76 year old chair of a county Republican party in Georgia arrested after sexual assault broadcast on Skype.

Defendant Billy Joe Turnage, with Georgia Senate hopeful David Perdue.

Courtesy of Crooks and Liars: 

The chair of a county Republican Party in Georgia was recently arrested after he was allegedly broadcast on Skype sexually assaulting and attempting to rape a woman. 

On Wednesday, the North Georgia News reported that Union County Republican Party Chairman Billy Joe Turnage, 76, was facing charges of sexual battery and criminal attempt to commit rape. 

Union County Sheriff Investigator Staff Sgt. Darren Osborn told the paper that 911 dispatchers received a report of an ongoing "assault and rape" of a 39-year-old female at Turnage's residence last week. 

"Oct. 22, dispatch received a 911 call at approximately 4 p.m. of what was believed to be an assault and rape," Osborn noted. "It was being viewed via Skype. Deputies responded and I responded as well." 

"Upon our arrival, we started an investigation," he continued. "The end result was the arrest of Billy Joe Turnage. Mr. Turnage was at the scene when we arrived." 

Osborn said that investigators from the Georgia Bureau of Investigation conducted two days of interviews before bringing criminal attempt to commit rape charges against Turnage.

Now look I am not going to say that this is in any way indicative of how Republicans seem to be treating females in this country, because that would be unfair.

I mean just because in many places where Republicans hold a majority there are draconian policies in place which restrict a woman's access to not only abortion but also birth control and free medical advice is no reason to draw a parallel.

Nor is there a real connection between this disgusting assault and the Republicans blocking the Paycheck Fairness Act, which would have ensured that women were as valued in the workplace as men.

Two completely separate issues, right?

After all it's not like Republican men see women as inferior, or needing to know their place or anything.

Right?

The Republican's most aggressive attempt to suppress votes yet. And it looks like it will succeed.

Courtesy of Slate:  

According to a six-month-long investigation conducted by Greg Palast for Al Jazeera, “voting officials in 27 states, almost all of them Republicans, have launched what is threatening to become a massive purge of black, Hispanic, and Asian-American voters. Already, tens of thousands have been removed from voter rolls in battleground states, and the numbers are set to climb.” 

Specifically, officials have a master list of 6.9 million suspected “potential double voters.” And in Virginia, Georgia, and Washington the lists are “heavily over-weighted with names such as Jackson, Garcia, Patel, and Kim,” all common to Democratic-leaning minority groups. 

The process for checking those names, a computer program called Crosscheck—touted by Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, a vocal supporter for voter identification—is incredibly inaccurate. “The actual lists,” notes Al Jazeera America, “show that not only are middle names mismatched, and suffix discrepancies ignored, even conflicting birthdates are disregarded. Moreover, Crosscheck deliberately ignores any Social Security mismatches, in the few instances when the numbers are even collected.” 

Given the tight races in Georgia and other battleground states, even a small number of false positives could turn the tide of an election, giving a strong advantage to Republican candidates for statewide and congressional offices.

In Georgia they simply misplace voter registrations that they don't want to accept:

On Tuesday, Judge Christopher Brasher of the Fulton County Superior Court denied a petition from civil rights advocates to force Georgia’s Secretary of State to process an estimated 40,000 voter registrations that have gone missing from the public database. 

All of that bullshit the conservatives have been throwing around about voter fraud, and the need for stricter restrictions at the polls, was all to lay the groundwork for crap like this.

You know there are a whole lot of reasons to vote for the Democrats in this next election. But perhaps one of the best is because they respect EVERY American's right to vote, and rather than attempt to suppress any group's ability to cast their ballot, they work overtime to make it easy for all of us.

I for one am beyond fed up with this underhanded shit.