Tom, 19, Kentucky, Drummer. I love music (all genres, honestly. I'm not one of those, "everything except rap and country" assholes), movies, comedy, books, TV, politics, video games, and probably some other stuff.
Posts tagged: politics
A Wisconsin official has discouraged state workers from volunteering information about free IDs available under a controversial voter identification law that critics complain is designed to suppress votes, a memo leaked on Wednesday showed.
The memo, provided to the press by Democratic State Senator Jon Erpenbach, was likely to fan concerns among critics of the Republican-backed law that it aimed to suppress votes of thousands of otherwise eligible Wisconsin voters.
In the memo, a top aide in the state transportation department told staffers in the motor vehicle department, which is responsible for issuing the free IDs, to “refrain from offering” them to customers who do not specifically ask for them.
“Questions on what kind of ID is needed for voting,” the aide, Steven Krieser, wrote in the July 1 memo, “should be directed to the Government Accountability Board.”
The voter ID law was part of a broader conservative program pushed through Wisconsin’s Republican-controlled legislature earlier this year by Governor Scott Walker, who took office in January.
That program, which has divided the state along partisan lines and led to a record number of recall elections, has also included curbs on the collective bargaining rights of public workers, deep budget cuts and an easing of restrictions on the carrying of concealed weapons.
Krieser, who confirmed the authenticity of the memo, said he was simply trying to make sure DMV employees honored the intent of lawmakers who passed the law, which does not obligate DMV workers to tell applicants they are entitled to a free ID if they plan to use it to vote.
“The DMV is applying the voter ID law that the legislature provided to it,” Krieser told Reuters.
“It says the customer has to request it. So we’ve taken the strict reading of the statute and that’s how we’ve implemented it. That’s all that the memo was getting at.”
RECORDS REQUEST
Scot Ross, the head of One Wisconsin Now, a group opposed to the voter ID law, called the memo “a smoking gun” that proved the measure was designed to disenfranchise the poor, students and minorities, who are less likely to have state-issued identification and more likely to vote for Democrats.
Ross said his group would file an open records request with the Wisconsin Department of Transportation to obtain “all communications and e-mails related to the issuance of state identification cards for the purposes of voting under the state’s voter identification bill.”
Advocates of voter ID laws, which have also been passed this year in Texas, Alabama, Kansas, South Carolina, Tennessee and Rhode Island, say the rules are needed to combat voter fraud.
Opponents say evidence of widespread fraud is nonexistent. The Advancement Project, a national civil rights legal group, has called the laws “the largest legislative effort to scale back voting rights in a century.”
Because voters who do not assert that they are seeking the free ID will be charged a $28 fee for the document, critics see the law as illegal because it may disenfranchise voters who don’t pay.
Last week, a top official with the Wisconsin state bar asked the U.S. Department of Justice to review the law, which was passed by the state legislature and signed into law in May.
In her letter to Holder, Sally Stix, the chairwoman of the state bar’s civil rights and liberties section, said the voter ID law, which will take effect early next year in time for spring primaries and the fall general election, should be “subjected to the highest scrutiny.”
That review, she said, should include a probe of the underlying legislative process “to determine whether or not there was any unlawful intent” by lawmakers who supported the change and to see if DMV employees were doing enough to make sure prospective voters get the free cards, she said.
A 2005 University of Wisconsin study found 59 percent of Hispanic women and 55 percent of African-American men in the Milwaukee area lacked a valid state-issued photo ID.
What is it with conservatives and disenfranchising the people who would vote against them? Aren’t there less morally reprehensible ways to get legislation passed?
Currently.
perfect
MANCHESTER, N.H. — Mitt Romney, the leading contender to become President Obama’s Republican opponent next year, had just finished working the room at Blake’s Creamery here when he paused for a photo with the restaurant’s owner, Ann Mirageas, and decided to tell her a joke.
“I saw the young man over there with eggs Benedict, with hollandaise sauce,” he said. “And I was going to suggest to you that you serve your eggs with hollandaise sauce in hubcaps. Because there’s no plates like chrome for the hollandaise.”
The proprietor laughed weakly. “Good luck to you,” Mirageas said.
The hubcap joke must have killed in Michigan in the 1950s, when Romney was a boy. What’s odd is that he’s still making such jokes. What’s odder is that a man who makes such jokes is in a position to become president of the United States.
In formal settings — news conferences, or Monday night’s debate — Romney is confident and competent. But in casual moments, such as doing retail politics in New Hampshire, his weirdness comes through — equal parts “Leave It to Beaver” corniness and social awkwardness.
He greets a man perusing shelves of a hardware store: “Shopping here today?”
He notes the lack of “guy waitresses” at a diner and says of the long skirts worn by the middle-aged wait staff: “Oh, this is the Hooters equivalent.”
He talks about the weak economy with the proprietors of a feed shop, then abruptly pivots: “OK, so what do you do about mosquito control? … This has been a mosquito-infested year with all the moisture. They flew away with my dog.”
At MaryAnn’s, a retro diner in Derry, N.H., the slogan on the owner’s shirt is “A blast from the past” — and the description suits Romney, too. He admires the Texaco “Fire Chief” gas pump and a jukebox (“You guys hear this music? ‘I want a caveman, I want a caveman.’”). Posing for a photo with his arms around the waitresses, he suddenly jumps forward, pretending somebody pinched his bottom. “Oh my goodness gracious!” he exclaims, then, “Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha.” He later says the gag is “kind of fun to do.”
That Romney can survive an awkward morning like this is another sign of the luck smiling on his second run for the White House. Everything seems to be coming together for him this time, though not because of any brilliant performance.
Conservatives panned his health-care speech. Rush Limbaugh proclaimed “bye-bye, nomination” after Romney said humans contribute to global warming. Yet Romney has wandered into the lead in the GOP race, and polls show he has pulled even with Obama, thanks to the grim economy. Against his Lilliputian 2012 rivals, he is a fundraising and polling giant.
This week is typical: Romney didn’t do much to distinguish himself in Monday’s debate, but he came away a winner because others did less. Then, the next morning, Romney was back to his strained common-man shtick. He wore black Gap jeans (even his pants size, 34 by 34, is perfectly square) and a checked shirt with the sleeves rolled up.
His struggle to make chitchat with the diner patrons pleaded “regular guy” almost as much as his endorsement on the “Today” show of the “Twilight” vampire series. To a man wearing a “Joe Gauci Landscaping” T-shirt: “You do some landscaping work?” To two older women who just came from the gym: “Are your knees, hips doing OK?” To an old married couple: “You know each other?” Romney seemed to be auditing one man: “What’s happened to your financials the last couple of years?”
He departed Blake’s with a final plea for support in the New Hampshire primary, scheduled for Feb. 14. “Get out and vote,” he encouraged the diners. “It’s a while, though, I think. What is it, November? … It’s not November. It’s January. It’s February!”
Later, at Derry Feed & Supply, Romney stood next to a display of hermit crabs and attempted regular-guy talk with the proprietors but kept inserting exotic phrases such as “we aimed our barbs, if you will, at the president” and “it’s the agonizing reappraisal.”
And yet, it’s working for Romney. “It’s a lot different from how it was” in ‘08, Romney remarked as he strolled down Derry’s main street, trailed by 40 journalists. “Then, it was, ‘Who the heck are you?’ I like this a lot better.”
Except for the mosquitoes flying away with his dog. Oh, my goodness gracious! Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha.
After reading this, I’m 78% sure Mitt Romney is a robot.
Opposition to Common’s White House visit by the usual gang of idiots is just good, old-fashioned racism. Better yet, it is a fundamental misunderstanding of a culture alien to its critics. To insinuate that any given rapper’s persona and lyrics are going to be violent and/or misogynistic is to ignore the evolution of hip-hop music over the last 30 years. These goons need to step off their soapboxes for a minute and learn about a culture outside of their own tax brackets.
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Reason Magazine:
When it looked like Comedy Central wasn’t going to rerun the Mary episode, people were still able to download it illegally online. Did you see that as a victory for free speech, or did you think, “My God, these people are stealing our intellectual property”?
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Stone:
We’re always in favor of people downloading. Always.
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Reason:
Why?
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Stone:
It’s how a lot of people see the show. And it’s never hurt us. We’ve done nothing but been successful with the show. How could you ever get mad about somebody who wants to see your stuff?
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Parker:
We worked really hard making that show, and the reason you do it is because you want people to see it.
