by David Safier One thing I won't do is question Tom Horne's intelligence. Integrity? That I'll question. Honesty too. For all I know, he may be self-deluded as well. But he's too accomplished in too many areas not to be a smart guy. That's why I say Horne can't possibly believe that most people who … Read more
Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
Nativist anti-immigrant lawyer Kris Kobach, the athor of Arizona's Prop. 200 (2004) and SB 1070 (despite disgraced former Sen. Russell Pearce's claims of authorship to the contrary), has a plan to get around the U.S. Supreme Court decision in June striking down the proof of citizenship requirement to register to vote in Arizona's Prop. 200 and a similar law in Kansas, where Kobach unbelievably is now Secretary of State. Kris Kobach's Bold New Plan to Keep People From Voting:
Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, who has become a national figure by advising other states on how to implement anti-immigrant and voter suppression measures,
has come up with a new creative way to make it harder for Kansans to
vote: barring those who register to vote with a federal form from
casting ballots in state elections.
Back in June, the Supreme Court struck down
an Arizona elections law that required those registering to vote to
show proof of citizenship beyond what is required by federal voter
registration forms. In Kansas, Kobach has been struggling to deal with
the implementation of a similar proof-of-citizenship law, which has left
the voting status of at least 12,000 Kansans in limbo.
These voters, many of whom registered with the federal “motor voter”
form at the DMV, were supposed to have their citizenship information
automatically updated, a process that was delayed by a computer glitch. Kobach then suggested that these 12,000 voters be forced to cast provisional ballots – a suggestion that the state elections board rejected.
Now, the Lawrence Journal-World reports, Kobach has a new idea to deal with the problem that he created.
The paper reports that Kobach is considering a plan to circumvent the
Supreme Court’s decision in the Arizona case by creating two classes of
voters. Under this plan, those who register with a federal form would be
allowed to vote only in federal elections until they produced the
state-required citizenship documents. Those who meet the state
registration requirements would then be allowed to vote in state-level
elections.
Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
The Washington Post's Colbert King got it exactly right in The rise of the New Confederacy.
South Carolina, the state that gave us the Nullification Crisis with the South Carolina Ordinance of Nullification in 1832, until Congress in 1833 passed a Force Bill, authorizing President Andrew Jackson to use military force against South Carolina ended the crisis.
South Carolina, the home of Senator John C. Calhoun, the intellectual force behind states' rights and nullification, under which states could declare null and void federal laws which they viewed as unconstitutional, and who was an inspiration to the secessionists of 1860–61.
South Carolina, the first state to secede from the United States with the Declaration of the Immediate Causes Which Induce and Justify the Secession of South Carolina from the Federal Union.
South Carolina, whose Confederate militia batteries opened fire on Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor, the first shots of the American Civil War in 1861.
South Carolina, which has refused to accept its defeat in the Civil War or to accept the post-Civil War Amendments, in particular the 14th Amendment, which forever ended any debate over Sen. Calhoun's theories of nullification and secession.
Republicans have been demanding negotiations over the government shutdown. A few minutes ago, President Obama gave in to their demand. In a private meeting with House leaders, he said:
Let's negotiate. I understand that you want to repeal Obamacare, or at least delay it for a year. Now let me tell you what I want:
Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
The state of Virginia's tourism and travel slogan is "Virginia is for Lovers." Well, not quite for everyone.
The Prop. 8 "dream team" of Ted Olson and David Boies, who teamed up to overturn the gay-marriage ban
in California, have joined a lawsuit against Virginia’s prohibition against same-sex marriage. Lawyers want Virginia as same-sex marriage test case:
The American Foundation for Equal Rights — with its attention-getting
political odd couple of conservative Republican lawyer Theodore Olson
and liberal Democrat David Boies — will announce Monday it is joining a
lawsuit against what the lawyers called Virginia’s “draconian” laws
prohibiting same-sex marriages, the recognition of such marriages
performed where they are legal, and civil unions.
It is one of dozens of lawsuits filed across the nation by same-sex marriage activists who say they feel emboldened by the Supreme Court’s decisions in June that
overturned the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) that forbade
recognition of same-sex marriages and separately allowed such unions to
resume in California.
* * *
There are dozens of lawsuits filed in state and federal courts in 18
states, according to the Human Rights Campaign, and on Friday, a state judge in New Jersey ruled same-sex marriages must be allowed there. Gov. Chris Christie (R) is appealing.
But
the ultimate goal is the recognition of a constitutional right, such as
when the Supreme Court struck down Virginia’s ban on interracial
marriages in the 1967 Loving v. Virginia decision.