From the "Utterly Bizarre" files.

Manic Moran

I'm not sure we have a thread for these particularly weird things coming out of US politics.

http://abcnews.go.com/TheLaw/story?id=5296872&page=1

A second local Democratic Party official in North Carolina was arrested Wednesday in connection with alleged satanic rituals that involved beatings and sexual assault.

<snip>

Joseph Craig, 25, was arrested last week on second-degree kidnapping charges for allegedly forcing a man into a dog cage and beating him with a wooden cane and a cable cord, court documents reveal. He also is accused of raping a woman while his wife, Joy Johnson, watched, the documents say.

Local prosecutor Mark McCullough said the victims claimed they were taking part in a satanic ritual. Johnson, a former vice chairwoman of the Durham County Democratic Party, has been charged with aiding and abetting rape and assault with a deadly weapon.

NTM

Jim_Are_Great

Wow... Makes Spitzer look like the local parish priest.

Pocono Joe

There are crazies that belong to both political parties here (even more with the fringe parties). But what is more interesting to me is that ABC news reported this without seemingly being forced to, because the story broke at another news outlet and had gained legs. The news outlets of ABC, NBC, and CBS, along with cable entities such as CNN and MSNBC are overwhelmingly Democrat leaning. They usually softball or bury stories about unsavory Democrats, and make it front page news about Republican improprieties.

And here is a recent behind-the-scenes story. A young girl called relatives saying to watch the evening ABC news. They were filming at a recent event were she was interviewing military members about their voting preferences (before the Hillary v Obama drama was over). She interviewed 60 military members about who they would vote for in the presidential election. 54 stated McCain, 4 Clinton, 2 Obama. When the ABC news reported that evening (and it wasn’t a solely Democrat event), they showed only 6 military members on screen… and guess which 6… yep the 4 Clinton and 2 Obama claims… making it appear as if all military members preferred the Democratic candidates over the Republicans. Not a shred of mention about the 54 whom claimed McCain. Now tell me our mainstream media isn’t biased!

Manic Moran

Can't argue the irony in this one.

Officials Investigate 3 Alabama Counties in Voter Fraud Accusations - NYTimes.com

MARION, Ala. — Federal and state authorities are looking into accusations of voting fraud in three largely black counties of Alabama, including Perry and Lowndes Counties, which played a historic role in the struggle for black voting rights in the 1960s.

In May, a local citizens group gathered affidavits detailing several cases in which at least one Democratic county official paid citizens for their votes, or encouraged them to vote multiple times

<snip>

Ms. Chapman also raised questions about the possible abuse of absentee ballots. In the election on June 3, a quarter of the voters here, 1,114, cast absentee ballots, a percentage that is six times the state average and a figure that Ms. Chapman called “astronomical.” In Jefferson County, which includes Birmingham and has 60 times Perry County’s population of 10,600, there were 365 absentee ballots.

<snip>

Some Democrats here say the inquiries are motivated by racism and partisanship.

“The Republican Party has an unscripted mandate to target Democratic counties, and African-Americans particularly,” said Albert Turner Jr., a county commissioner here

<snip>

Not all Democrats agree with the accusation of partisanship.

The Perry County district attorney, Michael W. Jackson, a Democrat and the first black to be elected to the post, called early in June for a federal investigation into possible voting irregularities, particularly focusing on absentee ballots.

<snip>

In interviews in the county, where a third of the population lives below the poverty line and $100 is a fortune, several residents said they had seen votes openly bought and sold by local officials.

<snip>

The incongruity is lost on no one here. It was here in downtown Marion on a night in 1965 that an Alabama trooper flung a young local activist against a cigarette machine and then shot him in the stomach. And that killing led directly to the Voting Rights Act enfranchising blacks throughout the South.

Just another day at the polls... "Vote early, vote often!"

NTM