Posted by AzBlueMeanie: Florida's disgraced former GOP chairman says the party had meetings about "keeping blacks from voting." Alex Seitz-Wald reports at Salon, Florida Republican: We wanted to suppress black votes: Florida’s former Republican Party chairman Jim Greer, who, scorned by his party and in deep legal trouble, blew the lid off what he claims … Read more
By Michael Bryan Pearce and his friend the mass murderer Russell Pearce is a terrible human being. He should be condemned, and then shunned and ignored in our political life. If only he would shut the hell up, I would pleased to never have to mention him again. In response to the horrific slaughter of … Read more
Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
Joan McCarter at Daily Kos has some posts about voting rights and voter suppression that I highly recommend. The first is Support for voter ID laws linked to 'racial resentment':
So maybe it is all about disenfranchising minorities, just maybe?
A new National Agenda Opinion Poll by the University of Delaware’s Center for Political Communication reveals support for voter identification laws is strongest among Americans who harbor negative sentiments toward African Americans.
The study finds that racial resentment trumps party affiliation and political attitudes. While they found Republicans and conservatives overwhelmingly support voter suppression (because that's what they do), they found that Democrats and liberals "with the highest 'racial resentment'" also express strong support for the laws.
The second post is Brennan Center: 500,000 won't be able to get 'free' voter IDs:
The Brennan Center, NYU Law School's public policy institute that focuses on democracy and justice issues, has a new report detailing the challenges faced by voters in 10 states with new, restrictive voter ID laws. Those laws ultimately mean that as many as 500,000 eligible voters won't cast ballots because of the insurmountable barriers these laws erect, particularly for rural voters. In other words, yes, these new laws are basically poll taxes.
The cost of the IDs aside, most of these voters don't have access to transportation to obtain the ID. To complicate matters more, in many of these states, the offices that are designated to issue IDs are open infrequently for short periods of time.
Even if someone seeking photo ID manages to travel to an ID-issuing office, there is no guarantee it will be open during regular business hours. In Wisconsin, Alabama, and Mississippi, fewer than half of all ID-issuing offices are open five days a week. None are open on weekends. And some offices maintain truly unusual hours: the office in Woodville, Mississippi is open only on the second Thursday of each month.
The report also provides an extensive look at the scarcity of ID-issuing offices in areas heavily populated by people of color and those in poverty — the exact population that most lack government-issued photo ID.
In the flurry of news and opinion gusting out of our computer screens and smart phones, it is easy to become ‘news blind’ – so focused on the flakes and flurries that we forget where we are headed. We stumble confusedly ahead with no map to our destination. It’s easy to get lost in the storm.
I personally read almost every news source in Arizona – and keep up with national reaction to our politics, as well – in bringing to readers of BlogForArizona the Arizona Donkey Feed, which appears on our right-hand sidebar every day (you may also have the Feed emailed to you daily). So I, too, often find myself in that blizzard without a map.
I decided I might like to sit down once a week and take some time to look around, and identify what I think are the most significant landmarks around where we stand now. It might not be a map that will tell us where we are headed, but maybe I can get some idea of where we are. Over time, perhaps it will become a map of sorts.
I would also like to let you all know that Matt Heinz, candidate for Congressm in AZ’s CD 2, will be guest-host at Drinking Liberally in Tucson. Come down to the Shanty of 4th Avenue this Wednesday at 6pm and enjoy a beer with Matt.
So, here are some thoughts on what I think are the most important, or just most interesting, developments in the past week in Arizona’s politics…
Posted by AzBlueMeanmie:
Arizona's Tea-Publican controlled legislature passed the nation's most restrictive abortion measure earlier this year in part to assist Rep. Trent Franks (R-AZ) in his anti-abortion crusade to impose a similar 20 week abortion restriction in federal law on the District of Columbia. Franks is behaving like a tyrannical "Mayor of D.C."
This is part of the anti-choice, anti-contraception agenda of the Christian Taliban that wants to get a case before the U.S. Supreme Court in the belief that the conservative activist Justices of the Court may overturn Roe v. Wade.
The ACLU has filed suit against the Arizona legislative measure, but Rep. Trent Franks doesn't want to have to wait as long as it will take before Arizona's law is in front of the U.S. Supreme Court. Franks continues to push for the 20 week abortion ban on the District of Columbia because, if it were to become law, a lawsuit would be filed in the D.C. Circuit Court and have a direct line of appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.
UPDATE: See Sarah Kliff at Ezra Klein's WonkBlog. Arizona v. Roe v. Wade.
Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton for the District of Columbia discussed Rep. Frank's disenfranchisement of the residents of the District of Columbia by refusing to permit her to speak on their behalf at committee hearings, and his attempt to gain a federal imprimatur for the 20 week abortion ban during a segment of the Rachel Maddow Show on Thursday night (video below the fold).