Political Hippo Circle Jerk - America, farg YEAH!

[Rome]

Dear Mr. President,

Please bail out Detroit.  PLEASE!

Sincerely,

Rome

[Diomedes]

Who said anything about Obama "bailing out" Detroit?

Oh, right...no one. 

This is demagoguery 101. 

[Rome]

The opposite it true, actually.  Obama has repeatedly said no federal bailout is coming for Detroit yet mouthbreathers like Rand Paul suggest exactly that.  And the cons & libretardarians eat it up with a spoon.  Too funny.

[ice grillin you]

i wish someone would tell pubs that parts dealers in ohio are different from the actual city of detroit

[ice grillin you]

This week, the North Carolina legislature will almost certainly pass a strict new voter ID law that could disenfranchise 318,000 registered voters who don't have the narrow forms of accepted state-issued ID. As if that wasn't bad enough, the bill has since been amended by Republicans to include a slew of appalling voter suppression measures. They include cutting a week of early voting, ending same-day registration during the early voting period and making it easier for vigilante poll-watchers to challenge eligible voters. The bill is being debated this afternoon in the Senate Rules Committee. Here are the details, via North Carolina State Senator Josh Stein (D-Wake County):

If anyone had any doubt about the bill's intent to suppress voters, all he/she has to do is read it. The bill now does the following:

*shortens early voting by 1 week,
*eliminates same day registration and provisional voting if at wrong precinct,
*prevents counties from offering voting on last Saturday before the election beyond 1 pm,
*prevents counties from extending poll hours by one hour on election day in extraordinary circumstances (like lengthy lines),
*eliminates state supported voter registration drives and preregistration for 16/17 year olds,
*repeals voter owned judicial elections and straight party voting,
*increases number of people who can challenge voters inside the precinct, and
*purges voter rolls more often.

Meanwhile, it floods the democratic process with more money. The bill makes it easier for outside groups to spend on electioneering and reduces disclosure of the sources. It also raises the contribution limits to $5k per person per election from $4k and indexes to amount to rise with inflation.

The bill even eliminates Citizens Awareness Month to encourage voter registration, notes Brent Laurenz, executive director of the non-partisan North Carolina Center for Voter Education. Because god forbid we encourage people to vote! The proposed bill eliminates nearly all of the democratic advances that made North Carolina one of the most progressive southern states when it comes to voting rights and one of the top 15 states in voter turnout nationally, guaranteeing there will be longer lines at the polls, less voter participation and much more voter confusion.

The legislation is likely to be deeply unpopular. For example, 56 percent of North Carolinians voted early during the 2012 election. Blacks used early voting at a higher rate than whites, comprising a majority of those who voted absentee or early. According to Public Policy Polling, 78 percent of North Carolinians support the current early voting system and 75 percent have used it in the past.

In addition, over 155,000 voters registered to vote and voted on the same day during the early voting period in 2012. "Voters expressed their satisfaction and gratitude that North Carolina had a process that afforded citizens with more opportunities to register and vote," said a 2009 report from the state board of elections.

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Republicans in North Carolina have taken abuse of democratic process to a whole new extreme: they've won elections with the help of huge corporate money, they've gerrymandered the legislative maps to resegregate the state and drastically limit the representation of their political opponents, they've passed a slew of extreme right-wing bills in the past few months to benefit the top 1 percent and harm everyone else, and now they're going all out to prevent those opposed to that political agenda from exercising their democratic rights. "There's a certain evil symmetry to the proposal," writes Rob Schofield, director of research for NC Policy Watch. "After having spent months passing scores of regressive and destructive proposals into law, state leaders are now, like thieves covering their tracks, doing everything in their power to make sure they're not caught or punished for their actions."

In the final depressing twist, North Carolina no longer has to clear these voting changes with the federal government since the Supreme Court invalidated Section 4 of the Voting Rights Act. Nevertheless, it's almost certain parts of the legislation—if enacted—will be challenged under the state constitution or other provisions of the VRA, and could very well spark a major backlash among North Carolina voters. In twelve weeks, more than 900 North Carolinians have been arrested for peaceful protest as part of the Moral Monday movement. Recently, Senate Rules Committee Chairman Tom Apodaca boasted that North Carolina would no longer have to go through the legal headache of complying with Section 5 of the VRA. Responded Rev. Barber of the North Carolina NAACP, "if you think you can take away our voting rights, you'll have a headache."

[ice grillin you]

It may sound shocking that Republican voters have a more favorable opinion of a guy known best for killing an unarmed teenager than the president of the United States, but it sort of makes sense once you realize that that killer is George Zimmerman and that that president is Barack Obama.

According to a new Fox News poll, Republican voters are two-and-a-half times more likely to have a favorable opinion of Zimmerman than Obama, Marc Caputo points out. Just 18 percent of Republicans have a favorable opinion of the man elected twice to lead the most powerful country in the world, while 79 have an unfavorable opinion of him. When it comes to Zimmerman, who was acquitted recently for killing Florida teen Trayvon Martin, 45 percent of GOP voters have a favorable opinion, compared to 27 percent who have a negative one.

[MDS]

honestly i would have figured more than 45% of republicans wouldve celebrated the shooting death of a young black male

[ice grillin you]

45% admit celebrating it

[Rome]

Death throes.

[Seabiscuit36]

Fox news....not worth discussing

[ice grillin you]

its a fox news poll......not fox "news"

the respondents were random and didn't know who the poll was being funded by

no different than a cnn poll

[Rome]

http://abcnews.go.com/US/george-zimmerman-juror-murder/story?id=19770659

jury of your "peers".   haha.

um, no. 

my peers most definitely are not emotionally unstable nitwits who believe someone got away with murder yet voted to acquit the piece of shtein anyway.

[ice grillin you]

YES

http://www.theatlanticwire.com/entertainment/2013/07/sandra-fluke-might-cost-limbaugh-and-hannity-big-contract/67698/

[ice grillin you]

ff must be in a constant state of masturbation these days...

http://www.buzzfeed.com/jamisond/11-things-the-north-carolina-legislature-gave-us-t-7fxd

[General_Failure]

President Obama Signs "Anti-Protest" Bill H.R. 347

President Obama signed bill H.R. 347 (also known as the Federal Restricted Buildings and Grounds Improvement Act of 2011) into law on March 9th, amid numerous protests from the Occupy movement, as well as other agencies. HR 347 is a modification from Senate bill S. 1794, which restricted people from entering or blocking public areas that have been closed off by Secret Service while a person under their protection is passing through. The law also included major public events, such as the Inaguration and Presidential campaigns.

The new law, which passed the House with a vote of 399-3, extends the original law by adding more protected areas within Washington D.C, and removing the word "willfully," from the paragraph stating that protesters can be prosecuted if they enter the area "willfully and knowingly."

Representative Justin Amash, R-Michigan, explains this change by saying:

" The bill expands current law to make it a crime to enter or remain in an area where an official is visiting even if the person does not know it's illegal to be in that area and has no reason to suspect its illegal."