Voting Rights

113th Congress To Set Record As Least Productive Since World War II!

Ronald 3 Comments

THe 113th Congress, the second consecutive Congress to be a split Congress of a Republican majority in the US House of Representatives, and a Democratic majority in the US Senate, the only two times that a split Congress has been of this such division in American history, is on its way to becoming the least productive since World War II, surpassing the dismal record of the previous 112th Congress in 2011-2012!

A reminder that the other “split” Congresses were of a Republican Senate and Democratic House, and a lot more was accomplished under that scenario in 1911-1913, 1931-1933, and 1981-1987!

But this 113th Congress is setting a record for obstructionism never seen in American history!

The GOP is preventing action on the following:

The rebuilding of America’s infrastructure, badly in need of repair.
Accessible and affordable health care for all Americans
Getting off dependence on foreign oil by having a clean energy agenda
Promotion of the protection of women’s health
Responsible gun regulations to prevent future Sandy Hooks
Immigration Reform
Air and water pollution regulations
Strengthening of voting rights and civil rights for all Americans
Wall Street and banking reforms to prevent future “crashes”
A new farm bill, including food stamp protection for the poorest among us
Student loan interest reform

Confidence in Congress is at an all time low of TEN percent! The Republicans have abused the filibuster weapon in the US Senate, and the Tea Party Movement in the House of Representatives has hijacked even the Speaker of the House, John Boehner, who is powerless in the assault on cooperation and crossing of the aisle so essential for anything to get done in Congress!

Only 15 legislative items have become law in the past six months, lower than the 23 which became law in the first six months of the 112th Congress!

Those who believe that divided and split government is good for democracy are learning the hard way that it is the prescription for statemate, gridlock, and total paralysis, and that the answer is to kick out the Republican House majority and elect a Democratic majority in both houses, ideally with a filibuster proof Senate of 60 Democrats!

Sadly, neither of these ideas are realistically tenable, so the halting of effective government is likely to continue, undermining the future of America!

Georgia Congressman John Lewis: The Connection Between Voting Rights And Gay Rights

Ronald 9 Comments

Georgia Congressman John Lewis has been a major civil rights leader, connected with Martin Luther King, Jr,, and had his head cracked while marching for voting rights in the South.

As a Congressman since 1987, Lewis has been a voice of conscience, and was a rare case of a politician condemning the Defense Of Marriage Act , when it passed Congress in 1996, and was signed into law by President Bill Clinton, afraid to take a stand against it, due to his reelection campaign of that year for the Presidency.

At that time, Lewis compared the concept of interracial marriage,. which had been illegal until 1967, and said gay marriage was no different than interracial marriage, that anyone should be able to marry the person he or she loves!

So Lewis was devastated by the decision of the Supreme Court, negating Section 4 of the Voting Rights Acts of 1965, while thrilled by the decisions of the Supreme Court allowing for gay marriage in California, and for federal recognition of gay marriage, relating to its legality, and the right of gay couples to benefits and privileges of married couples!

Lewis has felt all kinds of emotion in the past two days, and he has stated eloquently, that voting rights guarantees that took nearly a century to accomplish, and were in place for almost half a century,. are now gone, and will it take another century to restore the guarantee of voting rights without any discrimination?

So it is hard not to feel the pain and emotional turmoil this great man, an icon of civil rights, is going through at age 73! God bless him and protect him for many more years of devoted service to civil rights and human rights!

We will see him again as the one surviving major civil rights leaders who participated 50 years ago in the March On Washington on August 28, 1963, which will be reenacted on August 24, 2013!

The Voting Rights Act Repeal A Massive Step Backward, And Based On Trust Not Earned!

Ronald 30 Comments

The conservative Supreme Court majority has decided to overrule the Congress, which in 2006, agreed to renew the Voting Rights Act, and in so doing, has left it to trust that Southern states, which historically have worked to limit the right to vote, can now be trusted.

This is a massive blow to the civil rights movement, and to believe that things have changed from the time of a Democratic Dixiecrat South to a Republican South today is to be living in a illusion, that one can trust Republican legislatures that are presently working against women’s rights and victimizing immigrants, that somehow, without oversight, the present increased African American involvement in voting will not be reversed rapidly!

A split Congress will be unable to do anything about enforcing voting rights fairly, anymore than protecting the rights of women and immigrants affected by discriminatory state laws.

This is the ultimate outcome of the disputed Presidential Election Of 2000, and shows once again, that elections have consequences. So the Republican majority Supreme Court has insured that its agenda will be the future, as much as it was in interfering in the 2000 election, putting a loser of the popular vote by a bigger margin than the three previous cases, into the White House!

The Right Wing Attack On Everything Imaginable!

Ronald 20 Comments

The Right Wing media propaganda machine has become “expert” at attacking everything imaginable that they consider to be “liberal”, “progressive”, “socialist”, “communist”, or any other left wing ideology they can dream up, and managing to put all of these widely differing philosophies together as stereotypes.

So in no special order, the following have come under attack in a vicious manner over time:

Welfare recipients
Food Stamp recipients
Uninsured people
The Homeless
The Poor
The Unemployed
Foreclosed Homeowners
The Working Poor
The Working Class
The Middle Class
Social Security
Medicare
Medicaid
Teachers
College Professors
Liberal Intellectuals
Liberal News Media
Hollywood
Firefighters
Police Officers
Public Service Workers
Labor Unions
Voting Rights
Women’s Rights
Undocumented Immigrants
Gays and Lesbians
Muslims
Environmentalists
Civil Rights Groups
Civil Liberties Groups
Planned Parenthood
Federal Government Agencies
National Public Radio
Public Broadcasting System
ObamaCare
Science
Hillary Clinton
Michelle Obama
Joe Biden
Barack Obama

Probably some have been left out, but this is a list which demonstrates the total negativity of the right wing, and why America is rejecting them in their voting behavior!

Barack Obama State Of The Union Speech One Of Leadership, But Also Asking For BiPartisanship!

Ronald 10 Comments

President Barack Obama gave an outstanding State of the Union speech tonight, but one with an attempt to promote bipartisanship as he begins his second term.

He asked for cooperation to avoid constant budget battles that undermine economic recovery, and reflect badly on our image internationally, considering that we are a world leader.

He called for investments in energy, infrastructure, and education, including a preschool program for all young children.

He called for action on climate change, and indicated he would take executive action if nothing was done on the issue.

He called for a program of immigration reform that apparently impressed Wisconsin Congressman Paul Ryan, in an interview on CNN after the speech.

He backed the need for Medicare and Social Security reforms, as long as they did not harm the long term stability of the programs.

He appealed for basic gun legislation to try to cut down the widespread violence, with more than 1,400 people killed by gun violence in the past month and a half alone!

He informed us that half of the remaining 68,000 troops in Afghanistan were coming home within the next year. This made clear his goal to focus on domestic reform, and wind down the overseas commitment of military forces.

He called for an increase in the minimum wage, and for prevention of laws that interfere with the right to vote, informing us that this is basic justice for all Americans.

Any reasonable person would have to say that his speech set a series of goals that were very mainstream and reasonable, but of course, the opposition will see it otherwise. One can hope that a lot of his ideas and initiatives can be accomplished, but it will not be easy to do so!

Craziness Of State Laws And State Leadership On Gun Regulation Is Mindblowing!

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Florida and Iowa allow ex felons the right to purchase guns, but make it nearly impossible for them to gain the right to vote.

Texas Governor Rick Perry and Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell want teachers to be armed when they teach their classes to students of all ages.

Arizona Governor Jan Brewer and Florida Governor Rick Scott see no reason to pass stronger gun laws, with both allowing concealed weapons, and Arizona allowing guns in bars and restaurants.

Other mostly “Red” states have state legislators and Congressmen and Senators totally unphased by the Sandy Hook Massacre in Connecticut.

The National Rifle Association has encouraged more purchase of guns as a safety measure, although already, there are more guns than people in America.

This country is living, at least in some parts, in their own delusional world, a world of bloodshed and violence, with people having paranoia about “enemies”, and our entire population endangered by the likelihood of continued “Sandy Hook” events in the future, and no plan to do anything constructive about it!

President Barack Obama has commissioned Vice President Joe Biden to come up with plans in the next six weeks for serious action, but the odds of actual accomplishment of goals with Republican opposition so severe, is highly speculative and unlikely!

Federal Government Needs To Administer All Federal Elections, Including Registration And Mechanics Of Enforcement

Ronald 4 Comments

The election debacle this year, including attempts to deny registration and voting itself, by partisan Secretaries of State in many states, mostly Republican governed, requires at major reform, taking partisanship out of the election process.

Congress has the authority to do this in the Constitution, and therefore, could federalize all elections for Congress and the Presidency, including national registration and the mechanics of operating the election process, so as to make it fair, and also to insure no discrimination or politics in the voting process.

Of course, states rights advocates will fight against this, because they wish to continue their abuse of power, and deny people the basic right to vote.

But the world watches, and is shocked at how Neanderthalish is our whole process of electing Congress and Presidents, so it is time for reform!

The Tremendous Dedication Of American Voters In Face Of Republican Attempts To Cut Voting Numbers!

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It is well known that Republican Governors and state legislatures did everything possible to cut down voting days and hours, created photo ID barriers, and to intimidate voters though the organization True-The Vote.

Ohio, Michigan, Florida, and other GOP governed states were outrageous in their misbehavior, and in Florida, 24 hours after the polls officially closed, the vote count goes on, and there is still no declaration of whether Barack Obama or Mitt Romney has won the state’s electoral votes, although Obama is ahead in popular votes.

Some people in Florida and elsewhere waited up to seven hours, and as late as 1 AM, determined to cast their vote, and it turned out, the anger of voters showed in the results nationwide, heavily against the Republican Party, and those denying a basic democratic right, the right to vote!

Governor Rick Scott of Florida should be kicked out of office for cutting the number of days for early voting from 14 to 8, and refusing to extend voting, with long lines occurring, for the final Sunday and Monday before Election Day.

Hopefully, the anger of voters will continue to reverberate, and the “Bully Governors” and their party members in the legislatures will be summarily kicked out of office in 2014, as a disgrace to the offices they hold!

A Good Week For Barack Obama, Including Debate Performance!

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The first week of October has been good to Barack Obama!

His Gallup poll rating is at its highest since the fall of 2009, now registering at 54 percent! This is a strong indication of his upcoming victory precisely one month from today!

Many want to believe that his debate performance harmed him, without realizing that while he might not have been at his best, it really does not matter, as incumbent Presidents tend to do poorly on the first debate with a challenger, as indicated in an earlier post. After all, they have more on their mind than the campaign, such as governing and dealing with crises on a daily basis. Meanwhile, Mitt Romney has done nothing for the past six years other than run for President, and he has had a multitude of mistakes and poor performances with his rhetoric and comments!

If Obama had come out charging in this first debate, he would be accused of being an “angry black man”, which terrifies many working class whites and uneducated people, who are accustomed to a different image of blacks, which is an unspoken sign of massive racism! So if he smiles and lets Mitt Romney hang himself as a phony, a chameleon, a liar on a massive scale, he is criticized, but Romney has added to the image that he is untrustworthy by his aggressive performance full of deceit and manipulation! Obama actually handled the situation well, and that will be seen as time goes by!

Now that Romney has proved again that he is a charlatan, Joe Biden will go on the assault against ideologue Paul Ryan, and then Obama will go after Romney in the last two Presidential debates. He will follow Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush in recovering from a theoretical first debate that was unimpressive, to go on to electoral victory!

But also, the victories for voting rights in Ohio and Pennsylvania, and the stopping of voter registration by Republicans in Florida and four other states, due to obvious GOP corruption, will upend the Republican attempt to cut out millions of potential Democratic voters in “swing” states.

And the economic revival that is going on, lowering the unemployment rate below 8 percent for the first time in his term of office, will help Obama, as most sane people will dismiss the conspiracy theories of conservatives and Republicans that the honorable and independent Bureau Of Labor Statistics is corrupt!

And the fact that Obama saved the auto industry; has seen the stock market double during his term; that manufacturing is reviving in America; and that energy production is up domestically without destroying the environment—-all this is further proof that this has been a good week on the road to ultimate victory one month from now!

Victories For Right To Vote Mounting In Republican Controlled States That Tried To Limit Voting

Ronald 1 Comment

After a year or more of attempts to limit the right to vote for senior citizens, college students, minorities, and the poor, the forces battling for the right to vote are winning victories, due to court action by the federal government, and decisions of federal judges in favor of the whole basis of democracy—voting!

Florida, Texas, and Ohio are among the states where the tide has turned, and Pennsylvania is awaiting a six member state Supreme Court decision that is thought to be ready to throw out the limits on voting set up by the Republican legislature and governor, with the three Republican members of the Court showing skepticism about the limit on voting rights.

This trend makes the likelihood of Barack Obama winning all of the above states, except Texas, more realistic, and it is a stain on the GOP that the party that expanded the right to vote to include African Americans in 1870, and supported civil rights at its founding, now has become the image of the Southern Democrats of the 1870s to the 1960s, who took away the right to vote and promoted Jim Crow segregation!

This is a time for mourning for the Republican Party of the past, which was principled and on the side of voting rights, and now has been captured by extreme right wing elements that are against basic democracy, what people in all nations around the world fight and die for—the right to express their view of who should govern them!