GOP Federal Election Commissioners: Corporations
Can Compel Employees To Campaign For Political Candidates

post from ThinkProgress on 25 August 2012 11:09:31 AM. © ThinkProgress

Three Republican Federal Election Commissioners have found that unions or corporations can compel employees to campaign for political candidates in the aftermath of the Supreme Court’s Citizens United ruling. In a Statement of Reasons memorandum signed on August 21, 2012, the commissioners contend that the United Public Workers union (UPW) was within its legal right [...]

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gress0Borg0Celection0C20A120C0A80C250C7449610Crepublican0Efederal0Eelection0Ecommission0Emembers0Esay0Ecorporations0Ecan0Ecompel0Eemployees0Eto0Ecampaign0Efor0Epolitical0Ecandidates0C/story01.htm

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Cartnoon

post from Docudharma - Front Page on 25 August 2012 11:06:23 AM. © Docudharma - Front Page

Paul Wegener- Der Golem: wie er in die Welt kam (1920) (1:41)Not just a horror flick, but as far as can be told an authentic piece of ghetto folklore. Of the 3 films by Wegener on the subject this is the most watchable and complete. [...]

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Animal Nuz #111

post from Daily Kos on 25 August 2012 11:00:05 AM. © Daily Kos

Eric Lewis comic strip #111 panel 1

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This week in the War on Voting: Pennsylvania
officials seek to delay voter-ID appeal

post from Daily Kos on 25 August 2012 11:00:04 AM. © Daily Kos

Cartoon of voters queued up to cast ballots Let's start off with some good news in the War on Voting for change, shall we?

California is poised to become the biggest ninth and largest state in the Union to allow citizens to register and vote on election day. Both the state senate and assembly have passed election day registration (EDR) and, after different wordings between the two houses are worked out, it is certain Gov. Jerry Brown will sign the bill into law. It won't, however, take effect until 2016.

The current law cuts would-be voters off from registering two weeks before an election. Studies show that EDR "boosts voter turnout by seven percentage points," reports Scott Keyes at ThinkProgress. In California, that could mean another 700,000 voters.

Eight other states already have election day registration: Idaho, Iowa, Maine, Minnesota, Montana, New Hampshire, Wisconsin and Wyoming.

Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett is unhappy with U.S. Attorney Gen. Eric Holder's investigation of the state's restrictive voter-ID law, calling it "unprecedented":
In a letter to the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division, Pennsylvania General Counsel James Schultz wrote that while the state had provided the Justice Department with tens of thousands of documents, the fishing expedition by Justice was going too far. "In light of the absence of authority for your request for information, I question whether your inquiry is truly motivated by a desire to assess compliance with federal voting rights laws, or rather is fueled by political motivation," he wrote.
Kathleen Kane, the Democratic candidate for attorney general in Pennsylvania said it's not Holder but rather Corbett who is "playing" politics over the matter.
Holder has said that restrictive voter-ID laws like the Keystone state's are akin to a modern-day "poll tax," which was one of the many ways the post-Reconstruction Jim Crow South kept African Americans away from the ballot box for eight decades.
Unlike in 16 other states or parts of other states, changes in the voting laws in Pennsylvania do not require federal oversight under the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Critics say the photo voter-ID law will make it harder for minorities, the youngest and oldest voters to cast ballots because they are the least likely to have the government-issued ID that the state now requires. Officials concede they are not set up to deal with the potential deluge of Pennsyvlanians who might seek an ID between now and election day.
A state judge has nevertheless rejected a challenge to the law brought by the Pennsylvania ACLU and others. Officials are now seeking to delay until mid-October an appeal of the case to the state supreme court. How transparent can you get?
?That?s way too late,? says Vic Walczak, Legal Director for the ACLU of Pennsylvania.
He says a mid-October date would leave less than three weeks before the election.
?That would make it difficult, if not impossible for county elections boards to adjust their procedures, if that?s necessary,? he says. ?That would also mean there is no certainty for voters, until that time. And people won?t know whether they need to go to that extra mile to get the ID.?
Supporters of the ID law said they have been vindicated by the fact that the lead plaintiff in the case, 93-year-old Viviette Applewhite, obtained a voter ID the day after the judge ruled against her lawyer's claims that the law will have a discriminatory impact. But foes of the law say the fact that one woman can get an ID after becoming a celebrity is scarcely proof that other citizens will also find the law isn't onerous.

(Continue reading below the fold.)

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Legitimate Rape by the Renegade Raging Grannies

post from Crooks and Liars on 25 August 2012 11:00:02 AM. © Crooks and Liars

The Renegade Raging Grannies let Todd Akin know what they think of his Neanderthal concepts about how women's bodies work.

Author: Vicki Ryder
Tune: "Zip-a-dee-doo-dah"

?Legitimate rape? is great birth control.
So says Todd Akin, and he oughta know.
If we are raped we can rest unafraid,
?Cause we can?t get pregnant if forcibly laid.

Our female bodies are clever that way,
We only get pregnant when we say ?okay.?
Doctors have told him, so it must be so,
The stork only comes if we don?t say ?No!?

Rape won?t make babies and that is a fact;
There?s no global warming; the Earth?s really flat.
We heard it on FOX News so it must be true.
Well, Mr. Akin, we say ?F*CK YOU!?

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Open Thread Plus Cartoon Of The Week

post from ThinkProgress on 25 August 2012 10:48:42 AM. © ThinkProgress

A cyber-penny for your thoughts. By Joel Pett, the Cartoonist Group

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gress0Borg0Cclimate0C20A120C0A80C250C7449710Copen0Ethread0Eplus0Ecartoon0Eof0Ethe0Eweek0E70C/story01.htm

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Peggy Noonan Is Responsible for Mitt Romneys
Awkward Ethnic Japery

post from Firedoglake on 25 August 2012 10:30:04 AM. © Firedoglake

Ronald Reagan's official dirty limerick writer and sodden Irish niece Peggy Noonan was just being helpful when she started giving advice to balky word-saying machine Mitt Romney in an effort to help him in his quest to become America's Cool Dad father[...]

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Just call it "Truthiness"

post from Docudharma - Front Page on 25 August 2012 10:24:40 AM. © Docudharma - Front Page

The Age of Niallism: Ferguson and the Post-Fact WorldBy Matthew O'Brien, The AtlanticAug 24 2012, 10:32 AM ETI don't want to go too far down this Ferguson rabbit hole -- we get it, he lied -- but I do want to answer his response to my fact-check.[...]

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New Poll: McCaskill Leads Akin By 9

Fun stats from the new Mason-Dixon poll of Missouri: Half of Todd Akin's supporters say he should withdraw from the race; a plurality of McCaskill supporters say he should stay in. [...]

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Queer Talk: Logo TV Survey Shows LGBT Top Issue
is the Economy

Joyce L. Arnold, Liberally Independent, Queer Talk, equality activist, writer.

I don?t think it?s surprising that the recently released Logo TV survey shows that LGBT respondents indicated issues of concern in this order: 1) Economic issues; 2) Unemployment/jobs; 3) Health care; 4) Gay rights in general; 5) Social Security; 6) Federal budget deficit; 7) Same-sex marriage.

It?s also unsurprising that the poll reinforces what we?ve seen happening for quite some time now. LGBT Issues See Historic Political Shift:

According to a new poll conducted by Harris Interactive for Logo TV, all political candidates could greatly benefit by supporting equal rights for LGBT Americans. The survey, conducted earlier this month, polled close to 3000 people, comparing the political leanings of general population likely voters with those of self-identified LGBT voters and indicates that we may have reached a watershed moment for gay rights, confirming what many Americans have already sensed.
… (T)he study … indicates that Americans in general consider a candidate?s position on gay rights as highly persuasive when it comes time to enter the voting booth. When asked whether they would be ?more likely,? ?less likely,? or ?no difference,? 49 percent indicated they would be ?more likely? to vote for a candidate who supports legislation to combat anti-gay bullying and 48 percent favored a candidate who supports including gays and lesbians as a protected class in the workplace.
According to the survey, both LGBT and general population voters as a whole currently favor Barack Obama, yet 1-in-5 would cast a ballot for Mitt Romney if he held the same views as Obama on gay rights. Moreover, 1-in-4 would consider voting for other Republican candidates if the GOP held the same positions on LGBT rights as the Democratic Party. Said Kenneth Sherrill, Professor Emeritus of Political Science at Hunter College, ?This survey documents a political transformation of epic proportions. LGBT rights are no longer a wedge issue in American politics.?

The survey asked LGBT voters to rate what has most influenced ?Progress on Gay Rights,? comparing the efforts of Obama with those of LGBT organizations. I don?t think these results are surprising, either:

Overall, when asked if progress is ?ALL/MOSTLY DUE? to LGBT organizations, or to Obama, 58% indicated organizations, 24% indicated Obama. More specifically, when asked if the progress is ?all? due to LGBT orgs or Obama, 15% indicated orgs, 7% Obama. When asked if progress is ?mostly? due to orgs or Obama, 43% indicated orgs, 17% Obama. When ?somewhat? is the measure, 32% indicated orgs, 44% Obama.

From the other direction, and overall, when asked if progress has ?BARELY/NOTHING TO DO WITH? organizations and Obama, 7% indicated orgs, 28% Obama.

John Aravosis, at AmericaBlogGay, focuses on another number.

67 percent of gays will vote for Obama, number is a little low
Per a new Harris/Logo poll, 67% of gays would vote for Obama were the election held today, and 23% would vote for (Romney).
Keep in mind that 77% of gays voter for John Kerry in 2004, and 70% voted for Barack Obama in 2008.
So this would appear low. But according to CNN, John McCain got 27% of the gay vote in 2008 – so Romney?s 23% is also a drop … . Though Harris says they had McCain?s gay vote at 23%, so that would mean Romney is where McCain was.
Either way, it?s possible we?re still seeing some reticence from gays vis-a-vis Obama because of lingering … angst from the first several years of the presidency when gays didn?t feel their promises were getting the attention they deserved. I think the President has now done enough to merit our vote. But I worried back at the beginning that growing negatives are hard to turn around later … .

About the survey, it

… compares the political attitudes of 1,367 U.S. voters, 18 and older, reflecting the broader American electorate, with those of 1,190 self-¬identified LGBT voters, 18 and older. The survey was conducted online by Harris Interactive on behalf of Logo TV, a cable network catering to LGBT and allied viewers, from August 10 through 15.

For details about the poll results (pdf files), go here and here.

(Logo Presidential Poll graphic via Logo TV)

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e-is-the-economy/

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