Politics Plus

You may know that I have written several articles on the Republican war on voting, so I shall not go into the details of extreme tactics they use to separate minority, elderly, disabled, labor, and poor Americans from their right to vote.  But a recent attempt has exposed  a small glimpse at who is financing this effort.

Last month, Maine voters delivered a major rebuke to Gov. Paul LePage (R) and the Republican-held legislature when they approved a referendum restoring election day voting registration rights in the state. Earlier this year, state legislators passed a bill repealing the state’s 38 year-old law allowing citizens to register at the polls on election day.

Tens of thousands of Mainers responded by petitioning for the matter come to a referendum. Issue 1 was one of the most-anticipated votes on election day this year, with pundits watching closely to see how citizens would react to the Republican-led war on voting, which ramped up in states across the country this year.

Recognizing the referendum’s importance, voting rights opponents poured money into the campaign to repeal election day registration. In fact, just two days after the state’s campaign finance reporting deadline, a secret conservative donor funneled $250,000 into the race, allowing the No On 1 campaign to make significant TV ad buys in an inexpensive media market.

Per state law, however, the identity of donors must be revealed within 45 days after the election. In fact, the entire $250,000 worth of late money came from a single source: the American Justice Partnership.

The AJP is a conservative legal organization based not in Maine, but in Michigan. On their website [Koch suckers delinked], the group states they are fighting against “the scheming George Soros money machine” which is “trying to sabotage your right to vote,” a claim apparently made without a hint of irony. Though the AJP doesn’t disclose where its funding comes from, the Bangor Daily News notes that it has partnered with the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) in the past, a group that has been instrumental in the proliferation of voter ID laws across the country…

Inserted from <Think Progress>

Now AJP does claim to be bipartisan, but the only officer listed on their website, Dan Pero writes a blog, where he supported Newt Gingrich’s proposal that “activist” [ones who do not goose step with the Republicans] judges should be jailed.  They commonly partner with [work on behalf of] the Heritage Foundation and ALEC.  Because this involves curtailing voting rights, ALEC is the most likely candidate, as that is one of their fortes.

ALEC is not a lobby; it is not a front group. It is much more powerful than that. Through ALEC, behind closed doors, corporations hand state legislators the changes to the law they desire that directly benefit their bottom line. Along with legislators, corporations have membership in ALEC. Corporations sit on all nine ALEC task forces and vote with legislators to approve “model” bills. They have their own corporate governing board which meets jointly with the legislative board. (ALEC says that corporations do not vote on the board.) They fund almost all of ALEC’s operations. Participating legislators, overwhelmingly conservative Republicans, then bring those proposals home and introduce them in statehouses across the land as their own brilliant ideas and important public policy innovations—without disclosing that corporations crafted and voted on the bills. ALEC boasts that it has over 1,000 of these bills introduced by legislative members every year, with one in every five of them enacted into law. ALEC describes itself as a “unique,” “unparalleled” and “unmatched” organization. It might be right. It is as if a state legislature had been reconstituted, yet corporations had pushed the people out the door. Learn more at ALECexposed.org.  [emphasis added]

Inserted from <Source Watch>

Some ALEC legislators include John Boehner, Eric Cantor, Lindsey Graham, James Inhofe and more.

Some ALEC Corporations include AT&T, Bayer, Coca-cola, ExxonMobil, Glaxo SmithKline, Koch Companies, Wal-Fart and more.

This gives you a brief glimpse at the inner workings of the Republican vision for YOUR future.

The situation with Iran has gone from bad to worse, and the US is threatening military intervention if Iran attempts to block the Strait of Hormuz, as they have threatened.  To make matters worse, Congress has virtually tied Barack Obama’s hands, making a conflict more likely.  We desperately need to step up diplomacy, but that may not be allowed.

The U.S. warned Iran Wednesday that it will not tolerate any disruption of naval traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, after Iran’s navy chief said the Islamic Republic is capable of closing the vital oil route if the West imposes new sanctions targeting Tehran’s oil exports.

Iran’s Adm. Habibollah Sayyari told state-run Press TV that closing the strait, which is the only sea outlet for the crucial oil fields in and around the Persian Gulf, "is very easy" for his country’s naval forces.

It was the second such warning by Iran in two days, reflecting Tehran’s concern that the West is about to impose new sanctions that could hit the country’s biggest source of revenue, its oil sector. On Tuesday, Vice President Mohamed Reza Rahimi threatened to close the strait if the West imposes such sanctions.

In response, the Bahrain-based U.S. 5th Fleet’s spokeswoman warned that any disruption at the strait "will not be tolerated."

The spokeswoman, Lt. Rebecca Rebarich, said the U.S. Navy is "always ready to counter malevolent actions to ensure freedom of navigation."… [emphasis added]

Inserted from <USA Today>

What upsets Iran most is that proposed sanctions could target not only Iran, but everyone who deals with Iran, in the same way that the US now sanctions Cuba.  Rachel Maddow covered this issue and interviewed foreign policy expert, Josh Rogin.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Banning diplomacy, as the House did is an act of insanity. House Republicans wanted it and House Democrats were to cowardly to vote against it, almost in an election year, especially since there was nothing they could do to prevent it’s passage. They would have been accused of siding with Iran.  We need to urge our Senators to strip it out. In the Senate, sanctions have been attached to the Defense Budget.  Republicans want gas prices to rise, because it will hurt the economy in an election year. Republicans also want their main solution.