YouTube: Young El Paso County CO Voter Registration Volunteer Fails Civics

This story kicked off the whole “Nathan Sproul, GOP Vote Fraudster, At It Again” narrative. All the old stories came out from 2004 and other years. And the national GOP was forced to fire him after the Florida registration fraud story made it clear that the GOP was paying for Republican voter registrations again (and pretty much NOT paying for Democratic registrations). Then some state GOP organizations fired him some more. Time to create a new name, eh? It’s a reliable predictor of Republican shenanigans: whatever accusation they make against Democrats, they are surely doing more of it. ACORN registration fraud? Their registrars were paid by registration too, but they never threw away completed forms from real people. The Sproul registrars were incentivized to register only Republican voters, MUCH more likely to “untrue the vote” than Mickey Mouse actually showing up to cast a ballot.

What else have Republicans accused the Democrats of doing? Then look for them doing it too, and to much worse effect. Republicans are so in denial and deep in the coils of cognitive dissonance that projection is one way they cope. Now they’re complaining about supposedly “skewed” polls, so what do they do? Skew their polls even more than Rasmussen, a pollster famous for weighting his polls to GOP advantage, is comfortable with. Don’t miss Lee Fang’s overview, which links to more dirty details. Link: YouTube video spurs voter registration flap Colorado Springs Gazette

Smallest Jewish congregation in U.S. fights for survival in Mattoon IL

MATTOON, IL—

Proud to be known as the heart of the Illinois Bible Belt, the residents of Mattoon fill dozens of Christian churches. Theres also one Jewish congregation, which has the distinction of being the smallest Reform synagogue in North America. The membership? Four households.

The Mattoon Jewish Community Center isnt a center at all but a group of dedicated congregants who meet in Trinity Episcopal Church. Even at Yom Kippur — the holiest of Holy Days, when this week synagogues in Chicago were packed — the worshippers at this prairie outpost strained to hit double digits.

via Smallest Jewish congregation in U.S. fights for survival in Illinois – chicagotribune.com

One of my favorite family members lives south of Mattoon. Aside from occasional visits home, she rarely gets to attend services or events in her Jewish heritage. It’s kind of sad and frustrating; she was raised in a Jewish home but was never able to participate fully in all the milestone events, other than as an observer.

There’s no way she could travel to Mattoon to attend the occasional Sabbath service; the logistics just don’t work. But it was interesting to read about this small Reform congregation in her part of the state, and I’m glad that an Episcopal congregation has given them a home when it became impossible to maintain their building.