Punishing Minorities!

By Jeff Simpson

North Carolina recently passed sweeping new "Voter ID" laws that are some of the most restrictive in years. 

The measure requires voters to present government-issued photo identification at the polls and shortens the early voting period from 17 to 10 days. It will also end pre-registration for 16- and 17-year-old voters who will be 18 on Election Day and eliminates same-day voter registration.

Democrats and minority groups have been fighting against the changes, arguing that they represent an effort to suppress the minority vote and the youth vote, along with reducing Democrats’ advantage in early voting. They point out that there is little documented evidence of voter fraud.

 In Wisconsin, not to be outdone by crazies from elsewhere in the country, is looking to trump NC.  

Wisconsin's voter ID law is currently tied up in the courts. Rep. Jeff Stone, R-Greendale, believes his revised bill would be constitutional. Those who can't afford a photo ID would have to reveal to election officials their lack of income or sign an affidavit why they don't have a birth certificate to get an ID: “This is very similar to Indiana's current photo ID law that was held in the U.S. Supreme Court,

 As far right and repressive as it is to begin with, Glenn Grothman is always willing to pull something even further right:

A Republican legislator is circulating bills that would make it more difficult to vote in Wisconsin.

This time, state Sen. Glenn Grothman (R-West Bend) is trying to limit voting by early, in-person absentee voters and impose new requirements on those helping residents living in assisted living facilities to vote. A third bill would weaken big-money donors’ disclosure requirements. 

Despite the paltry 0.0000017% conviction rate, Republicans continue to spread the myth of “widespread voter fraud” and are pressing on with proposals that would solve this so-called problem. In reality, their solutions would merely disenfranchise voters who are more likely to cast ballots for Democrats.

That motivation became crystal clear when state Sen. Alberta Darling (R-River Hills) stated that Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney would have won Wisconsin last fall if the nation’s most restrictive voter ID had been in place on Election Day. When requested by OWN, Darling couldn’t provide documentation of the 200,000 illegally cast ballots that would have swung the election to the Republicans.

 Well America has been looking for someone to actually stand up for what is right and not tow the company line.  Finally we have someone when Colin Powell did just that!

Speaking at the CEO Forum, where Gov. Pat McCrory was in the audience, Powell said he believed the legislation would make it more difficult for all individuals to vote.

"I want to see policies that encourage every American to vote, not make it more difficult to vote," he said, according to the News & Observer. "It immediately turns off a voting block the Republican Party needs... These kinds of actions do not build on the base. It just turns people away."

General Powell did not stop there, he went a step further:

During his speech, Powell pushed back on the idea, which McCrory has cited, that voter ID laws curb voter fraud.
"You can say what you like, but there is no voter fraud," Powell said. "How can it be widespread and undetected?"
He continued, "What it really says to the minority voters is ... 'We really are sort-of punishing you.'"

Which explains everything in Wisconsin.  Meting out punishment to anyone who dared vote against them has been the Republican party of Wisconsin's obsession since they took over the reigns in 2010.  

Wait until you see what they have in store if they win another election!  

"Dark Vein of Intolerance"

Colin Powell was on Meet The Press and let it rip about the hard shift to the right that the republican party has taken.  

POWELL: There’s also a dark — a dark vein of intolerance in some parts of the party. What do I mean by that? I mean by that that they still sort of look down on minorities. How can I evidence that?
When I see a former governor say that the President is “shuckin’ and jivin’,” that’s racial era slave term. When I see another former governor after the president’s first debate where he didn’t do very well, says that the president was lazy. He didn’t say he was slow. He was tired. He didn’t do well. He said he was lazy. Now, it may not mean anything to most Americans, but to those of us who are African Americans, the second word is shiftless and then there’s a third word that goes along with that. The birther, the whole birther movement. Why do senior Republican leaders tolerate this kind of discussion within the party?

WHile I think he tempered his comments tremendously, I can answer his question in terms of why do Republican Leaders tolerate this kind of discussion in two words:  Reince Priebus!  

It is nice to hear a republican call out this disgusting racism and intolerance, maybe there is hope after all!  

President Obama Transcends All Boundaries

President Obama was recently endorsed by the largest paper in the heart of the reddest state.  The Salt Lake City Tribune:

Sadly, it is not the only Romney, as his campaign for the White House has made abundantly clear, first in his servile courtship of the tea party in order to win the nomination, and now as the party’s shape-shifting nominee. From his embrace of the party’s radical right wing, to subsequent portrayals of himself as a moderate champion of the middle class, Romney has raised the most frequently asked question of the campaign: "Who is this guy, really, and what in the world does he truly believe?"

The evidence suggests no clear answer, or at least one that would survive Romney’s next speech or sound bite. Politicians routinely tailor their words to suit an audience. Romney, though, is shameless, lavishing vastly diverse audiences with words, any words, they would trade their votes to hear.

More troubling, Romney has repeatedly refused to share specifics of his radical plan to simultaneously reduce the debt, get rid of Obamacare (or, as he now says, only part of it), make a voucher program of Medicare, slash taxes and spending, and thereby create millions of new jobs. To claim, as Romney does, that he would offset his tax and spending cuts (except for billions more for the military) by doing away with tax deductions and exemptions is utterly meaningless without identifying which and how many would get the ax. Absent those specifics, his promise of a balanced budget simply does not pencil out.

If this portrait of a Romney willing to say anything to get elected seems harsh, we need only revisit his branding of 47 percent of Americans as freeloaders who pay no taxes, yet feel victimized and entitled to government assistance. His job, he told a group of wealthy donors, "is not to worry about those people. I’ll never convince them they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives."

Don't worry its not all anti - mitt:

 In the first months of his presidency, Obama acted decisively to stimulate the economy. His leadership was essential to passage of the badly needed American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Though Republicans criticize the stimulus for failing to create jobs, it clearly helped stop the hemorrhaging of public sector jobs. The Utah Legislature used hundreds of millions in stimulus funds to plug holes in the state’s budget.

Then today, General Colin Powell endorsed President Obama again:

Former Secretary of State Colin Powell endorsed President Barack Obama for a second term Thursday.
"You know, I voted for him in 2008 and I plan to stick with him in 2012, and I'll be voting for he and Vice President Joe Biden next month," he said on CBS' "This Morning."

Asked whether it was an endorsement, he said, "Yes."

Powell praised the president's handling of the economy and ending of the Iraq War.

"I think we ought to keep on the track we are on," he said.