Open Thread–3/19/2013

 Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Mar 192013
 

I’m still feeling pretty crappy and need to stay down, but I did get a new poll up.  I’m not current with replies, and hope I’m better tomorrow.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:43 (average 5:30).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From MSNBC: Bloody Bullseye Barbie Unleashed

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When you consider her ability to keep the rabid base enthralled, you have to wonder whether or not the InsaniTEA set have an average IQ of 70.

From Washington Post: Supreme Court justices seemed split Monday on whether a federal law intended to streamline voter-registration procedures means that states may not attach additional requirements, such as proof of citizenship.

The federal registration form that Congress says states must “accept and use” requires only that the applicant swear under oath that he or she is a citizen.

Needless to say, Roberts, Alito, Scalia and Thomas are positioned squarely against the Constitution.

From Crooks and Liars: If it’s Sunday, it’s another episode of Dancin’ David Gregory inviting Republicans to come on his show and rattle off their talking points without fear of contradiction. Karl Rove’s dance partner allowed House Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy to attribute a very famous statement by Dick Cheney’s (that "deficits don’t matter") to President Obama! He also said that Democrats are the ones responsible for racking up the majority of the debt we’ve been dealing with ever since President Obama took the oath of office.

 

This could not be a more classic example of projection.

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America needs Cruz control.

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Open Thread–3/12/2013

 Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Mar 122013
 

Yesterday I could not sleep.  I have no idea why.  My COPD was no more severe than normal.  Sleep just would not come.  The upshot is that I feel exhausted, so I’m posting just this to avoid overtaxing myself.  I’m current with replies and should return to normal tomorrow.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 5:25 (average 7:23).  To do it click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From Salem News: America has moved backward over the last half century. There is now representation without taxation, which is the opposite of the founding philosophy. What America has now is a culture where a few thousand people control the political and corporate worlds and are not taxed. Because they control the political process, they have almost entirely freed themselves of a tax burden.

 

The reality of inequity has become skewed beyond recognition, and preventing more equity is the mission of the Republican Party.

From NY Times: What’s really needed is a new act that makes access to the polls a universal American right. The Voting Rights Act remains necessary to prevent continuing racial discrimination, but bringing lawsuits under Section 2 of the act (which applies to the entire country and is not being challenged) is enormously difficult and costly. Preliminary injunctions to stop discriminatory election practices outside covered areas are rarely granted.

Racial prejudice was the principal target of the 1965 act, but the partisans who control so many state election systems have often gone beyond race in their attempts to rig voting to their advantage. Voter ID laws that impose a burden on students, the elderly or the poor, for example, should become as presumptively illegal as racial burdens are now. So should registration systems that make it harder for immigrants or non-English speakers to get on the rolls, or districts gerrymandered for political gain.

A country that takes pride in its democratic system should provide all voters with basic voting standards. Though Ms. Miller and other Republicans seem to think that federal mandates “would disrupt our already well-run system of elections” in the states, millions of voters have experienced something very different. Solving that problem is as urgent now as it was 50 years ago.

I could not agree more.

From MSNBC: Ed Schultz covered the same Republican hate that I did Sunday.

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In the Republican War on Women violence and threats of violence are too extreme a tactic to allow.

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12Cartoon

This was the first move in the “banana wars” to maker Latin America safe for United Fruit.

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Republicans on Parade–2/28/2013

 Politics
Feb 282013
 

Here is the third article in our Republicans on Parade series, featuring individuals who personify what the Republican Party has become.  Today’s honoree is Injustice Antonin Scalia, because he prefers his own racist view, in support of the Republican War on Minorities, to the law, as set by the US Constitution.

28scaliaThe 1965 Voting Rights Act, which gave African Americans in the Deep South access to the ballot box, is a “racial entitlement,” U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia said Wednesday as the court hear oral arguments in a legal challenge to the landmark law from the state of Alabama.

The outspoken, ultraconservative Scalia discounted the fact that Congress has repeatedly reenacted the law — most recently by a 99-0 Senate vote in 2006 — and argued that its renewal is “not the kind of question you can leave to Congress.”

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin "Nino" Scalia describes Voting Rights Act as a "racial entitlement"

“I don’t think there is anything to be gained by any senator to vote against continuation of this act,” Scalia said.  “They are going to lose votes if they do not reenact the Voting Rights Act.  Even the name of it is wonderful — the Voting Rights Act.  Who is going to vote against that in the future? I am fairly confident it will be reenacted in perpetuity.

“Whenever a society adopts racial entitlements, it is very difficult to get out of them through normal political processes.”

The case of Shelby County vs. Holder is a challenge to the landmark Section 5 of the act.  It requires nine states (eight in the South) as well as local governments in other states to “pre-clear” changes in voting procedures with the U.S. Department of Justice.  The act has been invoked as recently as the 2012 election, in which several state legislatures made rules changes designed to impede early voting… [emphasis added]

Inserted from <Seattle PI>

Photo credit: Plutocrap

Both Ed Schultz and Rachel Maddow devoted multiple segments to cover this outrage in detail.

Ed 1:

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Ed 2:

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Rachel 1:

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Rachel 2:

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I hove no doubt that Republicans will complain that all the abuses that originally occasioned the Voting Rights Act were perpetrated by Democrats.  That is true.  The Dixiecrats were indeed Democrats, but when the Democratic Party pushed the Voting Rights Act through Congress, those same Dixiecrats abandoned the Democratic Party and have now become the Republican base.

I agree with the experts that, if Section 5 is overturned, the Voting Rights Act will become altogether reactive, because it is Section 5 that makes it proactive in those places with a history of racial abuse of voting rights.  Arizona is not covered by Section 5.  The appeals court overturned their anti-Latino plan that created four new white dominated districts, when all the population growth that caused the state to gain those four seats was Latino.  The court sent it back to the state with instructions to redo it, but since the election was so close, Arizona was able to hold the 2012 elections using the overturned plan.  If anything, Section 5 needs to be expanded to everywhere that Republicans are attacking the right to vote of minorities, students, seniors, and anyone else that is likely to vote for Democrats.

I also agree that Herr Scalia’s view that being allowed to vote is a “racial entitlement” could not be a more racist statement.

I also agree that the Constitution guarantees the right to vote, but there is one point everyone seems to have missed.  Herr Scalia said that voting rights is “not the kind of question you can leave to Congress.  The experts said that Congress has renewed it several times.  What does the Constitution actually have to say about that?

Amendment XV

Section 1.

The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.

Section 2.

The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

The Constitution says it’s exactly the kind of question you can leave to Congress.  It could not be more clear that Scalia opposes the US Constitution, as he helps the Republican party goose-step back to the 19th century.

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Fox Attacked a 102 Year Old

 Politics
Feb 152013
 

The Republican Ministry of Propaganda, aka Faux Noise, has a problem.  Because they report so-called news from an exclusively Republican perspective, they usually find themselves positioned in exact opposition to the facts of the story.  When unable to argue a valid position, they attack a person, as they did here.

15desiline-victorAfter glossing over state Republicans’ role in exacerbating long lines at the ballot box, three Fox hosts mocked the hours-long wait and multiple trips a 102-year-old woman endured in order to cast her vote in 2012.

On Fox News Radio’s Kilmeade & Friends, host Brian Kilmeade and Fox’s Martha MacCallum and Bill Hemmer laughed off the difficulties 102-year-old Desiline Victor endured in order to vote in the 2012 election. Victor, who was invited to the State of the Union address and whom President Obama applauded for enduring a long wait to vote, had to make two trips to the polls and wait in line for over three hours before she was able to cast her ballot. Discussing Victor, MacCallum wondered, "What’s the big deal?" and said, "This is such a non-issue. Ridiculous." Hemmer added that at the State of the Union, "They held her up as a victim. What was she a victim of?"

But long lines at polling places are widely acknowledged as a major issue nationwide. In Victor’s home state of Florida alone, at least 201,000 eligible voters reportedly did not cast ballots because they were discouraged by lengthy wait times…

Inserted from <Media Matters>

Here’s the audio:

In this case, the facts are that Florida Republicans did everything in their power to keep likely Democratic voters from voting, and many suffered severe hardship to exercise their right to vote.  Victor was a very sympatric example of the suffering the Republican War on Voting caused.  These Republican propagandists have no shame.

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Open Thread–11/17/2012

 Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Nov 172012
 

We have made it to another weekend, and I hope that you are enjoying yours.  I’m current with replies.  Tomorrow is a holy day in the Church of the Ellipsoid Orb.  My Broncos are meditating with the Chargers is the afternoon, so I shall strive to finish in the morning.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:28 (average 4:29).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From MoveOn: This 83 Seconds Is To Remind President Obama What We Just Voted For

 

Tell your Senators and Reps why they are in office, too!

From PR Watch: Wisconsin’s effort to open the state to predatory lenders using American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) legislation has paid dividends for the ALEC legislators behind it.

In May of 2011, Rep. Robin Vos, the ALEC State Chair in Wisconsin and head of the powerful Joint Finance Committee, rolled a provision into the 2011-2012 budget bill resembling ALEC model legislation and that legalized auto title loans. Democrats voted against the provision, but it ultimately passed the Republican-led Finance Committee and state legislature.

Officials with Georgia-based title loan company LoanMax then gave over $24,000 in campaign contributions to Republican Assembly candidates, the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel’s Dan Bice reported this week.

I have no doubt that Scott Walker, Fartfuhrer of Fitzwalkerstan, heartily approved.

From TPM: Several prominent election lawyers on a panel here Friday predicted that the Supreme Court would ultimately strike down a part of the Voting Rights Act that requires states with a history of racial discrimination to have their election laws precleared [sic] by federal authorities.

If correct, and I think they are, the reason will be that the fascist five are working hard to help Republicans steal elections, by disenfranchising legitimate voters.

Cartoon:

17Cartoon

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Open Thread–11/7/2012

 Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Nov 072012
 

Instead of live blogging the election last night, I spent several hours with the tech support department of our HSP.  There are still problems, but I’m working around them.  I’m exhausted.  I’m as current with replies as I can reasonably get right now.  I think I may take a day off tomorrow.  I’ve earned it.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:52 (average 4:54).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From NY Times: In Virginia and Texas some voters waited in line for four hours. In Pennsylvania, there were inappropriate demands for official photo IDs. Recorded calls went out to residents of Florida saying misleadingly that they had until 7 p.m. “tomorrow” to vote. And in Ohio, there seemed to be an unusually high number of provisional ballots, causing concern that they might not all get counted.

Major kudos to all the voters, who suffered from Republican attempts to deprive them of their votes, and voted anyway!

From Boston Globe: Elizabeth Ann Warren, a fierce consumer advocate who galvanized liberals across the nation, won a decisive victory over Senator Scott Brown Tuesday, avenging the Democratic Party’s bitter loss ­at the hands of Brown in 2010, an upset that jolted the national political landscape.

Warren/Grayson 2016!

From Addicting Info: Trump Calls For ‘March On Washington’ For ‘Revolution’

Sadly, those afflicted with InsaniTEA still insist on committing Teabuggery!

Cartoon:

7Cartoon

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Another Republican Busted for Election Fraud

 Politics
Oct 202012
 

Voter fraud is not a problem.  Even the highly biased Bush Regime could find virtually no evidence of it, despite an exhaustive five year investigation determined to document voter fraud.  Nevertheless, Republicans still use it as a dishonest excuse and do everything else they can to keep legitimate Democratic voters from the polls.  On the other hand, evidence of election fraud abounds, because it has become Republican standard operating procedure.

20colin-smallPennsylvania resident Colin Small was arrested Thursday after he was caught illegally destroying voter registration forms in Virginia. Smalls worked for a firm hired by the Republican Party of Virginia to register voters, but was spotted throwing away 8 voter registration forms in a dumpster on Monday, the deadline for registering to vote in Virginia.

The 31-year-old man was charged with four counts of destruction of voter registration applications, eight counts of failing to disclose voter registration applications and one count of obstruction of justice. Small was spotted by the owner of a store in Harrisonburg, Virginia, who became suspicious when he saw Small’s Pennsylvania license plate.

The Los Angeles Times has the details of the discarded forms:

Three of the voters turned out to be already registered, according to Donald Palmer, secretary of the Virginia State Board of Elections. The other five were not registered, and have since been added to the voter roll. Registration closed on Monday.

In Virginia, and other states, it’s a crime to accept a voter registration form and not turn it in. Small is charged with destroying voter registration applications and obstruction of justice… [emphasis original]

Inserted from <Think Progress>

I can’t help but wonder how many other Democratic registrations have been been destroyed by Republican criminals.  No doubt, some would be voters will show up at the polls and be denied their right to vote, because they were not registered due to the destruction of their registration forms by the Republican Party.  This is far more extensive and widespread than meets the eye here.

20RepublicanFraud…But there is more to the story, as evidence emerges to document that it ties in to a still-expanding nationwide GOP Voter Registration Fraud Scandal that The BRAD BLOG first began reporting in late September, after we’d learned that the Republican Party of Florida had turned in more than 100 allegedly fraudulent and otherwise suspect voter registration forms in Palm Beach County. The story has continued to widen ever since, to a dozen Florida counties and several other states, now including Virginia, and even to the upper-echelons of the Republican Party itself.

The man arrested today was 23-year old Colin Small of Phoenixville, PA. As it turns out, he does not only work for the VA Republican Party. According to an online profile, he appears to be working for the Republican National Committee and, prior to that, served as an Intern for Congressman Mike Kelly (R-PA) in the U.S. House of Representatives… [emphasis added]

Inserted from <Current>

Can there be any doubt that the Republican voter fraud scandal is not the work of just a few bad apples, but is the intent of the Republican Party to steal this election?

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