the noise wasn’t loud enough to prohibit residential development and sold the properties back to the city for $354,000 in 2007.

Property records don’t show how much McCray paid for her home. The sale price wasn’t recorded with the St. Louis County assessor’s office. McCray said that the homes were advertised to everyone and that she paid $9,000 for the four-bedroom, two-bath home.

But the suit alleges that previous mayor Keith Conway — who served time in prison on charges of wire fraud, theft from a federal program and witness tampering — gave McCray the house for free. McCray was serving on the Board of Aldermen at the time.

“I didn’t defraud the city of anything,” McCray said. “They are trying to get those homes back, so they can get the money and put it in their pocket.”

When McCray was at City Hall on Thursday, she announced that she was firing Blue and Court Clerk Bridget Washington; but during the ordeal, she never came within earshot of them.

After Robinson confronted her with impeachment papers, McCray and her supporters gathered in a semi-circle to pray. Then, when it was clear she wouldn’t take office on this day, the mayor-elect said she was heading to Clayton for one purpose:

To find a good lawyer.

[Rufus]

So, if she hadn't been elected...

[Phoenix Dark]

Isn't the city 90% black and the former mayor is black too?

[Mandark]

Had to double-check and make sure this was a separate story from the one where the police all resigned and wiped the computers.

But they're both in MO.

[benjipwns]

On April 7, McCray defeated Mayor Darren Small with 38 votes to his 18. Another candidate, Theda Wilson, received two votes. Petty ran unopposed. After the Board of Aldermen declined to swear them in, the two were sworn in by a St. Louis County circuit court clerk on Tuesday.

On Thursday, Robinson declined to provide copies of impeachment charges. Nor would he reveal who on the Board of Alderman voted to suspend McCray, except to say they voted in a meeting on Monday.

According to documents obtained by the Post-Dispatch through a records request, the city has raised concerns to the St. Louis County Board of Elections and the Missouri Secretary of State about people being registered to vote in Kinloch who no longer live there. On April 2, the city gave the Election Board a list of 27 names of people who it claimed were illegally registered; many of those individual addresses were listed at city-owned apartments.

They can't just hold another election some afternoon?

Nice system there where you can get impeached without being notified of the charges or the vote.

But this is actually the top favorite part:

During the past five years, the city has seen the imprisonment of a former mayor on federal fraud and theft charges, the hiring of a convicted felon as city manager, the selling of a previous city hall building to an alleged drug dealer and the unseating of at least two aldermen.

[benjipwns]

http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2015-04-26/clinton-foundation-acknowledges-mistakes-as-schweizer-calls-for-investigation

The Clinton Foundation's acting CEO, Maura Pally, on Sunday admitted to some mistakes in the organization's listing of donations from foreign governments on its tax forms.

In a statement, Pally wrote, "Our total revenue was accurately reported on each year's form—our error was that government grants were mistakenly combined with other donations. Those same grants have always been properly listed and broken out and available for anyone to see on our audited financial statements, posted on our website."

"So yes, we made mistakes, as many organizations of our size do, but we are acting quickly to remedy them, and have taken steps to ensure they don't happen in the future," the statement says. "We are committed to operating the Foundation responsibly and effectively to continue the life-changing work that this philanthropy is doing every day."

...

Schweizer on Sunday appeared on ABC's This Week and on Fox's Fox News Sunday to talk about the claims in the book. In both of those appearances, he likened the situation to issues of insider trading or corruption where it is impossible to find a piece of evidence that clearly demarcates a quid pro quo or an explicit agreement, but the charges can still be proved by showing a pattern of mutually beneficial decisions. On This Week, he used as examples the corruption cases against former Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell and the recent charges against New Jersey Senator Bob Menendez. Both were accused (and in McDonnell's case convicted) of accepting gifts in exchange for favors. Throughout the interview, Schweizer referred to McDonnell as "McConnell."

"For example, Governor [McDonnell] down in Virginia, or you look at Senator Menendez, in these cases, you didn't have evidence of a quid pro quo.  What you had was funds flowing to elected officials, some of them gifts, some of them campaign contributions and actions that were being taken by those public officials that seemed to benefit the contributors," Schweizer said.

The other example Schweizer used in both interviews was that of insider trading. In insider trading cases, he said, there's rarely a damning e-mail that specifically refers to inside information that will affect the value of a security. Instead, those cases are prosecuted by demonstrating a pattern.

"The way they look at it, they look at a pattern of stock trades," Schweizer said. "If the person has access to that information and then they do a series of well-timed trades.  That warrants investigation. I think the same thing applies here."

The one thing that's been stupid is the "left's" attacking Schweizer as a right-wing hack line. He's entire open about his political positions but his previous two books went after everyone and Extortion had a whole chapter about how shitty and corrupt John Boehner's House leadership has been and how shit some Senators were at using their PACs.

That's why CBS teamed up with him for these reports that stemmed from his prior books:
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/congress-trading-stock-on-inside-information/
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/washingtons-open-secret-profitable-pacs/

Plus his Boehner stuff in the book was focused on how hardline he is on these quotas:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/08/call-time-congressional-fundraising_n_2427291.html
http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/461/take-the-money-and-run-for-office
http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2013/06/the-humiliating-fundraising-existence-of-a-member-of-congress/277227/

He got a hold of the GOP's TOP SECRET DO NOT SHARE EVER required quotas for each committee membership, chairmanship, etc. document for that book iirc.

He's a muckraker, but there's nothing wrong with that really, "left" muckrakers are great too imo. Everybody loves The Jungle, and that was from a muckraker that did the same "there's a lot of smoke, someone should see if there's fire" method.

Haven't read the Hillary book, but if this is all the muck he could rake up to put in it? The GOP's not going to be able to run on "Clinton scandals" in the general too much.

[Phoenix Dark]

We've been fighting liberals for years to stop people like the Baltimore mobsters from voting after convicted. @DrRandPaul wants them 2 vote

— Daniel Horowitz (@RMConservative) April 27, 2015

https://twitter.com/RMConservative/status/592810026785464321

[benjipwns]

We've been fighting liberals for years to stop people like the Baltimore mobsters from voting after convicted. @DrRandPaul wants them 2 vote

— Daniel Horowitz (@RMConservative) April 27, 2015

https://twitter.com/RMConservative/status/592810026785464321

kirbmelo ‏@spaceghostkirb  3h3 hours ago
@RMConservative lol what does that have to do with anything?!

Alan Stump ‏@AlanStump1  3h3 hours ago
@RMConservative @DrRandPaul Not like they vote #GOP but that's beside the point, unless this is about G. Gordon voting again.

Always love a Liddy shout out.