Category Archives: Politics

April 4, 2013 · 4:01 pm

NC House Republicans File Voter ID Bill

Here we go again….

And since there is no longer a Democratic Governor to veto this, it will probably pass this year….

Another attempt by the Republicans to block voters who don’t vote for them…

With demographic trends against them, the GOP’s only hope to stay in power is voter suppression- hence the bills to limit early voting, require voter ID and restrict College student voting….

They can’t continue to win on policy- even with their gerrymandered districts-so they are trying to win anyway they can-no matter the cost to Democracy…

From WRAL.com:

 

RALEIGH, N.C. — House Speaker Thom Tillis and Republican House leaders have filed a new proposal to require photo identification for voters.

House Bill 589, entitled the Voter Identification Verification Act, or VIVA, was filed Thursday afternoon, after what Tillis said was “a transparent and deliberative process” of seeking public input.

“This bill has had more discussion than anything in recent history,” said House Elections Committee Co-chairman Tim Moore.

Under the proposal, beginning in 2016, voters would be required to show a photo ID at the polls. The bill would allow “multiple forms of state-issued ID,” according to Rep. Tom Murry, R-Wake, including tribal cards, public university IDs and state employee IDs. Private university IDs would not qualify.

Voters without a photo ID will be allowed to cast a provisional ballot but would have to return to their local board of elections with a valid photo ID to have the ballot counted.

via House Republicans file voter ID bill :: WRAL.com.

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April 4, 2013 · 3:53 pm

No State Religion in NC: State Religion Proposal Dies in House

Well, this is good news….

Too bad it happened after these idiots made North Carolina the laughingstock of the Nation in the national media for several days…

From WRAL.com:

 

RALEIGH, N.C. — A House resolution supporting the creation of an official religion in North Carolina will never come to a vote, officials said Thursday.

House Speaker Thom Tillis’ office said House Joint Resolution 494 was dead.

via State religion proposal dies in House :: WRAL.com.

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April 3, 2013 · 9:00 pm

Pat Robertson Blames Ivy League Schools For Lack Of Miracles In America

Well, they don’t get much simpler or crazier than Pat but he sure isn’t humble….

He thinks Americans should be “simple” and “humble” like Africans so we would believe in Miracles.

This is a) racist and b) stupid.

He’s really saying only the ignorant can be fooled into believing in miracles….

Or, in my mind, in the Republican Party and Televangelists….

Those guys count on ignorance….

And of course he knows nothing about the complexity and history of Africa.

He’s commenting from his own ignorant, Old South Plantation Era mindset…

It may have been April 1st yesterday, but televangelist Pat Robertson wasn’t kidding when he told a viewer that Americans aren’t experiencing God’s miracles because they are too “sophisticated.”

Why do miracles “happen with great frequency in Africa, and not here in the USA?” asked a 700 Club patron Ken. “People overseas didn’t go to Ivy League schools,” Robertson replied with a chuckle.

“We are so sophisticated, we think we’ve got everything figured out,” the Christian Broadcasting Network chairman continued. “We know about evolution, we know about Darwin, we know about all these things that says God isn’t real, we know about all this stuff.”

According to Robertson, it’s the “skepticism and secularism” that is being taught at “the most advanced schools” around the country that is keeping God’s miracles at bay.

Meanwhile, Africans are “simple” and “humble.” “You tell ‘em God loves ‘em and they say, ‘Okay, he loves me’,” said Robertson. “You say God will do miracles and they say, ‘Okay, we believe him’.”

If Americans wish to experience more miracle, Robertson concluded, they must reject their miracle-negating sophistication in favor of the more credulous African way of life.

via Pat Robertson Blames Ivy League Schools For Lack Of Miracles In America | TPM News.

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April 3, 2013 · 6:15 pm

NC GOP Senate Bill Seeks to Curb College Vote

North Carolina Republicans are really doing everything they can do to keep their gerrymandered majority in the State legislature.  They know demographic trends are against them, so their goal is to stop Democrat leaning voting blocks from being able to vote…

Now, it’s college students they are after and whose votes they are trying to suppress or water down….

When are the Dems going to learn that Republicans fight dirty and if they are going to pull us into the gutter with them, we have to fight back in the gutter…

There is so much ammunition accumulating to use against these GOP dinosaurs.

If only the Dems would learn to use it effectively….

From WRAL Raleigh:

RALEIGH, N.C. — A bill filed in the state Senate Tuesday would carry a tax penalty for parents whose children register to vote at their college address.

Senate Bill 667, known as “Equalize Voter Rights,” would remove the tax exemption for dependents who register to vote at any address other than their parents’ home.

“If the voter is a dependent of the voter’s parent or legal guardian, is 18 years of age or older and the voter has registered at an address other than that of the parent or legal guardian, the parent or legal guardian will not be allowed to claim the voter as a dependent for state income tax purposes,” the bill says.

The measure would affect only state income tax, so it wouldn’t have much effect on out-of-state students. But it could effectively cut student voting in counties like Watauga and Orange, where college voters have been a key part of the Democratic Party’s dominance.

The bill would also require voters to have their vehicles registered at the same address as their voter registration. That also could cut down on college student registration, since many students maintain their vehicle registration in their home counties.

via Senate bill seeks to curb college vote :: WRAL.com.

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April 3, 2013 · 5:16 pm

Eleven North Carolina Republicans Sponsor Resolution Saying Their State Can Ignore The Constitution

Our North Carolina Republican Legislature continues its march into insanity….

Jesse Helms would be so proud of them….

And the national press is laughing at North Carolina again…

For those of us who live here and know this isn’t a true representation of the growing Progressive majority, it’s just plain embarrassing…

I wish I had more confidence the North Carolina Democratic Party would learn how to run campaigns…

And I wish we had more hope of the Dems retaking the Legislature, but  we wouldn’t be in this position if they had run decent campaigns in the past…

And all the GOP Gerrymandered redistricting only makes it harder…

Still….

If we can’t defeat these GOP Clowns in the next election, that’s really embarrassing…

And this is all coming about because the ACLU stood up to the Rowan County Board of Supervisors for mixing Church and State…..

From ThinkProgress.org:

 

The Constitution “does not grant the federal government and does not grant the federal courts the power to determine what is or is not constitutional” according to a resolution sponsored by North Carolina House Majority Leader Edgar Starnes (R) and ten of his fellow Republicans — a statement that puts them at odds with over 200 years of constitutional law. In light of this novel reading of the Constitution, Starnes and his allies also claim that North Carolina is free to ignore the Constitution’s ban on government endorsement of religion:

SECTION 1. The North Carolina General Assembly asserts that the Constitution of the United States of America does not prohibit states or their subsidiaries from making laws respecting an establishment of religion.

SECTION 2. The North Carolina General Assembly does not recognize federal court rulings which prohibit and otherwise regulate the State of North Carolina, its public schools, or any political subdivisions of the State from making laws respecting an establishment of religion.

This resolution is nothing less than an effort to repudiate the result of the Civil War. As the resolution correctly notes, the First Amendment merely provides that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion,” and, indeed, the Bill of Rights was originally understood to only place limits on the federal government. For the earliest years of the Republic, the Bill of Rights were not really “rights” at all, but were instead guidelines on which powers belonged to central authorities and which ones remained exclusively in the hands of state lawmakers.

In 1868, however the Fourteenth Amendment was ratified for the express purpose of changing this balance of power. While the early Constitution envisioned “rights” as little more than a battle between central and local government, the Fourteenth Amendment ushered in a more modern understanding. Under this amendment, “[n]o State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States,” nor may any state “deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law.” The Fourteenth Amendment completely transformed the nature of the American Republic, from one where liberties were generally protected — if at all — by tensions between competing governments to one which recognized that there are certain liberties that cannot be abridged by any government.

via Eleven North Carolina Republicans Sponsor Resolution Saying Their State Can Ignore The Constitution | ThinkProgress.

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March 29, 2013 · 3:07 pm

Edie Windsor and Thea Spyer: The Couple Behind the DOMA Challenge

I’m only posting one video this Friday and I hope you will watch it.

It’s the story of Edie Windsor and her late spouse,  Thea Spyer, and why Edie is suing to overturn the Defense of Marriage Act.

It’s both inspiring and educational and very personal….

It shows that this isn’t just a political issue, but a very personal issue of equality and fairness…

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March 29, 2013 · 2:47 pm

McCrory Eliminates Latino Outreach Office

North Carolina’s new Republican Governor is succeeding nicely in his quest to infuriate as many people as possible and lead the march to GOP irrelevancy….

This shows just how seriously the Governor and the GOP take the concerns of one of the fastest growing demographic groups in the state and the country…

It’s really quite unbelievable how fast this man is moving to alienate people.  I just hope they remember this is his- and all the Republican’s agenda- come the next election.

There are fewer and fewer old white people left who support his kind of politics….

From the Charlotte Observer:

 

WASHINGTON North Carolina’s Latino advocates are voicing alarm following the governor’s decision to eliminate the state’s office for Latino affairs.

The closing of the Office of Hispanic/Latino affairs was sudden and caught many by surprise. The move appears to have exacerbated the already tense relationship between Republican Gov. Pat McCrory and the Latino community, including criticism over a driver’s license plan for young immigrants.

Advocates say it sends a message that McCrory and Raleigh conservatives are less concerned with the needs of the Latino community. Paradoxically, it comes at a time when issues of deep concern, such as immigration, are at the political forefront.

via McCrory eliminates Latino outreach office | CharlotteObserver.com.

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March 24, 2013 · 11:06 pm

Stupid, Happy People

When I was young, more than once I said:  ” I wish I was stupid; life would be so much easier.”

I vividly remember saying that to my friend, Bob, one night during a low period of my life in college at Washington and Lee University.

Of course, knowing how I always applied my vision of life as seen by F. Scott Fitzgerald to my life at W&L,  I was probably only being melodramatic and paraphrasing Daisy Buchanan in “The Great Gatsby” when she says she hopes her daughter will be a “pretty little fool.”

Now, I just have a paranoid suspicion that the Republicans just may be putting this mythical drug in the drinking water in the South….

Still, this video offers a modern solution- and outlines the possible outcomes of what life might be if you could lower your IQ to better deal with modern life….

Hat Tip to John Aravosis at Americablog.com, where I first saw this….

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March 24, 2013 · 11:59 am

Before The Supreme Court Considers Gay Marriage, An American Change Of Heart

It’s going to be a big week in the news for Gay Marriage as the Supreme Court begins to hear arguments on the issue.

Let’s just hope they realize how far public opinion in favor of Gay Marriage has come and how fast…

Not that public opinion should matter when discussing Civil Rights, but anything that might sway the conservative majority on the Court helps….

It’s time all Americans have equal rights to love and happiness- not to mention financial security…..

Marriage is not a religious institution, but rather a legal right to protect all families equally….

I just hope at least 5 members of the Court realize it….

From the Huffington Post:

In just the last decade, millions of Americans, from former Vice President Dick Cheney to President Barack Obama, have changed their positions on the rights of gay people. On same-sex marriage in particular, there’s been a shift of opinion so dramatic that it leaves political historians grasping for comparisons. As the Supreme Court prepares to hear two historic cases that could shape the future of same-sex marriage in America, some activists privately worry that the country and its highest court still aren’t ready. They point to the millions of Americans who would still deny gays the right to the marry, the 32 states where same-sex marriage is still banned, and the fear of a backlash like the one that followed Roe v. Wade and froze progress in the pro-choice movement for decades.

But others say the time is right. In 2004, just 30 percent of Americans told pollsters that they supported legalizing same sex marriage. Less than a decade later, as one recent poll showed, that percentage has climbed to nearly 60. For the first time in history, the majority of Americans support gay rights

via Before The Supreme Court Considers Gay Marriage, An American Change Of Heart.

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March 22, 2013 · 8:50 pm

Republicans Consider Closing UNC Campuses

The new- I refuse to say “our”- Governor of NC, Pat McCrory, is shaping up to be the most anti-education Governor North Carolina has ever seen.

One of the things North Carolina is known for is its excellent, affordable public Universities.  McCrory and his GOP friends in the Legislature seem intent on destroying this…

Of course, Republicans barely try to hide how anti-education their programs are….They value ignorance much more highly as educated voters don’t vote Republican.  In fact, they count on ignorance….

And they seem determined to both show it and drive it in North Carolina….

And the NC Democrats can’t seem to run a campaign or get their acts together to oppose them….

Scary times in my adopted home State….

Jesse Helms would be proud of them….

From WRAL Raleigh:

 

Lawmakers are considering the possibility of eliminating one or two campuses in the University of North Carolina system, a top Senate budget-writer said Thursday.

Gov. Pat McCrory called for a $135 million cut in funding for the UNC system in the 2013-14 budget proposal he rolled out on Wednesday.

As lawmakers began reviewing the spending plan Thursday, Sen. Pete Brunstetter, R-Forsyth, co-chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, said he and his colleagues are more concerned about how money for higher education is spent than the actual size of the appropriation.

Lawmakers want to trim duplicative programs across UNC campuses, which Brunstetter said could reduce the overall system’s footprint.

“I think our members definitely envision that there could be some consolidation between campuses, and we might need to go from 16 down to 15, 14, something like that,” he said.

The university campuses in the system include UNC-Chapel Hill, North Carolina State University, North Carolina Central University, Fayetteville State University, East Carolina University, UNC-Greensboro, North Carolina A&T State University, Winston-Salem State University, the UNC School of the Arts, UNC-Charlotte, UNC-Wilmington, UNC-Pembroke, Elizabeth City State University, Appalachian State University, UNC-Asheville and Western Carolina University.

Brunstetter didn’t elaborate on which campuses might close.

via UNC system could lose campuses :: WRAL.com.

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