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UPDATE OCTOBER 11! Power Line’s John Hinderaker draws our attention here to “The Coming Obama Thugocracy” –

“That’s the title of Michael Barone’s warning against the peril to free speech that an Obama Presidency will pose. Barone cites a number of examples of Obama’s and liberals’ efforts to suppress the First Amendment rights of those who disagree with them, and concludes: ‘Today’s liberals seem to be taking their marching orders from other quarters. Specifically, from the college and university campuses where administrators, armed with speech codes, have for years been disciplining and subjecting to sensitivity training any students who dare to utter thoughts that liberals find offensive. The campuses that used to pride themselves as zones of free expression are now the least free part of our society. Obama supporters who found the campuses congenial and Obama himself, who has chosen to live all his adult life in university communities, seem to find it entirely natural to suppress speech that they don’t like and seem utterly oblivious to claims that this violates the letter and spirit of the First Amendment. In this campaign, we have seen the coming of the Obama thugocracy, suppressing free speech, and we may see its flourishing in the four or eight years ahead.’

“Official” enforced neglect of voting integrity in Virginia

Last month, we wrote here about a report that the Department of Justice would act against citizens who put out the word that only citizens should vote:

“One cited example of a ‘criminal’ violation supposedly intended to ’suppress’ voting was sending mailers informing voters that you must be a citizen to vote, a requirement of state and federal law. One of the deputy chiefs, Mark Blumberg, told FBI agents and federal prosecutors that the individuals responsible for such a brochure should be brought before a federal grand jury to ask them if they belong to any ‘anti-immigrant’ groups.”  (Underscoring Forum’s.)

Yesterday CEI’s Counsel for Special Projects Hans Bader in his “Voter Fraud in Virginia Abetted by ACLU” tells us:

“People openly boast about fraudulently registering to vote in Virginia, a swing state, even though they actually live, and are registered to vote, in other states.  The Norfolk, Virginia election board tried to do something about that, by making sure that people registering to vote in Virginia actually do live in the state.  One way it did that was to send questionnaires to students who came from out-of-state to attend Virginia colleges, and then registered in Virginia, to see if those students really qualify as Virginia residents.   It had every right to do that under federal court rulings, which hold that it is perfectly OK to require such proof of domicile (permanent residence) from everyone, students included.

However, the Obama campaign protested this, even though the Norfolk, Virginia election board is comprised primarily of Democrats, and represent a liberal stronghold.   In response, state officials appointed by Virginia’s liberal governor, Tim Kaine, ordered the Norfolk election board not to send any more questionnaires to confirm students’ domicile, even though state election law requires domicile as a condition for voting and registration.  The Norfolk board has followed this order under protest, even though it believes it violates state election law.”

Readers are encouraged to read Bader’s entire piece here, and to review our September 24 post on the Department of Justice’s election plans here.

Even though Maryland is not a “battleground” jurisdiction, voters should be vigilant about parallel abuses in the Old Line State. A further thought: Many of us (including these writers) have expressed our policy differences with senator John McCain.  Just this morning the Washington Times’ Ralph Hallow wrote a thorough post here on current conservative complaints. But if there are major abuses in the 2008 elections, think what kind of elections we shall have in 2010 when the White House is in senator Obama’s hands and he has had a very tame Congress. Free and honest elections are the foundation of our Republic.  Such trustworthy elections are already in peril this November. Conservatives must envision what 2010 elections will be like with aggressive Leftists at the levers of Federal power, and the Fairness Doctrine (a.k.a the Muzzling Policy) back in force.

Bottom line:  vote for McCain, don’t stay home in a huff, don’t dally with third-party candidates.  There will be time later to express our differences with president McCain and vote for other parties, or senators and representatives, or simply lobby for other policies.  Under president Obama, our votes may not fully count, and our political speech may well be crippled.

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