"Caging Lists" are unAmerican, Mr. Bush

A damning investigative report from the BBC's Greg Palast provides even more evidence that if the Republicans can't win an election, they'll just steal it. According to Palast's report, the Republican party in Florida is developing what's called a "caging list" that will be used to disenfranchise thousands of black, Democrat voters...again.

The deal is this: In Florida, among other states, it is perfectly legal to challenge a voter's eligibility right there at the polls, preventing him or her from voting. The challenged voter then receives a "provisional" ballot to take home and fill out; a ballot that usually ends up in the trash can right outside the voting booth. The real problem though, Palast says, is that the goal of the Republicans is not to directly disenfranchise these voters (although that's a convenient benefit for them), but rather to gum up the works, so to speak.

In places like Jacksonville, the Republican-controlled state government has ensured that thousands of minority neighborhoods have insufficient voting areas, causing long lines and substantial waits to vote. Challenging voters at the ballot box will cause massive delays that the Republicans hope will grind the system to a halt and yet again, lose thousands of votes for the Democratic candidate.

Palast's report goes on to bring to light the voter intimidation and outright fraud currently occuring in Florida. For example, Palast confronts a mysterious man caught outside an early voting area videotaping every voter who enters and exits the polling place. He is driving an unmarked, black SUV with blacked-out windows, and he admits to Palast that he is a professional privite investigator. He somehow forgets the name of his employer, though. I have a feeling that he wasn't hired by the Rainbow Coalition.

Additionally, a county election chief's daughter was the victim of a scam wherein she was tricked into signing what she thought was a petition to legalize medical marijuana. Instead the document was a voter registration for Tampa, hundreds of miles from where she lived. This would invalidate her vote in both places. Jeb Bush's government says that they don't have time to track down the con artists right now. Hmmm... Luckily, her father caught the scam in time, but how many other young, left-leaning students have a nasty surprise awaiting them at the polls on Tuesday?

You can, and should, view the video report here. It will be the lead on BBC News tonight, but don't look for it on your local ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, or god forbid, FOX affiliate: The Republican National Committee has threatened to block access to sources and candidates to the BBC if they air it, so you can imagine that the same goes for our "news" outlets.

[Breaking news] Jeb Bush supports challenging voters at the polls...what a surprise!