Moral March

[KeithE]

[Sandy]

Pennsylvania's recent law restricting voting access by requiring photo ID to be presented was struck down by the state's supreme court. It's a sad commentary on a political party when it sees the only way it can win is to keep the voter turnout down. I don't think those laws will last much longer, however, I think several other states have overturned similar laws, citing a litany of SCOTUS rulings and precedents. It has upheld some pretty lenient legislation when it comes to voter registration requirements, including approval of same day laws in a dozen states. I'd say, with the court cases already piled up, we're less than a year from the striking down of restrictive state laws aimed at blockading people from casting a ballot.

The photo ID thing sort of backfired here in PA. Several private businesses worked overtime to make sure that thousands upon thousands of people who didn't have driver's licenses got an official ID card that would pass the law requirement. In the process, they helped to register more than 87,000 new Democratic party voters.

The next challenge is going to be on keeping access to the polls as wide open as possible. Making sure that polls are open and accessible to voters, including widespread early voting locations, is on its way through the courts as well. In neighboring Ohio, a move to shorten the early voting time, and reduce the number of polling locations was actually defeated in the legislature when a group of Republicans refused to join the tea party bigots who sponsored the legislation. They took one look at the poll numbers and ran the other way.

[Dave Roberts]

The voter ID is being pushed here it VA, but official state cards from the DMV cost $10 every 8 years. This will never stand in court because it imposes the poll tax all over again.

[ET]

Hey, if you do go show up to protest a requirement to have a photo ID in order to vote.....

See #9 on the list. ROTFL.

[Sandy]

[Haruo]

Anytime you do something where you may be arrested (even if it's something legal and laudable and even morally incumbent upon one) it's probably a good idea to bring your photo ID. As for the requirement to do so, the first place I remember this sort of thing at a level more local than international border crossings was in Brezhnev's USSR, 1968, where we had to surrender our passports in order to get the keys to our hotel rooms. Not show the passports; surrender them until checkout.

[KeithE]

[Mrs Haruo]

I don't think you are old enough to understand what is going on, ET. You were still in the primary grades when I volunteered to go off and fight for my country, I wasn't drafted, I volunteered. I believe in the freedoms illustrated by Norman Rockwell. Freedom from Fear. Freedom from Hunger, Freedom to Peacefully Assemble, Freedom of Religion, Freedom of the Press. Yes, freedom to be stupid and make a fool of oneself, but sometimes that comes with journalism-- or politics or religion for that matter. What I see going on now with devious ways of preventing people from exercising voting rights, banks unfairly foreclosing on mortgages that should never been granted in the first place to people too greedy or uneducated to understand what they were signing, long lines at food banks, children going to school hungry and going home to empty pantries for the weekend ----- I didn't sign over four hard years of my life to defend this. I am heartbroken that the party my parents were so loyal to has declaired war on me as a woman. I am ashamed of the misery we as Americans have caused around the world. This is no laughing matter to me. Some of my ancestors were part of the original Homeland Security Force-- Defending our homeland against invaders since 1492.

[Dave Roberts]

[Sandy]

If a protest or a march or some other political gathering is peaceful, and being held on public property, which would include government buildings, no one should ever be arrested. The right to peaceful, lawful assembly is constitutional, as is the right to petition the government, and a protest that meets both of those criteria should not result in any arrests.

When I see protests like this, I always think of George W. Bush, who had his secret service create "free speech zones" for protestors far away from where he could see or hear them. That never seemed to bother the right very much, in spite of the blatant violation of the constitution that it was.

[KeithE]

[David Flick]

[Mrs Haruo]

Yes, it is a very nice sign. If you were force to have a probe the size of a triple D cell flashlight run up your rectum to get a credit app approved for a loan, you might feel like a piece of beef too. My roommate at the American Lake VA residential program for homeless veterans had nightmares for weeks after having to have a transvaginal ultrasound exam to check for ovarian cancer-- she had been raped twice while she was in the Air Force, and the exam brought all the horror back to her. A bunch of men who have no idea what they are talking about are determined to put health care for women back into the dark ages. I won't stand for it.

[William Thornton]

[Dave Roberts]

NC is being run by one man now, Art Pope, who is the centerpiece and financier of the right-wing takeover of NC. He is the staunch ally of the Koch brothers and Karl Rove. Pope is probably the richest man in NC, and has used the Citizen's United ruling to consolidate his power. Most of the cuts come from his stable of operatives. By the way, he does not believe in public education, from what I have read, and would like to privatize the entire NC school system. He is also the author of school regulations that will no longer reward advanced degrees for teachers with pay increases after 2015. NC teachers are now scrambling to get advanced degrees finished so they will be grandfathered, but the future looks more bleak as long as Pope runs the state. Pope, by the way is the principal owner of Roses, Popes, and a number of other discount stores.

[William Thornton]

[KeithE]

[Sandy]

[William Thornton]

[Dave Roberts]

[William Thornton]

Not necessarily, Dave. I merely draw attention to the typical liberal do-gooder approach that unashamedly uses gummit power to carry out their vision of what good Christians should be doing.

[Dave Roberts]

[William Thornton]

[Sandy]

[Dave Roberts]