California is why GOP are terrified of free and fair elections

Change the California GOP’s mascot from the elephant to the mastodon.

Raw Story: With only five months remaining before the primaries, the increasingly moribund California Republican Party finds itself without any viable candidates for many of the top statewide contests, The Sacramento Bee reported.

Four years after having been swept by the Democrats in all eight statewide contests, the California GOP has had trouble recruiting candidates in a state where fewer than 30 percent of voters are registered as Republican. As it stands now there are no Republican candidates for the offices of  California attorney general, lieutenant governor, treasurer, and controller.

“This is a real challenge in that we are two steps away from a nightmare scenario where the statewide ticket appears so weak that some Republicans simply give up and throw in with Jerry Brown, creating chaos for Republicans running in competitive seats around the state,” warned former chairman of the California Republican Party Ron Nehring.

"Complicating matters for the state GOP is California’s voter-approved primary system, in which the top two vote-getters regardless of party advance to the fall election, which could result in two Democrats facing each other in November," the story goes on. "This would leave the approximately 1.7 million to 1.8 million  California Republican voters without party representation on the ballot for statewide offices driving down voter participation and affecting  California US House Republicans electoral prospects."

But that’s not the only handicap that California Republicans face going into the future — if you can call leveling the playing field “handicapping.” In 2005, the state put the task of redistricting in the hands of a bipartisan board, effectively eliminating the problem of gerrymandering. In California, voters truly choose their elected officials — while in most other places in America the elected officials choose their voters, drawing district lines around the people most likely to vote for them and turning democracy into a sham.

The result of making Republicans compete on a field with no advantages? Pretty much what you’d expect for a party that only makes up 30% of the electorate: doom.

This is why Republicans everywhere resist redistricting reform and this is why they try to give themselves every advantage through voter suppression laws and gerrymandering. This is why they cheered the Supreme Court’s gutting of the Voting Rights Act. Without the cheats, the GOP is over with.

Doubt me? At 30% GOP, hippy-dippy loony liberal California is actually more Republican than America as a whole. Recent polling by Gallup shows that only 25% of Americans identify as Republican.

In a real contest, Republicans would be ruined — which is why they try to lock Democrats’ and third party candidates’ ankles to an anvil before every race.

When Republicans Dream

Kevin Siers, Charlotte Observer.

Former Sec. of State Colin Powell blasts NC’s voting restrictions

News and Observer: With Gov. Pat McCrory in the audience, former Secretary of State Colin Powell took aim at North Carolina’s new voting law Thursday, saying it hurts the Republican Party, punishes minority voters and makes it more difficult for everyone to vote.

"I want to see policies that encourage every American to vote, not make it more difficult to vote," said Powell, a Republican, at the CEO Forum in Raleigh.

"It immediately turns off a voting block the Republican Party needs," Powell continued. "These kinds of actions do not build on the base. It just turns people away."

The retired general served as the keynote speaker at the event and made his remarks moments after McCrory left the stage. His comments represent the most high-profile criticism of the Republican-crafted law that requires voters to show photo identification at the polls, cuts early voting days and makes it harder for students to vote.

In one comment, he seemed to rebuke McCrory for suggesting that voter fraud likely exists but is hard to detect. The governor had compared it to insider trading.

"You can say what you like, but there is no voter fraud," Powell said. "How can it be widespread and undetected?"

"What it really says to the minority voters is… ‘We really are sort-of punishing you,’" Powell said, which is correct. You can’t complain that minorities always vote for Democrats when you’re screwing them over and blaming them for imaginary crimes every chance you get. The going theory among Republicans is that minorities vote for Democrats because they’re all poor and dems give them "handouts." The less racist and more reality-based reason is that Republicans are dicks toward minorities — relentlessly.

That said, this is more of a feel-good story than anything. Colin Powell is a conservative who’s unwilling to exist outside of reality, which means the base has written him off as a RiNO a long. long time ago. No one on the right is going to listen to him or even take him seriously, because he stopped being a team player a long time ago. Powell has taken on conservative political correctness like this on more than one occasion, which puts him outside the GOP hivemind. If there’s one thing all these supposed “rugged individualists” hate more than liberals, it’s a conservative who dares to think for himself and disagree with the forced conservative consensus spilling out of talk radio and Fox News.

Enjoy Powell speaking truth to power — just don’t expect power to listen. If you do anything other than repeat their bullshit back at them, you might as well be a freakin’ Marxist.

[photo by Scott Ableman]

Republicans shocked to learn that government promotes democracy

ThinkProgress:

The latest conservative outrage is over a story in the Washington Examiner about how new Obamacare forms will ask citizens if they would like to register to vote:

The 61-page online Obamacare draft application for health care includes asking if the applicant wants to register to vote, raising the specter that pro-Obama groups being tapped to help Americans sign up for the program will also steer them to register with the Democratic Party.

On page 59, after numerous questions about the applicant’s identity and qualification for Obamacare, comes the question: “Would you like to register to vote?” The placement of the question could lead some to believe they have to register to vote to get health care.

The story has since been picked up by the Daily Caller, Rep. Charles Boustany (R-LA), and Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX), the number two Senate Republican, who tweeted, “How convenient! Register to vote while applying for Obamacare.”

It’s not only convenient; it’s also required by law.

The National Voter Registration Act of 1993, also known as “Motor Voter,” requires public agencies that provide public assistance to offer voter registration opportunities. Nowhere are citizens told who to vote for, which party to register for, or even that they have to register at all.

This has been another episode of “Republicans Hate Democracy.” Tune in next week, when Louie Gohmert and Ted Cruz learn about absentee ballots, which allow people to conveniently vote using the commie postal service. Whackiness ensues.

Voter ID laws created big hurdles for minority youth voters in 2012

Washington University in St. Louis:

At polling places across America in November 2012, Latinos and African Americans under age 30 were disproportionately asked for identification, even in states that do not have voter ID laws, according to a post-election analysis by researchers at Washington University in St. Louis and the University of Chicago.

“Our study shows that voter ID laws have disproportionately severe consequences for youth of color,” says co-author Jon C. Rogowski, PhD, assistant professor of political science in Arts & Sciences at Washington University.

“Whether the biases are conscious or unconscious, the result of these laws is that people of color are effectively being disenfranchised. Our nation has an obligation to ensure that everyone has equal access to the voting booth.”

The study, released this week by the Black Youth Project, is co-authored by Cathy Cohen, PhD, the David and Mary Winton Green Professor of Political Science at the University of Chicago.

The study,Black and Latino Youth Disproportionately Affected by Voter Identification Laws in the 2012 Election, offers a summary of minority voter experiences in each state that has some form of voter identification law. 

The study found:

• Nearly three-quarters (72.3 percent) of young Black voters were asked for some form of identification, compared with 50.8 percent of young white voters and 60.8 percent of young Latino voters.
• Young Black (64.5 percent) and Latino (57.0 percent) voters were considerably more likely to be asked to show photo identification to vote compared to young white voters (42.2 percent).
• Nearly two-thirds (65.5 percent) of Black youth were asked to show identification in states without ID requirements, compared with 55.3 percent of Latino youth and 42.8 percent of white youth.
• In states with voter identification laws, higher percentages of Black youth (94.3 percent) were asked for ID compared with Latino (81.8 percent) and white (84.3 percent) youth.

Voter ID and other Republican voter suppression laws are racist — period, end of story. And for those of you who argue that your vote doesn’t matter, consider this: if that were true, why would Republicans be so intent on taking your vote away from you? Hell, they want to make it harder to vote than to buy a carload of assault weapons and ammo. That’s how dangerous your vote is to them.

These laws need to be repealed at the earliest opportunity. They’re merely attempts to steal elections.

[photo via Wikimedia Commons]

Reopening a front on the War on Voting

Dave Weigel reports that “Georgia’s legislature, now run by a Republican supermajority, has inched ahead on a resolution endorsing the repeal of the 17th Amendment. Honestly, I thought that fad died out sometime in 2011, but it’s easy to forget that the 2012 election firmed up Republican control in red states, and that ideas like this have empowered sponsors.”

The 17th Amendment allows the direct election of senators, who were previously chosen by legislatures and sent to Washington. The amendment was part of a far-ranging election reform movement that, along with party primaries, sought to reign in government corruption and cronyism caused by senators and candidates being chosen behind closed doors in the infamous “smoke-filled rooms.”

So why would you want to do away with that? Simple. “If state legislatures were re-empowered to pick senators, there’d be no nettlesome Democrats from North Dakota, South Dakota, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Alaska, Louisiana, Arkansas, Florida, Ohio, Indiana, or Michigan,” Weigel explains. “The only states with Republican senators who wouldn’t be there under the legislative-election system are New Hampshire and Maine.”

See, the issue here is gerrymandering. Republicans can rig state legislative and federal house elections by drawing electoral maps that screw Democrats. What they can’t rig are Senate elections. Those are statewide offices, so there are no district maps to redraw. But if gerrymandered legislators elect senators, you wind up with what amounts to gerrymandered senators. You also wind up with the corruption and the cronyism and the smoke-filled rooms.

Of course, this means that Republicans want to shrink democracy quite a bit. The loss of a vote is an erosion of freedom. ” I still find it rather remarkable that those who celebrate ‘freedom’ the loudest also hope to transfer power away from the American electorate when it comes to electing members of the Senate,” comments Steve Benen.

The enemies of democracy are the enemies of freedom. Republicans can take those stupid little flag pins off their lapels, because their pretense of patriotism is a damned lie.

[image source]

Like the old saying says, ‘If at first you don’t succeed, try again. Fail better’

Seriously though, we need to continue to work toward undoing Citizens United. We dodged a bullet here, but let’s not get cocky. Dodging one bullet doesn’t make you bulletproof.

Still, let’s take a moment to point and laugh at fearsome super PAC warlord Karl Rove — because it’s fun and he deserves it.

Long lines, the easiest voter suppression tactic in the world

ThinkProgress:

With a shortened window for early voting before the election, some voters endured a six-hour wait to cast their ballot. Voters in swing states Florida and Virginia faced intimidating lines on election day as well, including areas with strong turnout.  According to a Hart Research poll sponsored by AFL-CIO, minorities and Democrats were more likely to experience these challenges than Republicans, with 16 percent of Obama voters waiting 30 minutes or more compared to 9 percent of Romney voters.  African-Americans and Hispanics were the likeliest to experience longer lines, at 22 percent and 24 percent respectively. In 2008, African-Americans waited twice as long as white voters, according to an MIT survey.

In addition to cutting back early voting, other ways to guarantee long waits are piling on BS referenda to bloat the ballot, deliberately understaffing polling places to low things down, and deliberately creating a shortage of voting machines to slow things even further. Additionally, you can short locations on ballots, forcing voters to wait while more are printed, and have “observers” ready at polling places to challenge as many ballots as possible — usually without real cause — also slowing everything down.

The enemies of democracy at the enemies of freedom. The people responsible for creating these long lines for political gain are not patriots, they aren’t lovers of freedom, they’re just anti-American pricks.

Pennsylvania remains a democracy — for now

ThinkProgress:

Last month, a Pennsylvania trial judge upheld that state’s Voter ID law, in an opinion that relied at least in part on Nineteenth Century precedent which claimed that vote suppressing laws may be permissible to protect against ‘rogues,’ ‘strumpets,’ and ‘wandering arabs.’ Today, the state supreme court vacated that order, noting that the law is not living up to its own promises of ensuring voters will have access to ID:

[T]he Law contemplates that the primary form of photo identification to be used by voters is a Department of Transportation (PennDOT) driver’s license or the non-driver equivalent provided under Section 1510(b) of the Vehicle Code. Furthermore, the Law specifically requires that – notwithstanding provisions of Section 1510(b) relating to the issuance and content of the cards – PennDOT shall issue them at no cost … . As such, the Law establishes a policy of liberal access to Section 1510(b) identification cards.

However, as implementation of the Law has proceeded, PennDOT – apparently for good reason – has refused to allow such liberal access. Instead, the Department continues to vet applicants for Section 1510(b) cards through an identification process that Commonwealth officials appear to acknowledge is a rigorous one. Generally, the process requires the applicant to present a birth certificate with a raised seal (or a document considered to be an equivalent), a social security card, and two forms of documentation showing current residency. The reason why PennDOT will not implement the Law as written is that the Section 1510(b) driver’s license equivalent is a secure form of identification, which may be used, for example, to board commercial aircraft.

The Department of State has realized, and the Commonwealth parties have candidly conceded, that the Law is not being implemented according to its terms… . Overall, we are confronted with an ambitious effort on the part of the General Assembly to bring the new identification procedure into effect within a relatively short timeframe and an implementation process which has by no means been seamless in light of the serious operational constraints faced by the executive branch. Given this state of affairs, we are not satisfied with a mere predictive judgment based primarily on the assurances of government officials, even though we have no doubt they are proceeding in good faith.

State Republicans will likely try to put a happy face on this, but it really is a loss for them.

An historical look at the enemies of American democracy

[Via Justin's Political Corner]

Judge restores early voting in Ohio

Associated Press:

A federal judge in Ohio on Friday granted a request from President Barack Obama’s campaign to give all voters in the swing state the option of casting their ballot in person during the three days before Election Day.

U.S. District Judge Peter Economus in Columbus issued a preliminary injunction in a case involving a state law that cuts off early voting for most residents on the Friday evening before a Tuesday election.

The judge’s ruling said that he expects Ohio’s elections chief to direct all county elections boards to maintain a specific, consistent schedule on those three days “in keeping with his earlier directive that only by doing so can he ensure that Ohio’s election process is `uniform, accessible for all, fair, and secure.’”

Obama’s campaign and Democrats sued the state’s elections chief and attorney general over the legality of the law. They argued that everyone should have the chance to vote on those three days. The law makes an exception for military personnel and Ohio voters living overseas.

This is a real blow for Team Romney and Republicans, who wanted to steal this swing state by changing the rules in the middle of the game. Like all Republican attempts to rejigger voting laws, this was meant to disenfranchise demographic groups most likely to vote Democrat.

Freedom and democracy win this round.

[image source]

News Roundup for 2/11/11

According to one neocon, completely incapable of democracy

-Headline of the Day-
"Former Bush-Cheney National Spokesman Thinks Muslims Are Incapable Of Democracy: 'This Is The Middle East'."

If you want an accurate and clear-eyed view of the middle east, you talk to a neocon -- because they've been so right on everything so far.

So it shouldn't surprise anyone that Fox News turned to Terry Holt, a former national spokesman for the 2004 Bush-Cheney presidential campaign, to talk about the prospects for democracy in the newly-Mubarak-free Egypt. Foxbot Martha MacCallum said that Egyptian people "want democracy, they’re tired of being repressed, they want something better."

Nononononono! said Holt. Democracy is beyond the monkey-people of Egypt, because they're all like Arab and stuff. See, the "traditions there do not support their embracing" democracy, because it's an alien concept. Never mind that they're talking about democracy all the damned time, Egyptians have never even heard of it.

Kind makes you wonder why the neocons wanted to dick around with democracy in Iraq, doesn't it? (ThinkProgress, with video)


-Cartoon time with Mark Fiore-
Hey kids, you know that Ariana Huggington lady? She just got richer! Yay!


Click for animation
Maybe the rest of us just got a little poorer, though... (MarkFiore.com)


-Bonus HotD-
"Republicans turn Congress into 'clogged toilet,' says Democratic lawmaker."

Cogent, concise, and accurate. (The Hill)

News Roundup for 2/3/11

Sen. John McCain

-Headline of the day-
"McCain Calls Middle East Pro-Democracy Movement A 'Virus'."

Remember how, when we invaded Iraq, democracy was supposed to bust out all over in the middle east -- and that was a good thing?

Well guess what: democracy is busting out all over in the middle east -- and that's a bad thing!

See, it works like this; these democracy movements have jack squat to do with Iraq, so that makes them automatically bad. Because they're gonna hate Israel. See, if democracy movements were born because of Iraq, then those movements would automatically love Israel.

Why? Just because, OK? When we bomb someone into democracy, that's like a vaccine. But when it breaks out all on its lonesome, then it's a virus.

Although, now that I think of it, I'm pretty sure that's how the British once felt about things -- say, two hundred and some years ago. (ThinkProgress, with video)


-Totally gratuitous graphic...-
...because I'm still wiped from dealing with ALL THAT SNOW!!



Totally worth it though, am I right? (Daily What)


-Bonus HotD-
"NATIONAL ENQUIRER SHOCKER: Enquirer Thinks Boehner Is 'Handsome'."

Also, that he's been banging a lobbyist and a "pretty congressional press secretary." (Wonkette)

Griper Blade: God, the Unelected

The election of Barack Obama has inspired some to hope for a better future, some to consider the moment's place in history, and some to plumb new depths in their ignorance, gullibility, and lunacy. Case in point, Annenberg Fact Check felt obligated to answer a question on many idiots' minds lately; "Is Obama planning a Gestapo-like 'civilian national security force?'"

The answer, of course, is no. But the question was brought up by a Congressman from Georgia, Rep. Paul Broun, not some right wing talk radio loon like Rush Limbaugh or Michael Savage."It may sound a bit crazy and off base, but the thing is, he's the one who proposed this national security force," Broun said. "I'm just trying to bring attention to the fact that we may -- may not, I hope not -- but we may have a problem with that type of philosophy of radical socialism or Marxism."

"That's exactly what Hitler did in Nazi Germany and it's exactly what the Soviet Union did," Broun went on. "When he's proposing to have a national security force that's answering to him, that is as strong as the U.S. military, he's showing me signs of being Marxist."

You'll notice that none of this makes any sense at all. What he seems to be saying is that Obama will be a Marxist, just like Hitler. Except, of course, Nazism was an anti-communist movement. Those who do not learn from history are doomed to make complete asses of themselves in wire service stories, I guess...

[CLICK TO READ FULL POST]

Griper Blade: Yes We Did

The world is celebrating this morning. In Kenya, there's dancing in the street and a national holiday. In Japan, the toast of the day is "President Obama, Banzai!" (I say we take that one). But it's Chicago that's the temporary center of the universe and they were cheering last night as Barack Obama and Joe Biden lost the title "Senator" and became "President-Elect" and "Vice President-Elect."

The fight didn't last very long -- when Ohio went Obama, it was over. He had more than 200 electoral votes in his pocket at that point and a solid 77 west coast votes in the bank. When Virginia went blue, the extremely improbable became the all-but impossible. AP gave Obama Florida, McCain conceded, and it was over...

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Griper Blade: What Did You Do Today?

It's one of those election day traditions. Every four years, a bunch of media remote trucks show up at Dixville Notch, New Hampshire to report the earliest election results in the nation. The polls open at midnight and everyone in town casts their votes right away. The results? Barack Obama by a nearly three to one margin. Every single Dixville Notchian -- or whatever the hell you call them -- has voted and the results of this 100% turnout is McCain 6, Obama 15. It's the first time in forty years that the town has chosen a Democrat. Only a gazillion more votes to go.

Dixville Notch always has 100% turnout -- I think if you don't show, the Children of the Corn come by your house and stone you. The media gods must be appeased. Nationwide, many have already cast their ballots in early voting. Voice of America reports that "more than 28 million people in 34 of the 50 states" have already voted. The turnout for election day is expected to be even bigger.

"We have statistics that we can point to right now that suggest that 28.8 million people have so far voted in this election," Michael McDonald, an elections expert at George Mason University in Virginia told VOA. "We are expecting 40 million people when all the numbers are compiled. And that will be about 30 percent of the 136 million people that we are expecting to vote." If that 136 million figure is correct, that would represent a turnout of 64% of all eligible voters.

"We may quite literally see turnout of a magnitude that we have not seen in a century of American politics," he said...

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Griper Blade: Vote Dammit!

The McCain team got some news yesterday. It wasn't good. I imagine that they drew straws or flipped coins or played rock-paper-scissors to find out which adviser would break it to the candidate and get an up-close look at his legendary temper -- the Senator from Arizona stands a damned good chance of losing Arizona.

AZCentral.com:

A new poll from Arizona State University shows the presidential race too close to call in Sen. John McCain's home state.

The Arizona senator is leading Democratic candidate Sen. Barack Obama by 2 percentage points, 46 to 44, down from a 7-point lead a month ago and a double-digit lead this summer. Factor in the poll's 3-point margin of error, and a race that was once a nearly sure thing for McCain is a statistical dead heat, pollsters say.

"One would think McCain would still carry Arizona, but anybody who says they can predict the state this time, they can't. It's going to depend on who goes to the polls," said Tara Blanc, associated director of the poll by ASU's Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication and local PBS affiliate Channel 8 (KAET).

Not surprisingly, the pool of remaining undecideds there is small, at about 9%. There's a real chance that Arizona could go blue this year, but only if Obama voters get out and vote...

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Griper Blade: Stealing the Battleground

It was a rough week for the McCain-Palin ticket, topped off by a bad weekend. They took a beating on the Sunday talk shows, Karl Rove got a little off message and told FOX News Sunday that the McCain campaign are "attributing to Obama things that are … beyond the 100 percent truth test," and the news broke that Alaska is still pursuing a federally-funded "bridge to nowhere."

The problem with running a campaign of lies is one of probability. The more lies you tell, the more likely it is you'll be called on some of them -- the more lies you tell, the more likely it is that some will come back to bite you in the ass. Both McCain and Palin sport bite marks today. And it's beginning to look like Palin's honeymoon may be ending.

Open Left:

The Research 2000 poll for dKos released Sept. 11 shows Palin at 52% favorable, 35% unfavorable, a 17-point net positive. Over the next several days look at the trend:

Sept. 11: +17 point net positive

Sept. 12: +14 point

Sept. 13: +9

Sept. 14: +5

Palin's unfavorables are up to 42 while here favorables are down to 47. Her Charlie Gibson interview and generally bad press for the McCain-Palin ticket are taking a toll. Here are Barack Obama's net positives for the same four days: 16, 16, 14 and 15 today. Joe Biden: 19, 19, 18 and 16 today. As for McCain, a similar pattern to Palin only not as steep a decline: 11, 13, 12 and 9.

This backs up what I've been saying all along; McCain's current poll numbers are artificial and, as such, not extremely good. He got a bump after the Republican National Convention and a bump from his selection of an unknown as VP and he still can only manage a tie...

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Facing Impeachment, Musharraf Steps Down

clipped from www.voanews.com Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf has announced his resignation, before his political opponents planned to begin impeachment proceedings against him. VOA's Barry Newhouse reports from Islamabad, where Mr. Musharraf denied any wrongdoing and said he is stepping down for the good of the country. The president scoffed at the as-yet unspecified impeachment charges against him - calling them baseless.  However, he said that contesting them could further destabilize the country.   He says he is resigning for the good of Pakistan. Pakistan People's Party Senator Raza Rabbani called the Musharraf resignation a victory for democracy. "I think this is perhaps the first time in Pakistan's political history where you have the will of the people prevailing over establishment institutions," the senator said.

Hey Nancy! You see this?

Griper Blade: Senate GOP Going Down the Series of Tubes

Yesterday turned out to be a bad day for Republicans in Washington. Alaska Senator Ted Stevens found himself into a little trouble. Stevens, who'd made himself famous with a bridge to nowhere and his assertion that the internet is "not a big truck. It's a series of tubes," was indicted on seven felony counts of concealing $250,000 in gifts and services given to him by an oil company.

"This is very bad for the party," a retiring GOP Senator told Politico. "The timing on this couldn’t be worse." According to Politico's piece, "Now, there’s an arrest warrant out for the 84-year-old senator. He’s been stripped of his top committee rankings. His iconic career is crumbling. His hopes for reelection are in serious doubt.

"And Senate Republicans have no idea what to do about it. "

Of course, the "what to do about it" question isn't so much about pulling Stevens' fat out of the fire, it's about their own political careers. Republicans, never ones to embrace the "we're all in this together" mindset, have adopted as their motto "every man for himself!"

The indictment pretty much pounds the final nail in the coffin containing Stevens' reelection prospects. He was nine points down in polling against rival Mark Begich, Mayor of Anchorage, before the indictment. To give you an idea of how far Ted has fallen in public opinion, Stevens was reelected six years ago with a nearly unheard of 78%...

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